King Lear Critics

But for the idea of the family, intellectually conceived as a principle of social morality, the tragedy of Lear would not exist R.G. Collingwood (1933)- The tragedy of the family
The play is not only a tragedy of parents and children, of pride and ingratitude: it is also a tragedy of kingship Harold F. Brooks (1952)- The tragedy of kingship
In the first act, Lear is an arrogant old idiot, destitute of any decent human quality, and incapable of any reasonable act James Bridie (1972)- Lear in the 1st Act
King Lear is a Christian play about a pagan world J.C. Maxwell (1950)- Paganism/Christianity
The iterative image of the play is that of a human body in anguished movement, tugged, wrenched, dislocated, tortured, and then finally broken on the rack Caroline Spurgeon (1935)- The iterative image of King Lear
The Fool sees the potentiality of comedy in Lear’s behaviour George Wilson Knight (1930)- The Fool and comedy
Lear lost the world but gained his soul A.C. Bradley (1904)- Lear’s fate
The play is a microcosm of the human race George Wilson Knight (1930)- Human Race
King Lear is part of an intense and sustained struggle in late 16th and early 17th century England to redefine the central values of society Stephen Greenblatt (1990)- Redefining values
The Edgar of the last act is essentially St George, the feudal hero Arnold Kettle (1988)-Edgar in Act 5
His story, put in its simplest terms, is the story of his progress from being a king to being a man Arnold Kettle (1988)- Lear’s progress
The elemental storm, the social storm which shakes the divided kingdom, the inner storm that drives Lear mad Arnold Kettle (1988)- The storm in King Lear
Lear’s madness is not so much a breakdown as a breakthrough Arnold Kettle (1988)- Lear’s madness
Lear has found in Cordelia’s unselfish love the one companion willing to go with him through Death, up to the throne of the Everlasting Judge O.J. Campbell (1948)- Cordelia’s worth to Lear
The remorseless process of King Lear begs us to seek the meaning of our human fate not in what becomes of us, but in what we become Maynard Mack (1965)- Affectivist criticism
Whereas Gloucester is increasingly allegorised with his action, Lear is increasingly humanized with his Howard Felperin (1977)- Gloucester v. Lear comparison
When Lear strips off his clothes to reveal himself as ‘unaccommodated man’, Shakespeare reveals the natural body of the king to bear little value in its own right Leonard Tennenhouse (1986)- On unaccommodated man
Shakespeare’s great tragic protagonists are indeed fools of time Kiernan Ryan (1989)- Fools of Time
The Fool furnishes a vital reflexive means of activating our awareness of the fundamental issues at stake in King Lear Kiernan Ryan (1989)- The Fool and fundamental issues
King Lear opens with a bout of severe linguistic inflation Terry Eagleton (1986)- On Regan and Goneril’s speeches in Act 1
That is, of course, the great secret of the successful fool, that he is no fool at all Isaac Asimov (1970)- The great secret of the fool
The Fool knows the only true madness is to recognize this world as rational Jan Kott (1963)-The Fool and rationality
What is… more serene than Cordelia’s countenance? John Keats (1817)- Sleep and Poetry
The fierce dispute / Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay John Keats (1817)- On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again
The Elizabethans believed in an ideal order animating earthly order, they were terrified lest it be upset E.M.W. Tillyard (1943)- The natural order
When degree is shak’d, / Which is the ladder to all high designs, / The enterprise is sick Ulysses, Troilus and Cressida (1602)- The consequences of degree being shak’d
It is undoubted that the stars sway the mind to certain states by acting upon our physical predispositions E.M.W. Tillyard (1943)- The influence of the stars
Then, man, endure thyself, those clouds will vanish Fulke Greville (1623)- On the objective correlative
Virtuous Cordelia perishes in a just cause, contrary to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, to the faith of the chronicles Samuel Johnson (1765)- On Cordelia’s death
Gloucester emblematises, literalises, and makes fully horrific a path of fulfilled desire- the desire not to see Jonathan Goldberg (1998)- Gloucester’s symbolism
King Lear implicates the audience in its annihilative vision Jonathan Goldberg (1998)- Annihilation
Through Edgar there is human natural justice S.L. Goldberg- Edgar’s justice
Edgar is the personification of justice, to vindicate the Gods and the rightful order Russell Peck- Edgar’s purpose
Virtue itself seems to be in company with him Samuel Coleridge- On Kent
July 12, 2019