quick succession of events, fill mind with tumult of indignation, pity and hope | Samuel Johnson- the nature of the play and evoking emotion |
disputed whether predominant image in Lear’s disordered mind be the loss of his kingdom or the cruelty of his daughters | Samuel Johnson- questioning Lear’s priorities |
pride will be the sin that most easily besets him | S.T.Coleridge- Lear’s pride |
Kent is the nearest to perfect goodness of all Shakespeare’s characters | S.T.Coleridge- Kent |
fierce dispute/Betwixt damnation and impassioned clay | John Keats- essence of the play |
his purgatory is to be a purgatory of the mind, of madness | Wilson Knight- Lear is cleansed of the madness in his mind |
the fool’s use of comedy/laughter is not aimless. If Lear could laugh he might yet save his reason | Wilson Knight- comedy in the play |
deals with tragic aspects of human life in its most universal form. The conflict of good and evil, of wisdom with folly | Enid Welsford- oppositions that Shakespeare addresses in the play |
the ‘good’ characters have one quality: fellow-feeling highly developed | Enid Welsford- good characters |
the meaning of the word Fool is obscure | Enid Welsford- who is a fool in the play? |
the king having lost everything, including his wits, has become the fool | Enid Welsford- Lear becomes the fool |
Edmund is the new man of the incipient bourgeois revolution | Arnold Kettle- new order vs old order |
storm works artisitically on number of levels: elemental storm, social storm shaking kingdom, inner storm driving Lear mad | Arnold Kettle- significance of storm |
Goneril and Regan’s treatment of their father merely reverses patterns of rule | Kathleen McLuskie- feminist, daughters |
his progress from being a king to being a man | Arnold Kettle- Lear’s journey, Kent supports him through the road |
connecting the wicked son with the wicked daughters | Samuel Johnson- aligning Edmund and Goneril and Regan |
connection between evil women and chaotic world | Kathleen McLuskie- females are reason for social storm |
the wolf Goneril | Dickens- animalistic representation of Goneril |
King Lear Critics
July 14, 2019