Relationships in ‘King Lear’
In Shakespeare's tragic play "King Lear," various relationships are depicted, including father and daughters, brothers, sisters, mother and children, husband and wife, master and servant, lovers, king and kingdom, and legitimate and illegitimate children. The dynamics of these relationships highlight themes of loyalty, betrayal, power struggles, and familial bonds, set within a patriarchal society governed by primogeniture and emotional ties deeply rooted in duty and love.
Download Presentation
Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author.If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.
You are allowed to download the files provided on this website for personal or commercial use, subject to the condition that they are used lawfully. All files are the property of their respective owners.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author.
E N D
Presentation Transcript
Different types of relationships in King Lear Father and daughters Brothers Sisters Mother and children Husband and wife Master and servant Lovers King and kingdom Legitimate and illegitimate children
AO4 family in Shakespeares time Patriarchy governed by father / eldest living male Primogeniture exploited by Edmund s fake letter from Edmund; the policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us til our oldness cannot relish them. Dowries secures husband and jointure Illegitimate children excluded from inheritance and primogeniture; Edmund not a son by the order of law Emotional bonds bonds of love and duty alluded to in Jacobean sermons, conduct books and the Bible Masters and servants servants fully part of a Renaissance household: Kent and the Fool
The bond I love your majesty/ According to my bond, no more no less. (Cordelia, 1.1) You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I return those duties back as are right fit,/ Obey you, love you and most honour you. (Cordelia, 1.1) the bond cracked twixt son and father (Gloucester, 1.2) the child was bound to the father (Edmund. 2.1) thou better knowst/ The offices of nature, bond of childhood,/ Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude. (Lear, 2.2) but I am bound/ Upon a wheel of fire (Lear, 4.7)
Fathers and daughters I loved her most, and thought to set my rest/ On her kind nursery. (1.1) By day and night he wrongs me. Every hour/ He flashes into one gross crime or other/ That sets us all at odds. I ll not endure it. (Goneril, 1.3.4-6) Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child Than the sea-monster! (1.4) Visual emblem of kneeling happens in 2.2.344 with Regan: On my knees I beg and 4.7.59 with Cordelia: she restrains him as he tries to kneel this tempest in my mind/Doth from my senses take all feeling else,/ Save what beats there, filial ingratitude. (3.4.12-14) aged father s right (Cordelia, 4.4)
Edmund Now, gods, stand up for bastards. (1.2) This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! up for bastards! (1.2) What you have charged me with, that I have done/ And more, much more; the time will bring it out;/ Tis past and so am I.
Edmund: ungrateful child or Renaissance self-fashioning? Narrative of self-fashioning tricks the other characters (although it is less clear in Lear the extent to which Edmund causes the key downfalls; Gloucester s eyes are gouged out because he helps Lear) Stephen Greenblatt calls moments like this the improvisation of power authority is established in moments where order (political, theological, sexual etc) is violated like Marlowe s heroes, the renaissance self-fashioner seeks to shatter restraints. Esp. compared to people like Kent with his selfless loyal service. His actions and behaviour allow us to feel little redemption betrayal of father with letter concerning French invasion, stolen from his father causes Gloucester s punishment. Noticeably, evidence given against his father shows a sanctimonious lack of remorse and elsewhere in the play makes it hard to pity him (and likewise, believe him when he is remorseful at the end). For example, Act 3, sc5 How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just? / I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.
Edgar significance of transformation? How now brother Edmund, what serious contemplation are you in? (1.2) Let's exchange charity. I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me. My name is Edgar, and thy father's son. The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us: The dark and vicious place where thee he got Cost him his eyes. (5.3) My face I ll grime with filth, Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots And with presented nakedness outface The winds and persecutions of the sky. The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices, Strike in their numbed and mortified bare arms Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary. (2.2.180-185) The weight of this sad time we must obey; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long. (5.3)
The importance of the trial scene 3.6 Lear s imaginings of hell-fire as a punishment for for Goneril and Regan, blurs lines further between demonic/ powerful. (NB FOLIO version doesn t include the trial scene; see notes in text. Directors generally love it) Edgar: thou robed man of justice Fool: yoke-fellow of equity truth in madness Edgar: let us deal justly true role in play, sharply contrasted with nonsense verse that follows. Edgar/ fool interchangeable here; his verse about shepherd and flock could be criticism of Lear though (prompting the question who is on trial here?) Trial interspersed with comic interlude of fool (I took you for a joint stool absurd) and Kent discussing Lear s patience , or lack of here. Lear still wants justice here for filial ingratitude- not quite reached enlightenment/ realisation. This is re-enforced by borrowing of Harsnett s demonic language/ accounts of trials or exorcisms. The hell is in his mind: fire, corruption in the place
Hard hearted father or justified sinner? Lear : Let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that make these hard hearts? physically hard; verb suggests breaking it up/ pulling apart to discover cause. See Arden notes; some Lears stab/ gauge out heart in Gambon s production, Lear accidentally stabs the fool through a pillow and kills him. Biblically, hardness of heart is a punishment for the wicked. > Does Lear have a hard heart?
Sins of the fathers? You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I return those duties back as are right fit,/ Obey you, love you and most honour you. (Cordelia, 1.1) Yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter,/ Or rather a disease that s in my flesh,/ Which I needs must call mine. Thou art a boil,/ A plague sore or embossed carbuncle/ In my corrupted blood. (2.2) Some good I mean to do despite mine own nature (Edmund, 5.2)
Bonds beyond the embodiment of a moral virtue or truth sons/daughters as real people What is important to Gloucester is not insight but a relationship which the only possible metaphor is physical contact. (Paul Alpers) Might I live to see thee in my touch/ I d say I had eyes again. (Gloucester) Look upon me, Sir. (Cordelia) For as I am a man, I think this lady be my child, Cordelia (Lear)
Sample essay questions By exploring the dramatic presentation of parents and children, evaluate the view that neither parents nor children can escape the consequences of each other s actions. By exploring the dramatic presentation of family relationships, evaluate the view that the breakdown of relationships is to blame for the chaotic events King Lear. According to my bond/ No more, no less. By exploring the dramatic presentation of family bonds in King Lear, evaluate this view.
