Answer TWO of the following as a Comment below...
1. Read Lear’s speech on
page 90 (4.6) that begins “Ay, every inch a king!” carefully. After emerging from the storm, Lear seems
both mad and enlightened, speaking nonsense and ‘sense’ in equal terms. In this speech, however, he goes on a
misogynist rant against women and seemingly blames them for his downfall. What is he specifically accusing women of
here, and does this seem to reflect some ‘truth’ of the play or the
playwright? In other words, is this
madness or a satirical barb for his audience? (To those student from Brit I last semester, consider how this speech relates to the "Dark Lady" sonnets).
2. In some ways, Cordelia
and Edgar are mirror images of one another, each one caring for a damaged
father, both exiled, and both of them acting (to some extent). How might one character help us ‘read’ the
other, and how do their paths cross metaphorically—or linguistically—in Act IV?
3. How do we read the
marital discord between Albany and Goneril in Act 4, Scene 2? Is this the first time he’s seeing his wife
like this—or has this knowledge been long known by him? Is she surprised by his sudden sympathy for her
father? How does the language of their
argument help us see them both—and particularly Goneril—in a new light?
2. Edgar helps us to read Cordelia. He is exiled--outlawed, actually--by his father (and the rulers of his country) after being made out to be an evil jerk. Cordelia is exiled to another realm entirely after her words make her seem ungrateful to her father, compared to her sisters. He cares for Gloucester by being his guide after his father gets blinded, while pretending to be a madman, and prevents him from suicide. Cordelia, while away for most of the play, cares for her father--possibly symbolically--if his madness can be taken to be guilt over her exile. She seems "crazy" in being "foolish" enough to deny her father what he wants initially. In Act IV, Edgar is afraid to reveal himself for fear of what that revelation will do to his father: "I cannot daub it further...And yet I must." He doesn't want to pretend anymore, to reconcile with Gloucester, but perhaps due to uncertainty over the Old Man's allegiance, or what his father will do, continues to do so. Cordelia, on the other hand, uses proxies, perhaps, to get the "aid" part done, pretending to be away while organizing an invasion to defeat her sisters and having her loyal family friend (Kent) do the aiding to Lear. Otherwise assured, however, she is probably as uneasy at their next meeting in truth as Edgar is to his father: "How does my royal lord?...Sir, do you know me?...Oh look upon me, sir,/ And hold your hand in benediction o'er me." She acts contrite in order to get Lear to think of her kindly, which she may think necessary since she genuinely wants his love, but Lear can't bring himself to bless her because he realizes (perhaps subconsciously) it's he that needs her blessing, not the other way around. In being a humble bearer, both children gain their fathers' respect and recognition of personal folly and pave the way for reconciliation.
ReplyDeleteJessie Randall
3. This is definitely not the first argument of this sort that they have had. Albany doesn't even know at this point that Goneril has played a part in Gloucester being blinded. In fact, he isn't made aware of his maiming until the end of this scene. So, there is obviously other things that have been done or said to contribute to his feelings about her. I also don't think that she is surprised that he feels sympathy for Lear. He really does have this notion that she is a villain. He even says that he would kill her if she wasn't a woman. Goneril sees him as a coward, and I think that she believes that he will not do anything to truly reprimand her. I think this made me see Goneril in a new light, because I thought about their marriage as a way for Lear to control her. Maybe another reason she is so against Lear is because he forced her to marry someone she isn't compatible with. This may be a stretch, but it seems like Albany never earned her respect.
ReplyDelete4. I think that both of the sisters are attracted to power. Lear and Edmond are very similar. Lear has no problem pitting his daughters against one another, and Edmond betrays his father in order to gain his title. They both use connections that should be sacred to pursue their own goals. Albany is content, and it seems like he really doesn't want to have a war. He can see that Lear is an old man, who really isn't physically or mentally capable of taking care of himself the way he should. I think that Goneril sees masculinity as being synonymous with force. Lear is forceful even in speech. So, I think it would be natural that she sees the same sense of forcefulness in Edmond as something attractive.
-Cayla O.
Delete1. I think in some ways he is mirroring John Donne’s song here (or perhaps Donne mirrored him? Time is really a big ball of timey- wimey-ness to me) by mixing nonsense with his rant in order to further his point. Just a page earlier he is berating just Regan and Goneril, but here it seems to be all women he is addressing. His use of a “centaur” for what women are is very interesting. It could be suggesting a couple of different things. One could be that women have a hidden agenda that they have stashed under those skirts. However it seems that by suggesting a horse he is saying that women are men (hung like horses) from the waist down. This seems to be suggested by his lines accusing women of shaking their heads at pleasure but then saying they “go to’t” with a more “riotous appetite” than a “soiled horse”. I think he is suggesting that women are much like men, both in guile and “appetite”. However I don’t think we can write this off as solely misogynistic because he also says that only the area from the “girdle” up goes to heaven and the other “horse-hung” half ends up going to hell. So really he is ranting against himself for believing that his daughters would not act like men given the chance.
ReplyDelete4. This scene just makes me hate Goneril. Even more than the eye gouging thing, which was sick and wrong, but at least it had some sort of meaning. Just the line “to thee a woman’s services are due” is so wrong! Women’s “services” aren’t due to anyone, no matter how domineering or twisted they might be! That being said there are definitely some icky Freudian things going on here. Goneril, and Regan, are clearly attracted to Edmund because he is a manipulative bastard like their father. Whereas Albany is very straightforward and outright calls his wife “the worst” when speaking to a servant he had to know would report back to her. In addition Goneril also accuses Albany of having “a cheek for blows” and a “head for wrongs”. She basically calls him a whipping boy and repeatedly calls him a fool who is “usurping” her body.
2) I do see the similarities between Cordelia and Edgar. If we are to believe that Cordelia is, in fact, the fool, then the comparison grows even more from there. Both characters are the sanity within the insanity, working as the only guide the audience has to measure with. By using Cordelia and Edgar and comparing the other characters of the play, we can see how perhaps they are driven insane by their ambition. Cordelia and Edgar neither want for money or power. They simply seek to be obedient children to their parents. Perhaps this even gives us a clue to how the play goes south: ambition. The least ambitious characters stay sane, while the most ambitious/greedy lose their mind.
ReplyDelete3) I would be surprised if this argument didn't spring from old resentments. Such strong words are the result of years of deeply-seeded issues. The words are too strong to be new thoughts. Goneril, too, seems unsurprised by her husband's accusations and insults. He has called her "not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face," and outrightly condemned her for cutting herself from the family tree. In return to these strong statements she essentially says, "stop." Her short reaction causes me to think perhaps this is a worn-out argument between the two; "the text is foolish." This makes me think they have talked about this before and she cares very little to talk about it again. It isn't until he incites her more that she finally reacts. This argument helps us see that Goneril has long been the evil, ambitious woman she is, and therefore gives us more insight to her actions within the play.
4. Goneril says to Albany, "Milk-livered man, That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs, Who hast not in thy brows an eye for discerning Thine honor from thine suffering, that not know'st Fools do those villains pity who are punished Ere they have done their mischief." She also believes his spirit has a "cowish terror." It would seem her definition of a man is strong, iron-willed, and violent, something her husband doesn't seem to be because he is of a softer nature. Edmund, however, is willing to do anything to get to the top of the food chain, so Goneril and Regan think Edmund is better than their husbands are/were because one died, thus being "weak," and the other is gentle, something they have no experience or use for. It might explain some of their views of Lear, who in the past was what they believe Edmund to be--a tyrant. That he split his kingdom in order to enjoy the privileges and care of both king and parent must make him seem the ultimate fool. They wouldn't do that--they fight over Edmund--so why would they care for their aging father, who has lost all his wits anyway? Despite their fear of him when he's angry, they despise him for giving up that power because he's lowered himself in their eyes. It's crazy, what with all the mutual abuse going on, but they probably had no other models of manhood to judge against--everyone else followed Daddy's orders when he was in power.
ReplyDeleteJessie Randall
3. Goneril seems to loathe her husband she says, “Oh, the difference of man and man/To thee a woman’s services are due;/My Fool usurps my body” which is discrediting his manhood and strength when talking to Edmund after she tell him that she wishes to t be his mistress in death (the death being her husbands). When her husband walks in outraged and speaks, “You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face. I fear your disposition. That nature which condemns its origin cannot be bordered certain in itself. She that herself will sliver and disbranch from her maternal sap, perforce must wither and come to deadly use.” He is basically saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and that she is just as bad if not worse than what her father is and that she has gone too far. Her reply is to just blow him off as if she has heard this foolish rambling before and hasn’t the time for more of it. This makes me think that this is an ongoing dispute for the two of them and that Albany does not approve of her family’s games and evilness. The language between the two of them is as if they are or have exhausted this argument time and time again before and Albany seems as if is just done with it “Proper deformity shows not in the fiend so horrid as in woman.”
ReplyDelete4. Goneril seems to be fixated in the Electra Stage when it comes to her father; she sees him as the ideal mate or man and seems to not care for the type of husband that she has ended up marrying for his lack of a spine. In Neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Carl Gustav Jung, is a child’s psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father. In classical psychoanalytic theory, the child's identification with the same-sex parent is the successful resolution of the Electra complex and of the Oedipus complex; his and her key psychological experience to developing a mature sexual role and identity. Sigmund Freud instead proposed that girls and boys resolved their complexes differently — she via penis envy, he via castration anxiety; and that unsuccessful resolutions might lead to neurosis and homosexuality. Hence, women and men who are fixated in the Electra and Oedipal stages of their psychosexual development might be considered "father-fixated" and "mother-fixated" as revealed when the mate (sexual partner) resembles the father or the mother. Perhaps because of her father and her upbringing which included manipulation, flattery, and lies/deceit Edmund seems more her kind of mate because he is playing them all to justify his means. Goneril angrily insults Albany, accusing him of being a coward. She tells him that he ought to be preparing to fight against the French invaders. She wants to be a mistress to Edmund because for her he is more like her father and they have more in common than her milk livered husband. She even tells him “Yours in the ranks of death.” In the death of my husband I am yours. Personally I have no sympathy for any of them at this point the entire play is about seeing which one can (pardon my French but) fuck over the other best.
~Lisa Edge~
2. I can see how Cordelia and Edgar could be considered mirror images of one another. Both of these characters have to care for their unstable fathers and create sanity in the insane world they come from. Cordila was exiled after her words were not satisfactory enough for her father. It may not seem like she cares for her father but she does in a more unnoticeable way. I also feel like the two of them beat to their own drum and openly do things how they believe to be the best way.
ReplyDelete4. Women are often times deeply attracted to power and power is definitely something that Lear and Edmond share in common. Edmond goes behind his father’s back and takes his title away from him which can easily be related to Lear lining his daughters up and having them express their feelings. It is almost as if he was so insecure in himself as a King that he had to get the confidence and assurance from his daughters. I also think that Goneril sees something in Edmond that is hard to define much like most feelings are difficult to describe. Lear is very masculine and forceful and can speak well with great authority. Edmond force and power is not at the same level as Lear’s but it can still be seen as attractive to Goneril.
- Kayci Snider