Thursday, March 26, 2020

For Tuesday: King Lear, Act 1



Welcome back! Answer two of the following and e-mail them to me sometime by Tuesday (or you can e-mail me both sets of questions by Thursday—since there will be another set posted on Tuesday.)

Q1: Why does Cordelia refuse to play the “how do I love thee?” game with her father? Is she being a petulant brat by saying “nothing,” or is there more method in her madness? Consider also her comment, “for I want that glib and oily art,/To speak and purpose not” (23).

Q2: This play uses prose much more than any of his plays so far, and in some very unusual ways. Discuss a scene where prose is used extensively and explain why you think these characters are using it. What does it help to say about the characters and the scene?

Q3: In scene 2, Edmund proclaims, “Thou, Nature, art my goddess. To thy law/My services are bound” (29). What does he seem to mean by “nature” in this passage, and how might it relate to his role in society as a ‘bastard’?

Q4: Lear is obsessed with labeling people in this play: they are either true or false, loving or spiteful, friends or foes, strangers or daughters. When he thinks Goneril is betraying his love, he asks repeatedly, “Your name, fair gentlewoman?” What makes Lear so paranoid? Are we sympathetic with his suspicions—or is he meant to appear like a madman? (you might also compare him to Macbeth and Titus by the end of their respective plays).

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