For Wednesday: Shakespeare, King Lear, Acts 4 & 5 (see note)

NOTE: Remember, no class on Monday, since I have a schedule conflict that I can't avoid. We'll pick up King Lear on Wednesday. In the meantime, finish the play and answer two of the following questions...

Q1: In the early acts of the play, both Lear and Gloucester seem to believe in the power of fate and the gods to order the universe and dispense justice. As Gloucester proclaims before his eyes are put out in Act 3, "But I shall see/The winged vengeance overtake such children" (163). How do one or both men's views of fate/justice as the play reaches its conclusion? Do they feel that the gods are still watching over them, ready to offer justice? Or are we performing alone on-stage, without even an audience?

Q2: Why does Edgar pretend to lead his father to the edge of a cliff to watch him 'jump' in Act 4, scene 6? Is this an act of madness on his part? Is he being cruel/getting revenge? Or does he have another method to his 'madness'? Is this another scene that could/should be played for laughs?

Q3: As the most self-aware and rational/cynical person in the play, what is Edmund's endgame in Act 5? What does he hope to achieve by courting both sisters and plotting against Albany? Do you feel these plans are more active (a creation of his own nature) or passage (a reaction to the actions around him)? 

Q4: Did it surprise you that despite her very active beginning, Cordelia ends up a passive spectator in Acts 4-5, only to die off-stage? Why might the play have silenced and defeated her, letting Edgar be the true victor/survivor of the play?

Q5: What do you think happens to the Fool? Why does he disappear in 3.6 never to return? Is he killed? Does he run away? Is he simply no longer needed since Lear is 'cured'? (note that many staged versions show him being killed in some manner). Similarly, why does Cordelia only return to the play once he's gone? And why does Lear call Cordelia his "poor fool" at the end of Act 5? Is he confused about who she is...or he is remembering what happened to the fool off-stage at some point? (or do we buy the footnote that a 'fool' is merely an endearing term for a child?)