Summary English Literature – King Lear – A Level Revision Guide – In-Depth Scene Analysis, Critics, and Context

King Lear Revision




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,Index
Critics..........................................................................................................3
Context........................................................................................................8
Act 1..........................................................................................................12
Scene 1 (Q S1).......................................................................................12
Scene 2 (Q S2).......................................................................................16
Scene 3 (Q S3).......................................................................................17
Scene 4 (Q S4).......................................................................................18
Scene 5 (Q S5).......................................................................................21
Act 2..........................................................................................................23
Scene 1 (Q S6).......................................................................................23
Scenes 2,3,4 (Q S7)................................................................................26
Act 3..........................................................................................................30
Scene 1 (Q S8).......................................................................................30
Scene 2 (Q S9).......................................................................................31
Scene 3 (Q S10).....................................................................................32
Scene 4 (Q S11).....................................................................................33
Scene 5 (Q S12).....................................................................................35
Scene 6 (Q S13).....................................................................................36
Scene 7 (Q S14).....................................................................................37
Act 4..........................................................................................................39
Scene 1 (Q S15).....................................................................................39
Scene 2 (Q S16).....................................................................................41
Scene 3 (Q S17).....................................................................................44
Scene 4 (Q S18).....................................................................................45
Scene 5 (Q S19).....................................................................................47
Scene 6 (Q S20).....................................................................................49
Scene 7 (Q S21).....................................................................................52
Act 5..........................................................................................................54
Scene 1 (Q S22).....................................................................................54
Scene 2 (Q S23).....................................................................................55
Scene 3 (Q S24).....................................................................................56

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,Critics

Cordelia:

- Gamini Salgado: “The very pointlessness of her death is to
emphasise Lear’s suffering”
- John Danby: “Cordelia is the norm by which the wrongness of
Edmond’s world and the imperfection of Lear’s world is judged”
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “There is something of disgust at the
ruthless hypocrisy of her sisters, and some little fault of pride and
sullenness in her”
o Cordelia is disgusted by the actions of her sisters. Cordelia has
her own faults
- Elton: Cordelia is “a Christ-like figure, therefore her downfall is a
direct representation of a God-less society”
- Harley Granville-Barker: “It will be a fatal error to present
Cordelia as a meek saint. She has more than a touch of her father in
her. She is as proud as he his… for all her sweetness and youth”
- Watts: “Cordelia’s initial response to Lear’s demand for love is so
curt and legalistic as to provoke Lear’s wrath”
- Rinehart: Cordelia is made up of “wisdom, duty, measured
affection”

Goneril and Regan:

- Helen Norris: “These are not only personal sins, but an upsetting
of civilised values”
- J. Dover Wilson: For Edmund, Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall
“Nature is a force encouraging the individual to think only for the
fulfilment of his own desires”
- Hudson: Goneril and Regan are “personifications of ingratitude”

Gloucester:

- Elton: “Gloucester’s blinding is a wilful operation in a deranged
universe”
- A.C. Bradley: Parallels between Lear and Gloucester as both die in
“unbearable joy”
o Stampfer: Responds to Bradley – Gloucester dies at the
knowledge of being united with Edgar
 “His flaw’d heart… burst smilingly” (Edgar speaking of
Gloucester’s death)
 Link to lack of catharsis in the play – just as
Gloucester’s fate looks up he dies

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, - Heilman: The Gloucester subplot (taken from Arcadia in 1593)
heightens and completes the tragedy. Gloucester is the parallel to
Lear – Gloucester accepts tragedy, Lear opposes it.
- G. Wilson Knight: Gloucester is Lear’s shadow
- Aronson: “His distorted vision belongs to the same symbolic
pattern as Lear’s madness”

The Fool:

- Zimbardo: “The Fool is a dramatic vehicle to show his King to be a
fool”
- George Orwell: “The Fool acts as a sort of chorus, but as a foil to
Lear’s frailties”
- Gillian Woods: “The Fool is the epitome of the play’s sense of
chaos, as not only is his lecturing of Lear inverting social hierarchies,
but the disguised, complex nature of his speech suits the political
and moral chaos”
- Isaac Asimov: The Fool is no fool at all
- Woods: “The Fool is a fractured mirror of Lear himself”. The fool’s
actions invert “firm social hierarchies”

King Lear:

- A.C. Bradley: “Lear is a great, superior figure whose suffering is
heart-rending”
- Benjamin Heath: “Lear acutely recognises his folly and yet is
unable to sustain that recognition and takes refuge in his fantasy”
- Ian McKellen: Lear is sexually deprived
- A.C. Bradley: Lear “dies of joy”
o Stampfer: Responds to Bradley – Lear “bursts in agony” at
his “eternal separation from Cordelia”
- T.S. Elliot: Unlike any of the other “evil characters”, Lear lacks any
“objective correlation” (reasons why he commits his actions)
- Kahn: “Lear goes mad because he is unable to accept his
dependence on the feminine, his daughters”

Edmond:

- John Danby: “Edmond in his opening soliloquy is the compact
image of everything that denies the orthodox view”
o Means that he denies values that society at the time would
have had
o Link to Great Chain of Being, Divine Justice, Patriarchal
Authority, and Legitimate Inheritance
- John Danby: “Edmond is a complete outsider: he is outside society,
he is outside nature, he is outside reason”

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