King Lear, Act 2

For each act, you should respond to TWO of the reader-response questions. Your answers should be 300+ words apiece.

These blogs are due Tuesday, April 7 at the beginning of the class period.

1. In the study guide, I mentioned that Edgar seemed a bit “too gullible” to be the hero of this play. However, the original title page of King Lear read, “M William Shak-speare: His Ture Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. With the unfortunate life of Edgar, sonne and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his sullen and assumed humor of Tom of Bedlam.”

While the bolding is mine, note that fully half of the original title has to do with Edgar. Shakespeare obviously valued his loyalty and places him squarely in the corner of the “good” characters. Imagine a backstory for Edgar that allows you to see him as fully noble, not as the slower-witted older brother of the diabolical Edmund. You might choose to render a scene from the brothers’ boyhood that reveals Edgar’s honorable qualities (whatever they may be). You might allow another character (perhaps one of the boys’ mothers?) to comment on them. Whatever option you choose, use it to allow you to see Edgar’s fundamental goodness, and to help you imagine him more fully as you read.

2. What is it—what could it conceivably be—that would make children turn against their parent as completely as Goneril and Regan have turned against Lear? They’ve gone beyond irritation and its consequent neglect to outright cruelty. You may consider this question either specifically in reference to the two women (imagine their backstory the way you did Edgar’s) or consider it in general. Where do the terrible resentments of children for their parents come from? What is so very powerful about that relationship?

3. If you chose to do question 1 (or even if you didn’t), it is interesting to consider Edgar’s state of mind when he takes on the persona of Tom O’Bedlam. Certainly, he is trying to disguise himself, but this is an extreme disguise indeed. Consider why he chose this particular disguise. What would drive him to this? Again, you can do this as a mini-essay, but it might be more interesting and more informative to write from Edgar’s perspective. Do whatever comes most naturally to you, but don’t write to fill space—be thoughtful.

4. Cordelia has disappeared from the play. What’s she doing? You might write a dialogue between her and her new husband France—have they heard word of the goings-on in Lear’s kingdom? Is she still concerned about her father? Whatever you want to say here, but they should probably not be discussing whether or not to have roast lamb for dinner. Alternatively, you could have Cordelia write a letter to her father or sisters. What would she say?

King Lear, Act 1

Due March 24.

For this act, you should respond to TWO of the reader-response questions. Your answers should be 300+ words apiece.

1. Identify with Edmund. What do you know about family dynamics and parents’ treatment of children that might make him act the way he does? What is there to respect about him? Why do you think Gloucester treats him the way he does? Is there any modern day equivalent to this?

2. Consider the character of Goneril or Regan in this first act. Yes, they are monstrous, but what does that monstrosity look like from the inside? What drives them? What does the world inside their heads look like?
To put it in another way…. Jealousy and power-grabbing seem to be as much a part of families as they are of politics and business. Can you relate to either of these two sisters? Have you ever seen a situation similar to the one in the first act of this play? In your opinion, what drives this kind of behavior?

3. How do you understand the relationship between Cordelia and Lear? He seems to love her, and she him, but how? Why is she unable to speak when her very survival depends on her speaking? Why is he unable to hear her truth?
To take the same concept from another angle…. While her sisters’ speeches are excellent examples of verbal manipulation, the one person (Cordelia) who goes in honestly with Lear’s best interests at heart is punished because she doesn’t want (or know how to) “play the game.” Have you seen situations like this? Have you used your powers of manipulation to get what you want? Have you been the loser in a game like this?

4. Leo Tolstoy tells us in the first line of his great novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Lear’s is obviously an unhappy family, as is Gloucester’s. Explore the source of the unhappiness in both of the families. What is it that has torn each one apart? Some sin of the fathers? Or of the children? Human nature? What is wrong here? Are there any similarities between the two, or are they indeed “both unhappy in their own way?”

5. Discuss the nature of loyalty. Kent’s loyalty to Lear is of such an extreme form that it may be hard to understand. There really aren’t servants in the modern day—at least, not servants like Kent, who will follow their king off into the moors after the king has treated them like garbage. Yet our present world is full of examples of unswerving loyalty. From the blind devotion of cult followers to the more benign allegiance football players to their coach, we have all seen it. Where does it come from in general? Is there some personality type that is more likely to be loyal? To inspire loyalty? Can you speak from personal experience or observation? Return to the play long enough to address what the presence of this type of loyalty tells us about Lear and about Kent.