Shakespeare, King Lear, tragedy, Renaissance, theater, personification, stylistic device, literary genre, english literature, knowledge, art, poetry, language stylistic, fate, catharsis
The violent language used by King Lear in his speech, marking his anger, leads us to another characteristic: the role of art as an instrument of knowledge. Indeed, King Lear's speech evolves through the extract. In the beginning, Lear orders the storm ("Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!" l.1). Yet, further in the text, he talks about Nature not owing him any obedience ( "You owe me no subscription. Why then, let fall your horrible pleasure. Here I stand, your slave—" l.17-18). In the second part of his speech, King Lear requests the "great forces" to have mercy on him, wallowing himself in self-pity, as one can understand in line 19 : "A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man."
[...] / The codpiece that will house / Before the head has any . Fool seems to be mentioning mistakes of King Lear, or a lusty character of his, that we don't get to see so obviously through this extract. Regardless of what this refers to, Fool points out that thinking should never be taken over by things such as sexual urges. The following sentences of Fool' speech carry on with the criticism, as he states: "The man that makes his toe / What he his heart should make / Shall of a corn cry woe, / And turn his sleep to wake. [...]
[...] Moreover, this excerpt has an intense chaos: general, with the outside elements raging, and inside, with the anger and confusion of the King. This chaos is specific to tragedy. During this storm, King Lear would use adjectives showing that he wallows in self-pity "infirm", "weak" and "despised" l.19). The audience may feel pity for him, thus performing catharsis, by both the pity the spectators might feel towards King Lear, but also the possible terror to face such a storm (weather one or inner one). [...]
[...] Eventually, to the question about the period this text belongs to, I would therefore answer it belongs to the Renaissance as shown by these characteristics listed above : the first points out the interconnected world, chain of beings, correspondences, micro and macro and the vision of the ruler and its society. The second one, corresponds to the role of art as an instrument of knowledge, and the third one theoretically shows a need for reform expressed by Shakespeare. Now that we know which period King Lear belongs to, let's focus on the genre of it. As we could state above, this text states noble characters, like King Lear (accompanied by his Fool.). [...]
[...] As said above, King Lear isn't accusing Nature of being unkind. However, line 20 we can read "But yet I call you servile ministers / That will with two pernicious daughters joined Your high engendered battles `gainst a head So old and white as this.". He indeed can't fault Nature for lacking kindness, but he accuses it of somehow taking his daughters against him, regardless of his old age. We should not forget the correspondence between the King and the Father. [...]
[...] are my daughters" therefore he is not their father. This goes back to the theory of correspondences, where The Father represents the main authority in his own group (household), finding himself above children, servants, and other groups such as plants, yet below ones such as Kingdom, Universe One group depends on the one(s) above and has its responsibilities on the group(s) below. tax not you, you elements, with unkindness" (l.15), here Lear tells Nature he cannot fault it for never gave you kingdom, called you children" (l.16), on the contrary of his daughters who he accuses of respectively owing him their rank in hierarchy and maybe even a part of the Kingdom, yet here he is outside under the storm (which brings back the fact he considers his daughters as so ungrateful). [...]
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