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Reflection on king lear by shakespeare
Introduction on shakespeare and King Lear
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King Lear is a Christian Play About a Pagan World
It is evident that King Lear contains references to both the Christian
and Pagan doctrine. However, they seem to be expressed in entirely
different styles. King Lear is purposefully set in a pre Christian era
with numerous references to classical Gods but conversely there
appears to be a striking resonance of Christian theology throughout
the play. These echoes appear in various forms including the idea of
Edgar being a Christ-like figure and also the presence of a supposed
divine justice. Therefore there is truth in the view that although
King Lear has a pagan setting, its significance is ultimately relating
to Christianity.
Perhaps the most obvious way in which Shakespeare creates the pagan
setting is through the specific mentions of non-Christian gods. When
looking at the first scene it is apparent Shakespeare has deliberately
seasoned it with pagan references, an example being Lear's response to
Cordelia's unwillingness to speak,
'by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night'.
Shortly after this, Lear's rage is aimed at Kent for his defence of
the king's supposedly wicked daughter, when he swears, 'by Apollo' and
'by Jupiter'. Another instance that shows Lear appealing to deities
rather than the Christian belief of a singular being occurs during his
exposure to the storm on the heath,
'Let the great Gods,
That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now.'
All these quotes therefore demonstrate that King Lear is deliberately
set in a pre-Christian era.
However, this is not conclusive evidence that...
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...ester's
attempted suicide and the implication of Kent's without arousing shock
and disapproval from the paying audience, as it was believed that such
behaviour prevailed in this 'unnatural' era.
In conclusion, the view that King Lear is 'a Christian play about a
pagan world' is entirely plausible. The characters openly speak to and
appeal to non-Christian gods and they doubt divine justice, suggesting
that, 'They kill us for their sport.' This therefore creates a pagan
setting for the play. However, there are definite Christian ideas
running throughout the play which manifest themselves mainly in Edgar
and Lear. Therefore, there is an inclination to agree with J C
Maxwell, as despite the setting of the King Lear being Christian, its
morals and concepts of atonement and redemption, lean towards
Christian theology.
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus demonstrates how aggressive challenges and divisions are born out of conflicting belief systems. For example, because the Roman citizens, the Goths, and Aaron the Moor all differ in matters of consciousness, tension ensues. Nicholas Moschovakis comments extensively about these clashes in his essay ““Irreligious Piety” and Christian History: Persecution as Pagan Anachronism in Titus Andronicus,” and Moschovakis not only magnifies persecution, but he remarks extensively about the major elements in Titus Andronicus that can be understood as anachronistic. While Moschovakis carefully and thoroughly observes the Shakespearean realms of violent “human sacrifice,” the “relevance of Judeo-Christian sacrificial discourses,” the anti-papist Elizabethan attitudes, and other religious and pagan traditions, Moschovakis plainly admits that “Titus evades all attempts to be read as partisan invective” (Moschovakis 462). Because Shakespeare included a wide range of conflict and overlapping belief systems, assertions tend to become, as Moschovakis puts it, “curiously inconsistent” and “overshadowed” (Moschovakis 462). What can be claimed as transparent in Titus Andronicus, and what I think is appealing to the masses, is that Shakespeare drew upon the major controversial motifs in human history and religion, and he included the evils of hypocrisy which allow for realistic interest regardless of what your religious or political stance is. Moreover, I would argue that Shakespeare exposes a more obvious anachronistic element that can serve in expanding Moschovakis’ arguments. Titus Andronicus demonstrates the time honored obsession over first born sons, and because the play includes a first born son in each family t...
Throughout King Lear, Shakespeare gives the reader small moments of human goodness to contrast the evil in the play. L.C. Knights describes it as "affirmation in spite of everything," (Coyle). These affirmative actions are clearly seen in response to the immorality, twisted values and evil that are so common throughout this play. These moments are used to give the reader an underlying faith in the human spirit despite the clear role of immorality and a lack of values. The instances of genuine human goodness allow Shakespeare to bring out intense evil and tragedy in his characters and plot without taking away all hope in humanity.
The play of "King Lear" is about a search for personal identity. In the historical period in which this play is set, the social structure was set in order of things closest to Heaven. Therefore, on Earth, the king was at the top, followed by his noblemen and going all the way down to the basest of objects such as rocks and dirt. This structure was set up by the people, and by going by the premise that anything that is man made is imperfect, this system cannot exist for long without conflict.
Mcneir, Waldo F. "The Role of Edmund in King Lear." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900.Vol. 8, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (1968): 187-216. JSTOR. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Harbage, Alfred. " King Lear: An Introduction." Shakespeare: The Tragedies: A Collection of Critical Essays.
In The Tragedy of King Lear, particularly in the first half of the play, Lear continually swears to the gods. He invokes them for mercies and begs them for destruction; he binds both his oaths and his curses with their names. The older characters—Lear and Gloucester—tend view their world as strictly within the moral framework of the pagan religion. As Lear expresses it, the central core of his religion lies in the idea of earthly justice. In II.4.14-15, Lear expresses his disbelief that Regan and Albany would have put the disguised Kent, his messenger, in stocks. He at first attempts to deny the rather obvious fact in front of him, objecting “No” twice before swearing it. By the time Lear invokes the king of the pagan gods, his refusal to believe has become willful and almost absurd. Kent replies, not without sarcasm, by affixing the name of the queen of the gods to a contradictory statement. The formula is turned into nonsense by its repetition. In contradicting Lear’s oath as well as the assertion with which it is coupled, Kent is subtly challenging Lear’s conception of the universe as controlled by just gods. He is also and perhaps more importantly, challenging Lear’s relationship with the gods. It is Kent who most lucidly and repeatedly opposes the ideas put forth by Lear; his actions as well as his statements undermine Lear’s hypotheses about divine order. Lear does not find his foil in youth but in middle age; not in the opposite excess of his own—Edmund’s calculation, say—but in Kent’s comparative moderation. Likewise the viable alternative to his relationship to divine justice is not shown by Edmund with his ...
So why, then, in King Lear? & nbsp;
Stanley, Tim. "Give Me That Old Time Religion." History Today 63.8 (2013): 50. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.CHURCH, S. D. "Paganism In Conversion-Age Anglo-Saxon England: The Evidence Of Bede's Ecclesiastical History Reconsidered." History 93.310 (2008): 162-180. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.Mayfield, Tyler. "Hebrew Bible." Masterplots II: Christian Literature (2007): 1-7. Literary Reference Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.Alward, Emily. "The Soul Of Christianity." Masterplots II: Christian Literature (2007): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.Hallissy, Margaret. "Christianity, The Pagan Past, And The Rituals Of Construction In William Golding's The Spire." Critique 49.3 (2008): 319-331. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
Specifically, in the works of “King Lear”, the backwards social order demonstrates the absence of divine justice. Gloucester speaks about how the concepts of right and wrong and their consequences of each are nonexistent. By him declaring how “love cools, friendship falls off”, the “bond cracked, twixt son and father” and the “in cities, mutinies, are in discord” (Shakespeare, I.ii.111-119). The disownment of Cordelia by King Lear uprooted this discord, Gloucester’s
The element of Christianity enters here, because King is a God-appointed position, not to be given up. Lear, however, decides to disregard this fact, instead focusing on the immediate gratification he will receive from his daughters, and boosting his self-esteem while making him feel loved. Lear essentially offers his land and power for love, "Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend where nature doth with merit challenge," forgoing his God-given position and rights.
Despite its undeniable greatness, throughout the last four centuries King Lear has left audiences, readers and critics alike emotionally exhausted and mentally unsatisfied by its conclusion. Shakespeare seems to have created a world too cruel and unmerciful to be true to life and too filled with horror and unrelieved suffering to be true to the art of tragedy. These divergent impressions arise from the fact that of all Shakespeare's works, King Lear expresses human existence in its most universal aspect and in its profoundest depths. A psychological analysis of the characters such as Bradley undertook cannot by itself resolve or place in proper perspective all the elements which contribute to these impressions because there is much here beyond the normal scope of psychology and the conscious or unconscious motivations in men.
King Lear as a Tragedy Caused by Arrogance, Rash Decisions and Poor Judgement of Character
William Shakespeare's King Lear King Lear is universal - the tragedy is in a distantly remote and
Bengtsson, Frederick. “King Lear by William Shakespeare.” Columbia College. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.