Subject: Leaving Certificate English Higher Level Teacher ...
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1 Subject: Leaving Certificate English Higher Level Teacher: Miss Kelly Week: Week 15 Title: King Lear 3 Learning Intentions • I will learn to recognise the three key themes in “King Lear”. Homework Task: The evil characters in the play are far more interesting than the good characters. Discuss -Most characters are innately good or evil. -Prone to being one-dimensional and unbelievable. -Cordelia is a bit too good. -That said, evil characters are always more interesting. -Depravity repels but we can’t seem to look away (repulsive and compulsive) -Focus on the actions of Goneril Regan and Edmund. Sample intro: (address the question and outline your points for discussion) The main characters in the play can be divided into those who are distinctly good or distinctly evil . Cordelia and Edgar are admirable and do everything in their power to restore their fathers to their rightful positions. However, as is always the case, the good characters, apart from being admirable, are not as worthy of our interest as their evil counterparts. Evil of its very nature is more interesting than good. Goneril, Regan and Edmund fascinate us because of their dire natures. Sample para: Edmund is the most intriguing character: he is both cunning and duplicitous but also charming and clever. We marvel at his capacity for evil and his ability to so easily betray his father but we also acknowledge his determination to get what he wants: “Edmund the base shall top the legitimate.” His character also has the capacity to draw out a modicum of support as we can understand that his motivation for betraying both Gloucester and Edgar is a result of his sense of inadequacy and the hurt experienced as a result of Gloucester’s dismissal of him: “I have so often blushed to acknowledge him”. Edmund’s attempt to redeem himself at the end ensures that we see him as the multifaceted three-dimensional character that he so clearly is. Sample conclusion: Undoubtedly the evil characters’ repulsive behaviour makes for compulsive viewing. The good characters are just too good to be entirely believable or interesting. It is not always easy to acknowledge but we cannot underestimate the allure of evil. Key themes -Madness -Sight and Blindness -Justice -Appearance versus Reality Madness Madness -Lear’s madness represents the extent of his psychological suffering. A very human response to suffering. -Allows him to achieve wisdom. -Symbolises the social disorder created by the unnatural division of the kingdom. -Poor Tom’s “madness” is used to comment on the treatment of the mentally ill of the time. Madness quotes: “O let me not be mad, not mad sweet heaven!” “O fool, I shall go mad”. Fool (referring to Lear’s impaired mental state and the division of the kingdom): “Thou hast pared thy wit o’ both sides and left nothing in the middle.” “Reason in madness” “A very foolish fond old man”. “Poor Tom…eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stock-punished, and imprisoned…”
Transcript of Subject: Leaving Certificate English Higher Level Teacher ...
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Subject: Leaving Certificate English Higher Level Teacher: Miss Kelly Week: Week 15 Title: King Lear 3
Learning Intentions
• I will learn to recognise the three key themes in “King Lear”.
Homework Task: The evil characters in the play are far more interesting than the good characters. Discuss
-Most characters are innately good or evil. -Prone to being one-dimensional and unbelievable. -Cordelia is a bit too good. -That said, evil characters are always more interesting. -Depravity repels but we can’t seem to look away (repulsive and compulsive) -Focus on the actions of Goneril Regan and Edmund. Sample intro: (address the question and outline your points for discussion) The main characters in the play can be divided into those who are distinctly good or distinctly evil. Cordelia
and Edgar are admirable and do everything in their power to restore their fathers to their rightful positions. However, as is always the case, the good characters, apart from being admirable, are not as worthy of our interest as their evil counterparts. Evil of its very nature is more interesting than good. Goneril, Regan and Edmund fascinate us because of their dire natures. Sample para: Edmund is the most intriguing character: he is both cunning and duplicitous but also charming and clever.
We marvel at his capacity for evil and his ability to so easily betray his father but we also acknowledge his determination to get what he wants: “Edmund the base shall top the legitimate.” His character also has the capacity to draw out a modicum of support as we can understand that his motivation for betraying both Gloucester and Edgar is a result of his sense of inadequacy and the hurt experienced as a result of Gloucester’s dismissal of him: “I have so often blushed to acknowledge him”. Edmund’s attempt to redeem himself at the end ensures that we see him as the multifaceted three-dimensional character that he so clearly is. Sample conclusion: Undoubtedly the evil characters’ repulsive behaviour makes for compulsive viewing. The good characters are just too good to be entirely believable or interesting. It is not always easy to acknowledge but we cannot underestimate the allure of evil.
Key themes
-Madness -Sight and Blindness -Justice -Appearance versus Reality Madness Madness
-Lear’s madness represents the extent of his psychological suffering. A very human response to suffering. -Allows him to achieve wisdom. -Symbolises the social disorder created by the unnatural division of the kingdom. -Poor Tom’s “madness” is used to comment on the treatment of the mentally ill of the time. Madness quotes: “O let me not be mad, not mad sweet heaven!” “O fool, I shall go mad”. Fool (referring to Lear’s impaired mental state and the division of the kingdom): “Thou hast pared thy wit o’ both sides and left nothing in the middle.” “Reason in madness” “A very foolish fond old man”. “Poor Tom…eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stock-punished, and imprisoned…”
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Subject: Leaving Certificate English Higher Level Teacher: Miss Kelly Week: Week 15 Title: King Lear 3
Sight and blindness MOTIF
-Being spiritually or morally blind is a big issue (not seeing right from wrong). -Lear and Gloucester cannot see that they are being duped by their children. -Lear is morally blind to what he does to Cordelia. -Lear only starts “to see” the error of his ways having endured great suffering. -Gloucester, ironically, only sees the error of his ways having undergone a physical blinding in Act 3, scene 7. Sight and blindness quotes Kent tells Lear to “see better” After being blinded, Gloucester says: “I have no way and therefore want no eyes. I stumbled when I saw”. About Edgar: “Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I’d say I had eyes again”. “Out, vile jelly” Justice
-A key theme is concerned with cosmic and human justice. -Some characters believe that the gods are benevolent (nice). -Other characters believe the gods are there to punish. -The play questions whether there is any justice in the human world. -Human justice is unfair. Lear condemning Cordelia. Gloucester condemning Edmund. -The mock trial reveals the follies of human justice. Lear, in madness, makes key observations about justice. -An example of his wisdom concerns corruption and how if a policeman is bribed in a case of robbery, he, too, becomes a thief. Quotes for justice: Kent to Cordelia. He prays that the “gods to their dear shelter take thee”. Lear sees the gods as agents of punishment. He curses Goneril praying that “all stored vengeances of heaven fall on her ungrateful top”. When Gloucester is blinded (which is very unjust), he calls upon the “kind gods” to forgive him for the wrong he has done. In the next scene he lapses into despair and sees the gods as cruel beings who enjoy torturing their victims: “As flies to wanton schoolboys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.” Lear: “See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places and, handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?” Appearance versus reality
A common theme in Shakespearean plays. Nothing is as it seems. Deception is rife. The supposed “good” children are bad and vice versa. Clothing imagery is often used to highlight this. Key quote for this is: “Through tattered clothes small vices do appear. Robes and furred gowns hide all”.
Homework Task: Choose one theme from the play and discuss its significance.
-Introduce the theme -Points for discussion -Take each point and explain how it is examined in the play.
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Subject: Leaving Certificate English Higher Level Teacher: Miss Kelly Week: Week 15 Title: King Lear 3
Sight and blindness MOTIF
-Being spiritually or morally blind is a big issue (not seeing right from wrong). -Lear and Gloucester cannot see that they are being duped by their children. -Lear is morally blind to what he does to Cordelia. -Lear only starts “to see” the error of his ways having endured great suffering. -Gloucester, ironically, only sees the error of his ways having undergone a physical blinding in Act 3, scene 7. Sight and blindness quotes Kent tells Lear to “see better” After being blinded, Gloucester says: “I have no way and therefore want no eyes. I stumbled when I saw”. About Edgar: “Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I’d say I had eyes again”. “Out, vile jelly” Justice
-A key theme is concerned with cosmic and human justice. -Some characters believe that the gods are benevolent (nice). -Other characters believe the gods are there to punish. -The play questions whether there is any justice in the human world. -Human justice is unfair. Lear condemning Cordelia. Gloucester condemning Edmund. -The mock trial reveals the follies of human justice. Lear, in madness, makes key observations about justice. -An example of his wisdom concerns corruption and how if a policeman is bribed in a case of robbery, he, too, becomes a thief. Quotes for justice: Kent to Cordelia. He prays that the “gods to their dear shelter take thee”. Lear sees the gods as agents of punishment. He curses Goneril praying that “all stored vengeances of heaven fall on her ungrateful top”. When Gloucester is blinded (which is very unjust), he calls upon the “kind gods” to forgive him for the wrong he has done. In the next scene he lapses into despair and sees the gods as cruel beings who enjoy torturing their victims: “As flies to wanton schoolboys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.” Lear: “See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places and, handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?” Appearance versus reality
A common theme in Shakespearean plays. Nothing is as it seems. Deception is rife. The supposed “good” children are bad and vice versa. Clothing imagery is often used to highlight this. Key quote for this is: “Through tattered clothes small vices do appear. Robes and furred gowns hide all”.
Homework Task: Choose one theme from the play and discuss its significance.
-Introduce the theme -Points for discussion -Take each point and explain how it is examined in the play.
