Motifs: recurring elements and patterns of imagery (support themes)

• Nature• Blindness• Clothing and nakedness• Madness• Animal imagery

All the World’s Asleep

• Groups of 7• Memorize your own line• Throw ball to group member• That group member says his line and

throws to another person go around until everyone seems to know the line

Rule change

• Instad of ball catcher saying their line the rest of the group must say the catcher’s line

Step 3

• Look at lines and images that suggest transition from

• Regal and Sane to common man and Mad• Each quote will suggest regal and sane to

becoming less regal (more of a commoner) and less sane.

• Losing power

Step 2

• Put the cards in the order that best represents the transitions that Lear makes during the play from

• 1. regal to more real ( first 3 or 4 quotes)• 2. from sane to mad. ( then 3 or 4 quotes)

• Compare with actual order• What clues did you use?

Why Lear Why Now?

Do any of you know…

• Someone in their advanced year?• How are they different?• What challenges to they face?• What are some of the conflicts they encounter

with their children?

King Lear

1 Are children obligated to take care of their parents when they are elderly? 2 What do you feel we should do about the elderly in our society?3 Should they be turned out? 4 Should they be revered and honored among the young until they die?5 Should they be allowed to live at home, or put into a nursing home until the end of their lives?

Agenda

• Family Relationships• 1.1• Homework: Wednesday 1.2-1.3. Look up any

confusing words. Be able to explain to class the different views of fate..Complete Journals

Why teach King Lear?

• Sibling rivalry• Elders• Aging relatives• Betrayal• We will all be Lear someday• We all strive to be Cordelia• Avoid the Edmunds in college

Was Lear real?

• , Shakespeare borrowed his two plots from previous sources. Holinshed reported in his Chronicles (1577) a story that dates back as far as Geoffrey of Monmouth (1136) in which a supposedly real King Leir who ruled England around 800 BC divides his kingdom between two of his daughters, disowning the third for failing his love test,

Was there a Lear?

• “With a setting so far back in time, the sense of the historical blurs into the sense of the mythical and legendary.” Frye

• Neolithic Age?• Some say during the Bronze or Iron Ages

– Inhabitants of Britain mostly illiterate– Largely agricultural, – Ritualistically religious– Dover probably considered the ends of the earth

setting

• Mythical England- ancient pre christian Britian • (productions will transpose it to any period

because they can)

What Critics Say

• Described alternately as Shakespeare’s “Everest”, and his deepest plunge into the human soul, there is no intrinsic, coherent view of the play’s meaning.

• Seen as overtly religious allegory– goodness/evil– Power of forgiveness and honesty

• Others see it as a nihilistic work– The futility of the human condition

Themes

• Justice, Love, betrayal, revenge, loyalty, foolishness

• Greed and lust for power; greed and lust for power

• Natual vs unnatural behavior• Appearance vs. reality• fate

Motifs

• Blindness• Madness• Animal imagery• Nothing • The storm

Instructions

• 1.1.• Read out loud with group• Circle words/phrases that are confusing and

translate as best you can into modern English.• Underline words that you think might connect

to a theme:

Read first page outloud

• What words cause confusion?• Any puns?• What are Gloucester’s views toward his son

Edmond?• What do we notice about Edmond here?• Themes?

Watch clip

• What are Gloucester’s feelings toward his son?

• Support your answer?• What do we learn about Edmund?

Read pages 9-15

• Why is he dividing his kingdom?• What is the test that he uses?• What do Goneril and Regan say?• What is Cordelia’s answer and why does she

answer as she does?• Is she being cruel in refusing to play her

father’s game? Why? Why not?

Lear

• “Nothing will come from nothing”• What does he mean by this?

• His Reaction?

15-29

• What does Kent say that angers Lear?

agenda• Finish 1.1 reading as class.• Homework: 1.2-1.3: annotate speech assigned• #1: views of nature, what we learn about Edmond’s

character• #2 &3 Views of fate

Paper

• Staple paper to rubric and outline.• Please print.

Warm up context-theme?

1 Cordelia: What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent? (68)2 I am sure my love’s /More ponderous than my tongue. (85)3 I love your majesty/According to my bond, no more nor less.4. See Better Lear. Who says it and What theme does this relate to?

How might references to sight and blindness become important for the rest of

the play?

France and Burgendy

• Why does Burgendy back out?• What does France say?

View of Goneril and Regan

• P. 25 310 read.• Are they evil or are they realistic? What is

their plan?

The Great Chain of Being (divine order)GodAngelsHumans (kings, merchants, men women, etc

father mother

sonsdaughters

ServantsAnimals (mouse, dogs, lions,

etc.)Plants (grass, trees, etc.)Nonliving Objects (rocks, metals, etc.)

1.2 view on Fate• Views on astrology?• Fate?

Solar Eclipse took place around 1652

• Black Munday• Great doom was predicted• Read first and then the second.

agenda• 1.2-1.3• For Monday read 1.4-1.5 complete jouransl• And look closely at your assigned section . Be prepared to answer the

following: you could use this as part of your journal response1 What is going on?

2 What significant insights do we learn about the characters? If you have a small role, then write about Lear.) 3. What insights, or thoughts do characters havg? Cite lines 4, What themes, if any are present in scene? Cite lines

Read 1.4-1.5

• GROUPS• Group 1: Kent, Lear, Oswald; Lines1-49• Group 2: Knight, Lear; Lines 50-77• Group 3: Oswald, Lear, Kent; lines 79-95• Group 4: Fool, Lear, Kent 96-193• Group 5: Goneril, Lear, fool; 195-265• Group 6: Albany, Lear, Goneril; 266-307• Group 7: Lear, Albany, Goneril, Oswald, Fool; lines 308-end of scene• Group 8: Lear, Kent, Fool; Beginning of 1.5 to the end.• Group 9: 2.1 Edmund, Edgar; lines 1-40• Group 10: Gloucester, Edmond; lines 41-99• Group11: 2.1: Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, Edmund 100-151•

1 What is going on?

2 What significant insights do we learn about the characters? If you have a small role, then write about Lear.) 3. What insights, or thoughts do characters havg? Cite lines 4, What themes, if any are present in scene? Cite lines

Speeches Views Support?

• Group 1 Speech p. 29: analyze Edmond’s speech• Group 2 Gloucester’s speech p. 35• Group 3, Edmund’s speech p. 37• What are the character’s views regarding fate

and the influence of the eclipse? Look at imagery and choice of diction– Cite specific lines– Each group will perform the speech. Find places

where you can speak together

• He is just as legitimate as his brother• He will exercise free will to make it so.

Edmund’s speech

1.2

• Edmund’s soliloquy • What are his two views of nature?

– Allegiance to nature, not society’s view of of the natural order of things.

– In Elizabethan order, he is not considered the natural heir, or son

– In his view, he is more natural because he was conceived by love

Gloucester’s view on fate?

What is Edmund’s plan

• P. 32 read letter• What is Gloucester’s response?

Read speech again

• Subtext: Gloucester reader could emphasize that he knows the audience disagrees with his views.

• Subtext: Edmund reader could read knowing that the audience is intellectually on his side, even though he is a villain.

Monday 10/8

• Tuesday: watch act 1• Homework for Wednesday:

– Quiz act 1: quotes, who is who, vocabulary– Read 2.1-2.3 complete journals.

Themes 1.2

• Fate (status quo) vs. free will• References to sight/inability to see truth• Views of nature: Edmund views nature as

indifferent and a force to be reckoned with.• Gloucester views nature as a reflection of the

hiearchy of things. (father turns against child that order is disturbed and will lead to disorder and chaos.

How is Gloucester similar to Lear?

• Jumps to conclusions• The child he should trust the most he

immediately distrusts• Easily gullible

1.3 Goneril’s alace

• Why is g mad?• What does she tell Oswald?

– “Put on what weary negligence you please.”

• Old fools are babes again

1.4

• Theme: Appearance vs. Reality

• Kent is disguised and still views Lear as one who has authority.

1 What is going on?

2 What significant insights do we learn about the characters? If you have a small role, then write about Lear.) 3. What insights, or thoughts do characters havg? Cite lines 4, What themes, if any are present in scene? Cite lines

• 5 literary terms such as irony, conflict, theme, foreshadowing, imagery, etc.

•

Read 1.4-1.5

• GROUPS• Group 1: Kent, Lear, Oswald; Lines1-49• Group 2: Knight, Lear; Lines 50-77• Group 3: Oswald, Lear, Kent; lines 79-95• Group 4: Fool, Lear, Kent 96-193• Group 5: Goneril, Lear, fool; 195-265• Group 6: Albany, Lear, Goneril; 266-307• Group 7: Lear, Albany, Goneril, Oswald, Fool; lines 308-end of scene• Group 8: Lear, Kent, Fool; Beginning of 1.5 to the end.• Group 9: 2.1 Edmund, Edgar; lines 1-40• Group 10: Gloucester, Edmond; lines 41-99• Group11: 2.1: Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, Edmund 100-151•

1.4

• Where’s my foo? Ho, I think the world’s asleep. (46)

• Oswald: “My lady’s father”

The Foooool

• Shakespearean fools make witty, profound observations (usually in riddles) about the themes of the play and its characters.

• Often, the fool, who is a downtrodden everyman, is the most intelligent and insightful character in the play.

• Fool in King Lear • tells Lear uncomfortable truths about

what his abdication from power and authority mean for Lear himself as King and for his loyal servants living in a newly tyrannical regime.

• Lear ignores, or pretends to ignore, the Fool, even though he does understand the Fool's powerlessness and vulnerability as a mirror to his own.

What is the egg analogy?

• Split his kingdom in half and gave away the crowns. Nothing in the middle.

Does anyone know me? This is not Lear

Albany

• Striving to better off, we oft we mar what is well. (45)

Fool 1.5 (p.67)

• Lines that show him reproving Lear

1.5

• O let me not be mad, sweet heaven• Keep me in temper. I would not be mad.