LEAR

Relax andTake notes!

New Historicism

Simultaneously to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas…

Basically…

Studying a text through an analysis of the social, political, and cultural phenomenon that produced it.

So, what are the Social, Political, and

Cultural Phenomenon that produced Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WAS BORN IN 1564 TO A

SUCCESSFUL MIDDLE-CLASS

GLOVE-MAKER IN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, ENGLAND.

Deuces!!!

Edjamakation? About 5th grade level/Copy and Paste! Same as most of Elizabethan England Explains some of the success of History

Plays Did he know the “rules”? Probably… Did he follow them? Not really

Damned Victorians!

What was he up to???

Around 1590 he left his family behind and

traveled to London to work as an actor and

playwright.

1) Some of the basic principles of Tragedy (as set forth, specifically, by classical Greek writers)

Character starts off in a fortunate position, ends at the bottom of the ladder of luck

Character suffers from some tragic flaw

A crime is committed and for various reasons laws and justice cannot punish the crime

The main character then usually had a period of doubt , where he tries to decide whether or not to go through with the revenge, which usually involves tough and complex planning.

Some motivating factor appears to impel the character to act

The revenger also usually had a very close relationship with the audience through soliloquies and asides

The crime has been committed against a family member of the revenger.

The original crime that will eventually be avenged is nearly always sexual or violent or both

2) Death in the Age of Shakespeare

“What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason?”

-Hamlet (Act 2, scene 2)

Death has always existed in civilization. The further back you go the more prevalent the role of death in the lives of humans. War, plague, malnutrition….

What starts to change is that the enlightenment and rise of medicine and science starts to show us that death doesn’t have to be such a ‘normal’ part of everyone’s life

Example-the 17th century, the life expectancy for a male was 30…

PLAGUE!!!

In 1593, the first year plague struck London15,000 people died….

How did we know?-English were notoriously good record-

keepers-Graveyard Studies-Analysis of legal documents from the time

By 1603, the number of plague related death grew to 30,000

Oh, by the way

180,000 people lived in London at the time…

Doing the math… hmmmm.

What percentage of the population died of plague within those ten years?

(those numbers again: 30,000 people in a city of 180,000)

Give up???

1/6th!!!!!!!

Now, follow me like lemmings…

There are about 9,000,000 people in New York City…

1/6th would be???

What kind of life do the characters in those plays lead?

How do they fall from grace?How are they betrayed, disgraced,

tricked? How bad do they despise and deprecate themselves by the end of the play?

Q). How do they meet death?

A). As peace from all of the horrible events in the play!!!

Precisely the tragedy of Lear…

Based on our previous discussion of the rise of the Enlightenment. The inevitability of death is exactly what makes the play so tragic. The other characters practically beg for death. Lear has so studied it, is so mystified by it, and has been driven mad by it… that becomes a truly tragic outcome.

Symbolic Life and Death Virtue Family Power Wealth Status Land Obedience