King Lear, Help!

Ste234

Right I'm trying to do an essay notes on how we have sympathy for Lear and
one to do with love and it redeeming characters.
Any opinions/advice you could give would be nice... Just to get started.

gant0

Well we shouldn't have sympathy for Lear.He is a man more sinning than sinned against.His blindness,lack of self-awareness,wisdom and foolihness all led to the position he now finds himeself in.If it wasn't for his follish decision to hold the "love test" he'd still be in power.What is quite ironic is that the reason LEar held the love test is so he could "crawl unburdened to my death" and to "prevent future strife".The result of Lears actions is that the oposite of his wishes occur.
Although Lear wouldn't been in such a bad position if it wasn't for the evil characters Regan,Goneril etc, who have no scruples and deliberatly undermine him.Even though these characters are so evil,fundamentaly it is still Lears fault as if he hadnt spoiled them as children they would still have the respect for him that Cordelia has.
Over the course of the play Lear slowly grows in self-awareness but it is(as in all shakespearian tragedies)too late.The only victory that can be seen in this play is if Lear finally becomes self-aware,acknowledges his faults and accepts his foolishness.
Lear in my opinion doesn't deserve any sympathy as he is the author of his own destruction,yet I cannot help but have sympathy for him when he is stipped of everything he posed,cast out to the "heath" and left to go mad.This is not a fate even the worst human being should ever have to endure.



Hope that helps a little.

Slugs

the above comment, with a decent spellcheck, is quite a decent opening intro.

gant0

That'd be little to beffy for an inro,that's closing in on an a4 page.Intro should only really be half of that.

Bubblebeard

gant0 wrote: »

Well we shouldn't have sympathy for Lear.He is a man more sinning than sinned against.His blindness,lack of self-awareness,wisdom and foolihness all led to the position he now finds himeself in.If it wasn't for his follish decision to hold the "love test" he'd still be in power.What is quite ironic is that the reason LEar held the love test is so he could "crawl unburdened to my death" and to "prevent future strife".The result of Lears actions is that the oposite of his wishes occur.
Although Lear wouldn't been in such a bad position if it wasn't for the evil characters Regan,Goneril etc, who have no scruples and deliberatly undermine him.Even though these characters are so evil,fundamentaly it is still Lears fault as if he hadnt spoiled them as children they would still have the respect for him that Cordelia has.
Over the course of the play Lear slowly grows in self-awareness but it is(as in all shakespearian tragedies)too late.The only victory that can be seen in this play is if Lear finally becomes self-aware,acknowledges his faults and accepts his foolishness.
Lear in my opinion doesn't deserve any sympathy as he is the author of his own destruction,yet I cannot help but have sympathy for him when he is stipped of everything he posed,cast out to the "heath" and left to go mad.This is not a fate even the worst human being should ever have to endure.



Hope that helps a little.

Nah i think Lears more sinned against than sinning , yeah he does make mistakes and lets his egocentricity get in the way but theres a couple of key moments that you see him change for the better as a person .
Like when hes out in the storm , himself and the Fool go in to the hovel but he lets the Fool go ahead of him , something he wouldnt normally have done , and losing the one and only daughter that ever truely loved him crushed his feeble soul , nobody should have that done to them ! Even if it is a play .

highlydebased

I've used this a few times for bits and pieces for lear http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/lear/

Its American but the notes are grand.