King Lear?? help ?

katie007

Has anyone got some good notes on sibling rivalry evident in king lear? Im mostly stuck on edmund and edgar but help on goneril and regan would also be much appreciated.

Aswell how are you supposed to open and conclude essays on your main text, general points would be of great help.

I'm only asking because due to this god damn recession ive lost my wonderful teacher i had last year in the place of one that doesnt have the slightest notion what shes doing and instead of teaching is trying to be our ''friend''.

So please help, paper 2 mock on tuesday, did shockin' in paper 1 last week =(

eager tortoise

Haven't got notes to hand but off the top of my head...

Goneril and Regan are established as sisters and rivals from the first scene, where Lear basically sets his daughters up to compete against each of her sisters in order to receive portions of his land. Initially they are united in their desire to see Lear humiliated. But this united front does not extend beyond this point. Throughout the play we see that their relationship fluctuates between agreement and discord. They are rivals most notably in their lust for Edmund. Also with the blinding of Gloucester, Regan overtakes Goneril in just how far she will go to gain the power she craves.
Of course another massive facet in the sibling rivalry theme is their relationship with Cordelia. Its made clear in the first scene that she was always Lear's favourite so that has probably made them bitter over the years. They even say "he always loved our sister best".
As regards answering on the single text be sure to back up every point you make with reference to the play. It sounds so obvious, but when you read answers (as a teacher) you read beautifully structured answers wherein the student has made several good points but not given direct evidence from the text (e.g. we know goneril and regan have an ambivalent attitude to Cordelia because...)
Also writing about a plan first for your answer is always good. I always tended to plan it paragraph by paragraph so it just looks like a list
E.g.
1 - into (gerneral sibling rivalry in king lear)
2 - lears daughters' relationship
3 - edmund and edgar
4 - paralells
5 - conclusion

Danger781

eager tortoise wrote: »

Haven't got notes to hand but off the top of my head...

Goneril and Regan are established as sisters and rivals from the first scene, where Lear basically sets his daughters up to compete against each of her sisters in order to receive portions of his land. Initially they are united in their desire to see Lear humiliated. But this united front does not extend beyond this point. Throughout the play we see that their relationship fluctuates between agreement and discord. They are rivals most notably in their lust for Edmund. Also with the blinding of Gloucester, Regan overtakes Goneril in just how far she will go to gain the power she craves.
Of course another massive facet in the sibling rivalry theme is their relationship with Cordelia. Its made clear in the first scene that she was always Lear's favourite so that has probably made them bitter over the years. They even say "he always loved our sister best".
As regards answering on the single text be sure to back up every point you make with reference to the play. It sounds so obvious, but when you read answers (as a teacher) you read beautifully structured answers wherein the student has made several good points but not given direct evidence from the text (e.g. we know goneril and regan have an ambivalent attitude to Cordelia because...)
Also writing about a plan first for your answer is always good. I always tended to plan it paragraph by paragraph so it just looks like a list
E.g.
1 - into (gerneral sibling rivalry in king lear)
2 - lears daughters' relationship
3 - edmund and edgar
4 - paralells
5 - conclusion

Very helpful But is that supposed to do 4 pages that is recommended...??