Response to some Language used in King Lear
Response to the language used by Kent and Lear
Lear’s monologue of harsh comments towards Gonerill presents the audience with the childlike side of his character. Lear’s anger is triggered by Gonerill’s newly played authority over him. Here, Lear is placed in a situation he is uncomfortable with and his sporadic rant is unjustified with regards to Gonerill’s actual actions. Gonerill orders a level of disrespect to come from the servants of her castle towards Lear’s “so disordered, so deboshed and bold” knights as a means of opposing their riotous behaviour. In his speech, Lear hopes for “her womb convey sterility”. The lack of relevance between Gonerill’s actions and Lear’s response provides the audience with a clear illustration of how impulsively Lear acts because he even goes as far as saying that if she were to bear a child, it should “be a thwart disnatured torment her”. Not only are Lear’s words inappropriate for the situation but also extremely explicit and cruel. Lear does not just hope for an extremely bad outcome for his own daughter but even provides her with an insurance scenario should that outcome not become reality. This highlights the irrational anger in Lear’s character and how easy it is for him to use such explicit language and go to such extreme lengths. This reinforces Lear’s image of nativity to the audience which has been building up throughout the course of the play.
The same monologue which depicts Lear’s character as immature is one which has been written in verse form. This can be seen as Shakespeare’s way of framing something immature and irrational in a poetic physique. This represents Lear’s character – a noble king with a childlike attitude.
After Lear is disrespected by Oswald, we can truly see just how loyal The Earl of Kent is to his highness. Kent uses many adjective-verb combinations in order to insult Oswald in a very well-thought out and controlled rant. He calls him a “lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson glass-grazing,
Lear’s monologue of harsh comments towards Gonerill presents the audience with the childlike side of his character. Lear’s anger is triggered by Gonerill’s newly played authority over him. Here, Lear is placed in a situation he is uncomfortable with and his sporadic rant is unjustified with regards to Gonerill’s actual actions. Gonerill orders a level of disrespect to come from the servants of her castle towards Lear’s “so disordered, so deboshed and bold” knights as a means of opposing their riotous behaviour. In his speech, Lear hopes for “her womb convey sterility”. The lack of relevance between Gonerill’s actions and Lear’s response provides the audience with a clear illustration of how impulsively Lear acts because he even goes as far as saying that if she were to bear a child, it should “be a thwart disnatured torment her”. Not only are Lear’s words inappropriate for the situation but also extremely explicit and cruel. Lear does not just hope for an extremely bad outcome for his own daughter but even provides her with an insurance scenario should that outcome not become reality. This highlights the irrational anger in Lear’s character and how easy it is for him to use such explicit language and go to such extreme lengths. This reinforces Lear’s image of nativity to the audience which has been building up throughout the course of the play.
The same monologue which depicts Lear’s character as immature is one which has been written in verse form. This can be seen as Shakespeare’s way of framing something immature and irrational in a poetic physique. This represents Lear’s character – a noble king with a childlike attitude.
After Lear is disrespected by Oswald, we can truly see just how loyal The Earl of Kent is to his highness. Kent uses many adjective-verb combinations in order to insult Oswald in a very well-thought out and controlled rant. He calls him a “lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson glass-grazing,