the tempest
Rice University
The Background of Divine Action in King Lear
Author(s): Sandra Hole
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 8, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean
Drama (Spring, 1968), pp. 217-233
Published by: Rice University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/449656 .
Accessed: 08/08/2012 05:45
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp .
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Rice University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in English
Literature, 1500-1900.
http://www.jstor.org
The Backgroundof Divine
Action in King Lear
SANDRA
HOLE
King Lear is a religious rather than a secular play in the sense that its real focus is not on the hero but on the background of divine action.
This background is constructed by constant suggestions that the actions of all the characters are to be judged in relation to an ordered system of supernatural or divine activity. Attitudes towards the supernatural divide the characters into extremes of good and evil. Evil characters allude to the gods infrequently or disrespectfully; good characters respond to them in different ways, but all call upon them for help and invoke them in prayer. Religious references establish Cordelia as a standard of goodness, and Kent, Albany, and Edgar finally approach her faith in a recognizable world order. Gloucester and Lear undergo complete changes of attitude in the course of the play, Gloucester's from superstition to a deeply felt conviction of divine justice,
The Background of Divine Action in King Lear
Author(s): Sandra Hole
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 8, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean
Drama (Spring, 1968), pp. 217-233
Published by: Rice University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/449656 .
Accessed: 08/08/2012 05:45
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp .
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Rice University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in English
Literature, 1500-1900.
http://www.jstor.org
The Backgroundof Divine
Action in King Lear
SANDRA
HOLE
King Lear is a religious rather than a secular play in the sense that its real focus is not on the hero but on the background of divine action.
This background is constructed by constant suggestions that the actions of all the characters are to be judged in relation to an ordered system of supernatural or divine activity. Attitudes towards the supernatural divide the characters into extremes of good and evil. Evil characters allude to the gods infrequently or disrespectfully; good characters respond to them in different ways, but all call upon them for help and invoke them in prayer. Religious references establish Cordelia as a standard of goodness, and Kent, Albany, and Edgar finally approach her faith in a recognizable world order. Gloucester and Lear undergo complete changes of attitude in the course of the play, Gloucester's from superstition to a deeply felt conviction of divine justice,