Preview

The Use Of Motifs In Shakespeare's King Lear

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
369 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Use Of Motifs In Shakespeare's King Lear
The opening Act of King Lear uses the motifs of nature and the unnatural, sanity and madness, and “nothing” to reinforce the downward movement in Lear’s perception of his own identity. For example, at the beginning of the play, Lear expresses his awe at the serenity of a beautiful world: “With plenteous rivers, and wide wide-skirted meads…” (I, i, 66). As the plot moves forward, the motif of the unnatural becomes present and indicates the negative trend of Lear’s own identity. Specifically, when Lear becomes mad at his daughter Goneril for treating him poorly he exclaims: “…from her derogate body never spring / A babe to honour her!” (I, iv, 77-78). Whereas normally a father would wish well upon his children, Lear curses his daughter, and the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    King Lear Rhetorical Analysis
    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    King Lear Rhetorical Analysis

    Lear was naked, in a sense, by the removal of all that he owned and all that he held dear, in the way that he began processing the identity of himself as a beautiful, inadequate human. Perhaps, Lear’s wild speeches that seemed mad to Caius was the voice of a good change in the man, Lear (Lamb & Lamb, 2010, p. 163).…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sexism in the “O Reason…” Speech of King Lear
    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sexism in the “O Reason…” Speech of King Lear

    With such powerful language and intonation, it sometimes is difficult for me to remember that King Lear is but an aged man, biased and occasionally foolish. In act two, he finally ostracizes Regan and Goneril by making sexist comments intending to wound both women. His speech has three distinct parts: distinguishing men from women, making a prayer for the present, and giving his threat for the future. Lear divides the world into two parts, one with animals, and the other with humans. The latter category is then again subdivided into men and women. He sees the section of men as like beasts, but women to almost have just a superficial view of the world by only caring about looks instead of substance. He mocks Regan and Goneril with their clothing- something he calls “gorgeous”, but it “scarcely keeps [them] warm.” Lear must consider himself to be like a beast in that he acts as he sees practical, like keeping knights that stay loyal to him as the only family he has left, which are “a reservation to be followed with such a number.” I think he is stumbling over what to say the entire speech, with interrupted sentences, apostrophe, and the use of prose, which might indicate feeling rushed and lack of time in which he would usually have spoken poetry. By discussing sexism, it seems to be an easy play of Lear’s to make that will surely injure Regan and Goneril, even though both are quite masculine in their powers. In the next section, he creates another sexist divide by assigning different responses to hardship per gender. Even his speech shows his condescending beliefs for women by using the soft ‘w’ sound alliteratively in line 319. “…women’s weapons, water drops,” are contrasted with what Lear wants- “noble anger” that is more suited to him as a man. Even the thought of crying would “stain [his] man’s cheeks” in an act of weakness. While characterizing grief as womanly, Lear again associates being female as a deficiency in that one…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    nick summers review
    • 8586 Words
    • 20 Pages

    nick summers review

    The Madness of King LearBy Nick Summers - December 08, 2002 It is odd to think that true madness can ever be totally understood. Shakespeare's masterful depiction of the route to insanity, though, is one of the stronger elements of King Lear. The early to middle stages of Lear's deterioration (occurring in Acts I through III) form a highly rational pattern of irrationality: Lear's condition degenerates only when he is injured or when some piece of the bedrock upon which his old, stable world rested is jarred loose. His crazy behavior makes a lot of sense. Despite his age and frailty, Lear is no weak character; it is difficult to imagine how another character could have better resisted such mental and emotional weights as the king suffers under. Lear's worsening madness is understandable only when interpreted with a proper appreciation of the intense forces acting on him and of the gradual disappearance of everything he finds recognizable about his former world.As Lear sets out from his palace toward his daughters' homes, he is still sane, though he begins to regret disowning Cordelia ‹the first sign of mental stress and the first step toward his eventual madness. Lear's Fool needles him about the rash decision, and the king blurts out, "O! let me be not mad, not mad, sweet heaven; / Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!" (I.v.46-47) It is a harbinger of thoughts to come.Lear's impending madness is established in parallel with the growing storm; both threaten to break at any moment. But Lear is strong: he does not give in to insanity all at once; instead he holds on as long as he can, only gradually slipping into lunacy. And Lear is strong‹it is important to note the severity of the stressors acting on him; ignoring them can lead to a misinterpretation of his character as a weak, senile old man instead of a capable leader simply abused by the people he trusted. Perhaps he was foolish to trust them in the first place, but he was not crazy. Above all, Lear's madness…

    • 8586 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Lesson 6
    • 1685 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Lesson 6

    a) The opening Act of King Lear evidently portrays Lear’s downward movement as it coincides with Aristotle’s structure of Greek tragedy. The play begins with Lear, a hero of noble birth and ruler of Britain, in an ordered society soon to be disrupted by a fatal flaw that is the result of his excessive pride. His journey from the ordered to the disordered world becomes apparent after he hands his land over to his two elder daughters and banishes his youngest daughter Cordelia from the kingdom. The initial situation began when Lear asks Cordelia, “What can you say to draw / A third more opulent than your sisters?” (I i 87-88), in which she answers “Nothing, my lord” (I i 89). This demonstrates Lear’s arrogance and triggers the rash decision he makes that would greatly impact the tragic events that follow. At the end of the scene, his two elder daughters immediately work to conspire against him so that he would be left with no power at all. Goneril says to Regan that they “must do something, and i’ th’ heat” (I ii 311). This foreshadows Lear’s impending downward movement and begins the reversal of his fortunes as things go from bad to worse. Lear’s recognition of the truth and the existence of his tragic circumstance becomes slightly clear to him when he wonders whether he has lost his mind and cries out “O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!” (I v 46). Act I leaves off at this stage where Lear is about to suffer tremendously before further stages of recognition, retribution, and restitution occur later in the play.…

    • 1685 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    King Lear essay, exploring the notion of hope.
    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages

    King Lear essay, exploring the notion of hope.

    Shakespeare in Lear, presents the notion that characters in great authority force suffering upon others in an effort to retain power, admiration, and status. Initially, Lear himself demonstrates this, appallingly treating Cordelia with an irrational snap judgement when he is embarrassed in court by his youngest daughters silence and lack of praise; “Here I disclaim all my parental care.” (1:1:107) This unjust sentence is highly ironic, especially for the audience, as dramatically we see transparent farce of Gonerill and Regan’s dedications of love, and the total truth of Cordelia’s. Due to the “infirmity of his age” (1:1:284) (Lear) the unjust pain Cordelia endures for his mistake is greatened, and due to this dramatic irony the audience is forever hopeful for some form of justice and resolution to come.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Creative Critical Response to King Lear
    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Creative Critical Response to King Lear

    The opening scenes reflect the opposite of what was due to come further in the play, coming from warm, homely and loving acting on stage to pure cruelty and terror. When Lear viciously banishes his loyalties, such a stir is caused by all actors on stage, that even the 21st century audience are shocked, despite it probably being a lot more shocking in 19th Century. Ian McKellan and his “tigers for daughters” make this play come alive. The audience focused only on them, feeling like being in another world.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Ugly Didst Thou In Cordelear
    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Ugly Didst Thou In Cordelear

    I liked how you narrowed in on the character of King Lear to incorporate the words “nature”, “natural”, and “unnatural”. King Lear uses the term nature many times throughout the play. I agree with you that Lear feels it is in the nature of his daughters to obey they father. In 1.4, after realizing how awful his daughter Goneril is, Lear says of Cordelia, “O most small fault, how ugly didst thou in Cordelia show, which like an engine wrenched my frame of nature” (257-259). Lear is acknowledging that Cordelia’s tiny flaw completely bent him out of shape and wrongfully removed any love he had for her. In the same scene, Lear says to Albany and Goneril, “Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend/…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    King Lear: Motifs Essay Example
    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages

    King Lear: Motifs Essay Example

    found; A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable; Beyond all manner of so…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Mood and Atmosphere Is Created in Act 1 Scene 1 King Lear
    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Mood and Atmosphere Is Created in Act 1 Scene 1 King Lear

    In the first Act of ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare, atmosphere and mood is created chiefly through the techniques of tension, greed and honesty. The predominant mood of the first scene is fear of the king and a heavy atmosphere of foreboding events, as he seems to demonstrate the beginning of falling into the depravity of dementia.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    King Lear Paper
    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages

    King Lear Paper

    Shakespeare’s play King Lear documents the life a man who experiences a dramatic shift in worldview. The main character, King Lear, begins the play as a self-centered, proud, and materialistic man who cares less about his family than his reputation. By the end of the story, Lear is a humbled man who cares for his family more than his previously precious power. Lear’s strife broke him down until he was finally able to let go of his old perceptions and adopt a better outlook on life. Shakespeare chronicles Lear’s change from selfish to caring throughout the course of the story, and shows how the hardest of times can actually bring out the best in a person.…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Progress In Shakespeare's King Lear
    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Progress In Shakespeare's King Lear

    It has always been in human nature to want to progress. Wherever we go, we always hear about the “next big thing,” whether it be a new smartphone or a breakthrough in medicine that touches on many social issues, bringing up a debate on whether or not the end justifies the means. This will for progress sometimes ends with negative results, however, no matter what the original intention may have been. There are many examples in Shakespeare’s King Lear that expertly demonstrates that, although the goal may be aiming for improvement or progress, the end does not justify the means.…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    King Lear's Dementia
    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages

    King Lear's Dementia

    Cited: Shakespeare, William, and Russell A. Fraser. The Tragedy of King Lear. New York: New American Library, 1986. Print.…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Nature in King Lear
    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Nature in King Lear

    The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare is founded on the theme of Nature portrayed throughout the play from Lear’s kingship to personal human relations, from representations of the physical world to notions of the gods, from the portrayal of human nature to the use of animal imagery. Nature is the core of the play King Lear. Shakespeare’s take on nature is ambiguous thus he portrays the two extremes of human condition: good and evil. Through his characters, he asserts that humans are neither good nor evil by nature. However, Shakespeare reflects on what should be considered natural, since the concept of nature stems from social construct. In the play, there is a noticeable distinction between the natural ways in which people wish to behave as opposed to what is considered natural in society. Elements of the natural world, such as Mother Nature and the animal kingdom, are invoked in the characters’ speech, as they use their different concepts of what nature is in order to justify their actions. Through this essay I will demonstrate good and evil nature mainly through the two juxtaposing characters: Cordelia, the Jesus-Like daughter, and Edmund the Machiavellian son, as well as the use of animal imagery to depict natural character traits. The plot begins on the day King Lear decides to divide his inheritance amongst his three daughters. The proud King demands his daughters to show off their undying love for him in order to gain their share. However, King Lear’s notion of love is shallow, pompous and showy, which results in a great disadvantage to Cordelia’s natural way of being. Unfortunately, King Lear’s royal authority belongs to the civilized world. Therefore, he goes against the natural world when he misinterprets Cordelia’s love and casts her out. One of the biggest problems in the play is that Lear calls upon nature: “which of you shall we say doth love us most/ That we our largest bounty may extend/ Where nature doth with merit challenge” (Act 1,…

    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Role of Cordelia in King Lear
    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Role of Cordelia in King Lear

    Her words “nothing, my lord” and Lear’s actions arising from them trigger the theme of “nothingness” in the play. She also brings the theme of “appearance versus reality” to the forefront.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    character is destiny
    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    character is destiny

    In the play, Lear demonstrates various characteristics that can be classified as his tragic flaws. In the opening scene, Lear's irrational basis for distributing the kingdom between his daughters reveals that he is accustomed to hypocrisy, that he is quick tempered, that he is impatient, and that he is unaware of human limitation. By asking his daughters to publicly display their love towards him, he reveals that he is accustomed to flattery. This also demonstrates that he is proud of his ability to exercise his will quickly and effectively. A.C Bradely comments on this tragic flaw by stating that "A long life of absolute power, in which he as been flattered to the top of his bent, has produced in him that blindness to human limitation and that presumptuous self will" . In the opening act, King Lear also demonstrates his quick tempered nature through the disowning of Cordelia and the banishment of Kent. When Lear does not hear what he expected from Cordelia, he disowns her as his daughter without any rational thoughts. This demonstrates that he is accustomed to exercising his will. It also demonstrates that he believes that through his position as a monarch, he can even command human emotions such as love. In addition, when Lear hears what he expects from Goneril and Regan, he rewards them with a large portion of his kingdom. This reveals his gullible, generous, and unsuspicious nature. Overall, Lear's characteristics are revealed in the first Act of the play. He is accustomed to exercising his will freely, he is gullible, unsuspicious, and is blind of…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More