drama king lear and the way of the world

8/4/2019 Drama King Lear and the Way of the World

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Drama and Dramatic Arts

Drama is a type of literature usually written to be performed. People often

make a distinction between drama, which concerns the written text, or script, forthe performance, and theater, which concerns the performance of this script. Many

of the most honored and influential works of literature around the world have been

dramas. They begin with the classical Greek tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles,

and Euripides and continue with the plays of such major dramatists as William

Shakespeare in England, Molire in France, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in

Germany, Henrik Ibsen in Norway, and August Strindberg in Sweden. The honor

bestowed on drama is particularly true of the Western tradition, which is the

subject of this article. For more information on other theater traditions

II. CHARACTERISTICS OF DRAMA

Most types of literature, including novels, short stories, and poems, are

written to be read, usually in silence by a solitary reader. Although works of

drama, called plays, are also often read in this manner, they are created primarily

to be presented in public by a group of performers, each of whom pretends to be

one of the characters in the story the play is telling. Older plays, such as those

written by the Greeks or Shakespeare, consist almost entirely of the words spoken

by these characters (the dialogue). More recent plays usually contain nonspokenmaterial (thestage directions) that tells the actors when to enter or leave the

performance space, gives suggestions about how to speak their dialogue (theirlines), and describes their costumes or their physical surroundings on stage (the

setting).

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who laid the foundations for the

critical study of drama, divided the elements of drama intoplot, character,thought, language, andspectacle. Aristotle considered plotthe basic story andhow it is toldthe most important of these, and this is indeed typically the case.

However, almost all dramas use all of these elements to some extent, telling a

story by means of the interactions of characters, who express their thoughtsthrough language within a particular visual setting. The balance of these elements,

however, varies from play to play. During some periods and in some traditions

many or most plays emphasize some element other than plot. Numerous plays

emphasize a particular character or a relationship between characters, as does

ShakespearesHamlet(1601?). Such plays are especially popular because

audiences have always been interested in seeing their favorite actors interpret such

demanding roles.

Western theater also has a long tradition of plays emphasizing thought. Such

plays are sometimes said to treat a particular theme and have been called

philosophical plays orthesis plays. Some of the greatest modern dramatists have


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emphasized thought or theme, among them George Bernard Shaw of Britain and

Ibsen, who addressed social issues of their day, and Bertolt Brecht of Germany,

many of whose plays criticized capitalism and instructed audiences in his leftist

political views.

Language is almost always an important element in drama, and it is occasionallythe dominant element. This is the case in the poetic dramas of English romantic

authors of the early 19th century and in much of what is called high comedy or

comedy of manners, which dates back to the 17th century in England. The lattertradition emphasizes nuances of social class and behavior and typically makes

prominent use of witty dialogue, puns, and other verbal acrobatics.

The types of drama that have emphasized spectacle include opera, modern

musical comedy, 19th-century melodrama, and court spectacles known as masques

that originated in England during the 16th century. Spectacle can include lavish

costumes, elaborate sets or stage machinery, and other elements that serve toenrich an audiences visual experience of a play.

III. KINDS OF DRAMA

The most widespread and familiar subdivisions of drama are comedy and

tragedy, a division established by the Greeks. Even today the smiling and weeping

masks worn by Greek actors in comedy and tragedy symbolize the two branches of

drama. Traditionally, a tragedy is dominated by a serious tone, concerns kings and

princes, deals with profound issues, and usually concludes with the death of theleading character. A comedy typically deals with common people, is dominated by

a light tone that encourages laughter (or at least amusement or entertainment), and

ends happily, often with the uniting of a pair of young lovers.

During the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) other forms of drama

appeared, and dramatists modified the two traditional forms. Shakespeare divided

his plays into comedies, tragedies, and histories, the latter presenting nationalhistory in dramatic form. He also departed from classic practice by putting

important comic scenes into his tragedies. In Italy, certain critics and dramatistsbegan mixing elements and aspects of the two traditional kinds of theater to create

a third kind, called tragicomedy. The mixture of moods would become much morecommon in the 19th and 20th centuries.

After the Renaissance the terms comedy and tragedy remained central, but

writers subdivided each type and developed new combined forms as well. Tragedy

remained the genre used most often to explore the profound philosophic questions

of good and evil and humankinds place in the universe, while comedy emphasized

people in their social aspects and personal relationships. This split made comedythe more appropriate form for social commentary and criticism as well as for


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simple amusement. Comedy emphasizing wit and style among the upper classes

became known as high comedy or comedy of manners, as opposed to low comedyorfarce. Low comedy traditionally gains its effects from physical humor that caneven turn violent at times and from crude verbal jokes, rather than from verbal wit

or nuances of social behavior. Farce as a popular, nonliterary form can be tracedback to classical Greece. The equivalent form of tragedy with a wide popular

appeal, called melodrama, emerged as a recognized type of theater in the 19th

century (though some modern critics characterize certain plays by Euripides as

melodramas). Like farce, melodrama is associated with physical action. In the 18th

century, as interest grew in the exploration of the emotions,sentimental comedydeveloped. It stressed feelings rather than laughter and encouraged audience

sympathy with the characters and their trials. Other new forms included tragedies

that dealt with middle-class characters and serious plays about middle-class life,

often called simply dramas. In the 20th century such middle-class drama replaced

tragedy as the major serious form of theatrical writing.

IV. PURPOSES OF DRAMA

Drama has served a wide variety of functions at different times and in

different places. Roman writer Horace, in one of the most famous statements about

the purpose of literature in general and drama in particular, said it was designed 'to

delight and to instruct.' Sometimes the purpose of drama has been considered to be

primarily the first of these, sometimes the second, but generally at least some

degree of both has been present.

From classical times until the Renaissance drama was closely associated with

major religious and civic observances and served to support both. As a result,

plays emphasized instruction. The Renaissance saw examples of theater that were

almost purely instructional at schools and universities, along with examples that

were almost pure entertainment in the popular theaters at fairs and marketplaces,

and a great variety of combinations of the two. Subsequent popular drama stressed

entertainment, from presentations in farce and folk theaters of the 18th century to

the offerings of major commercial theaters today. Much of the more serious,literary drama from the 18th century on has sought to encourage its audiences to

become better informed and more thoughtful about a range of political, social, and

moral issues. It is important to remember that drama is also an art form, and can

offer in addition to relaxing entertainment the often more demanding experience of

aesthetic pleasure. In the early 20th-century the art theater movement stressed this

purpose in particular, by presenting dramas whose primary goal was neither

conventional entertainment nor instruction but an aesthetic or artistic experience.

Audiences attend plays from a mixture of motivations, including curiosity,pleasure-seeking, and a desire for knowledge or aesthetic experience. But all of


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these experiences are intensified by the public nature of drama. Because drama is a

literary form designed for public presentation, writing about drama has often

explored how drama relates to society. Some theorists have argued that, as an art

reflecting social concerns for a group audience, drama is particularly suited to

stimulate social change. Other theorists have argued that the group orientation ofdrama means that to succeed drama can never seriously challenge the audiences

general assumptions. Even though critics disagree about drama's revolutionary

potential, most would agree that a central purpose of drama has always been to

provide a means for a society to reflect upon itself and its beliefs.

Melodrama

In musicology, work in which a spoken text is integrated with music. The

form, which began in the ancient Greek theater, became popular in the 18th

century; a notable example is The Begger's Opera by the English dramatist JohnGay. Sections of melodrama have also been incorporated in works by such

composers as Ludwig van Beethoven, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, and

Arnold Schoenberg.

By extension, the term melodrama has come to be applied to any play withromantic plot in which the author manipulates events to act on the emotions of the

audience without regard for character development or logic. Prime examples are

such works as The Stranger(1789; trans. 1798) by the German dramatist August

von Kotzebue, and the popular melodramas of the later 19th and early 20thcentury, also known as potboilers or tearjerkersworks such as Dion Boucicault's

The Octoroon (1859) or the 1853 dramatization of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novelUncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Twentieth-century melodrama includes motion pictureserials and most recently television soap operas.

Dramatic irony

In literature, a plot device in which the audience's or reader's knowledge of

events or individuals surpasses that of the characters. The words and actions of thecharacters therefore take on a different meaning for the audience or reader than

they have for the play's characters. This may happen when, for example, a

character reacts in an inappropriate or foolish way or when a character lacks self-

awareness and thus acts under false assumptions.

The device abounds in works of tragedy. In the Oedipus cycle, for example,

the audience knows that Oedipus's acts are tragic mistakes long before he

recognizes his own errors. Later writers who mastered dramatic irony include

William Shakespeare (as in Othello's trust of the treacherous Iago), Voltaire,Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Thomas Hardy, and Henry James. Dramatic irony


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can also be seen in such works as O. Henry's short story The Gift of the Magi. In

Anton Chekhov's story Lady with the Dog, an accomplished Don Juan engages

in a routine flirtation only to find himself seduced into a passionate lifelong

commitment to a woman who is no different from all the other number of women

with whom he has flirted.

Dramatic monologue

A dramatic monologue is a piece of spoken verse that offers great insight into

the feelings of the speaker. Not to be confused with a soliloquy in a play (which

the character speaking speaks to themselves), dramatic monologues suggest an

auditor or auditors. They were favoured by many poets in the Victorian period, in

which a character in fiction or in history delivers a speech explaining his or her

feelings, actions, or motives. The monologue is usually directed toward a silent

audience, with the speaker's words influenced by a critical situation. Examples of a

dramatic monologue exist in My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, when a duke

speaks to an emissary of his way, In a general way, the dramatic tradition as a

whole may have influenced the style of the monologue. Indeed, the style of the

dramatic monologue, which attempts to evoke an entire story through representing

part of it, may be called an endeavor to turn into poetry many of the distinctive

features of drama.

Features of the Dramatic Monologue

M. H. Abrams notes the following three features of the dramatic monologue:

1- A single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up

the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment [].

2- This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we

know of the auditors' presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the

discourse of the single speaker.3- The main principle controlling the poet's choice and formulation of what the

lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest,

the speaker's temperament and character.

Dramatic DevicesTerms Definitions

Contrast Alternating humor and pathos, song and dialogue, tense and

tranquil scenes.
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Irony Lines having one meaning for the audience and another for the

character to whom they are spoken.

Suspense The feeling of not knowing for sure what will happen, but anticipating

it.

Surprise Unexpected twist or turn.Soliloquy Character speaking to the world in general with no other characters in

the scene.

Aside Character speaking confidentially to the audience (often humorously) as

if other characters cannot hear what is said.

Disguise props to change the appearance of the character to fool other

characters in the play.

Pause An incident introduced just before the climax to mislead the audience.

PoeticJustice Letting the villain be punished and the hero reap reward.

A Glossary of Terms for Literary Analysis

Act: a major unit of action in a drama or play. Each act can be further divided

into smaller sections called scenes.

Allegory: a story in which people, things and actions represent an idea about life;

allegories often have a strongmoral or lesson.

Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words (tongue

twisters)

Allusion: a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history oranother work of literature. Allusions are often indirect or brief references to well-

known characters or events.

Analogy: a comparison of two or more like objects that suggests if they are alike

in certain respects, they will probably be alike in other ways as well.

Anecdote: a brief account of an interesting incident or event that usually is

intended to entertain or to make a point.

Aside: an actors speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard

by other actors on stage. An aside is used to let the audience know what a

character is about to do or what he or she is thinking.Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry.

Audience: the particular group of readers or viewers that the writer is addressing.

A writer considers his or her audience when deciding on a subject, a purpose for

writing and the tone and style in which to write.

Author: the writer of a book, article or other text.

Authors purpose: an authors purpose is his or her reason for creating a

particular work. The purpose can be to entertain, explain or inform, express an

opinion, or to persuade.

Autobiography: a form of nonfiction in which a person tells the story of his or herlife.
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Ballad: is a poem that tells a story and is meant to be sung or recited.

Biography: thestory of a persons life that is written by someone else.

Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter

Caesura: a pause or a sudden break in a line of poetry

Cause and effect: two events are related as cause and effect when one eventbrings about or causes the other. The event that happens first is the cause; the one

that follows is the effect.

Character: a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a

story, poem, or other literature. Characters are extremely important because they

are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every

character has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in

forming the plot of a story or creating a mood.

Terms Associated with Characterization:

1. Antagonist: a character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or

works against the main character, or protagonist, in some way. The antagonistdoesnt necessarily have to be a person. It could be death, the devil, an illness, or

any challenge that prevents the main character from living happily ever after."

2. Caricature: a picture or imitation of a persons habits, physical appearance

or mannerisms exaggerated in a comic or absurd way.

3. Foil: a character who serves as a contrast or a conflict to another character

4. hero/heroine: a character whose actions are inspiring or noble; often the

main character in a story.

5. Main characters: the characters who are central to the plot of a story; main

characters are usually dynamic and round.6. Minor characters: a less important character who interacts with the main

characters, helping to move the plot along and providing background for the story.

Minor characters are usually static and flat.

7. novel, play, story, or poem. He or she may also be referred to as the "hero"

of a work.

Characterization: all of the techniques that writers use to create characters.

Terms Associated with Characterization:1. Character trait: a characters personality; a trait is not a physical

description of a character.

2. Direct characterization: the author directly states a characters traits or

makes direct comments about a characters nature.

3. Dynamic character: a character who changes throughout the course of the

story.

4. Flat character: a character about whom little information is provided.

5. Indirect characterization: the author does not directly state a characters

traits; instead the reader draws conclusions and discovers a characters traits basedupon clues provided by the author.


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6. Round character: is a character who is fully described by the author

(several character traits, background information, etc.)

7. Static character: a character who does not change or who changes very

little in the course of a story.

Chronological order: the order in which events happen in time.Clarifying: the readers process of pausing occasionally while reading to quickly

review what he or she understands. By clarifying as they read, good readers are

able to draw conclusions about what is suggested but not stated directly.

Clich: a type offigurative language containing an overused expression or a

saying that is no longer considered original.

Comedy: a dramatic work that is light and often humorous in tone and usually

ends happily with a peaceful resolution of the main conflict.

Comparison: the process of identifying similarities.

Concrete poetry: a type of poetry that uses its physical or visual form to present

its message.Conflict: the tension or problem in the story; a struggle between opposing forces.

Terms Associated With Conflict:

1. Central conflict: the dominant or most important conflict in the story.

2. External conflict: the problem or struggle that exists between the main

character and an outside force. (ex: person vs. person, person vs. society, person

vs. nature, person vs. the supernatural, person vs. technology, etc.)

3. Internal conflict: the problem or struggle that takes place in the main

characters mind (person vs. self).

Connecting: a readers process of relating the content of a literary work to his orher own knowledge and experience.

Connotation: the idea and feeling associated with a word as opposed to its

dictionary definition ordenotation.

consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within a line of poetry.

Alliteration is a specific type of consonance.

Context clues: hints or suggestions that may surround unfamiliar words or

phrases and clarify their meaning.

Contrast: the process of pointing out differences between things.

Couplet: a rhymed pair of lines in a poem. One of William Shakespearestrademarks was to end a sonnet with a couplet, as in the poem Shall I Compare

Thee to a Summers Day:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long as lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Denotation: is the opposite ofconnotation in that it is the exact or dictionary

meaning of a word.

Dialect: a form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular

group of people.

Dialogue: The conversation between characters in a drama ornarrative. Adialogue occurs in most works of literature.


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Drama: a drama or play is a form of literature meant to be performed by actors

before an audience. In a drama, the characters dialogue and actions tell the story.

The written form of a play is known as a script.

Drawing conclusions: combining several pieces of information to make an

inference is called drawing a conclusion.Dramatic monologue: a literary device that is used when a character reveals his

or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course

of the story line, through a poem or a speech. This speech, where only one

character speaks, is recited while other characters are present onstage. This

monologue often comes during a climactic moment in a work and often reveals

hidden truths about a character, their history and their relationships.

Elegy: a type of literature defined as a song or poem that expresses sorrow or

lamentation, usually for one who has died.

Enjambment: in poetry, the running over of a line or thought into the next of

verseEpigram: a short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually

with witticism or sarcasm.

Epic: a long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero whose actions reflect

the ideals and values of a nation or group.

Epiphany: a sudden moment of understanding that causes a character to change or

to act in a certain way.

Epitaph: a short poem or verse written in memory of someone

Essay: a short work of nonfiction that deals with a single subject.

Various Types of Essays

1. Descriptive essay is one that describes a particular subject.

2. Expository essay is one whose purpose is to explain and give information

about a subject.

3. Formal essay is highly organized and thoroughly researched.

4. Humorous essay is one whose purpose is to amuse or entertain the reader.

5. Informal essay is lighter in tone and usually reflects the writers feelings and

personality.6. Narrative essay is an essay that tells a story.

7. Persuasive essay attempts to convince a reader to adopt a particular option

or course of action.

Evaluating: the process of judging the value of something or someone. A work

of literature can be evaluated in terms of such criteria as entertainment,

believability, originality, and emotional power.

Extended metaphor: a figure of speech that compares two essentially unlike

things in great length.

Fable: a brief tale that teaches a lesson about human nature. Fables often featureanimals as characters.


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Fact and opinion: a fact is a statement that can be proved. An opinion, in

contrast, is a statement that reflects the writers or speakers belief, but which

cannot be supported by proof or evidence.

Fantasy: a work of literature that contains at least one fantastic or unreal element.

Fiction: prose writing that tells an imaginary story. Fiction includes both shortstories and novels.

figurative languageor figure of speech: expressions that are not literally true.

see simile, metaphor, hyperbole, understatement, irony, oxymoron, clich,

metonymy

Flashback: an interruption of the chronological sequence (as in a film or literary

work) of an event of earlier occurrence. A flashback is a narrative technique that

allows a writer to present past events during current events, in order to provide

background for the current narration.

Folklore: traditions, customs and stories that are passed down within a culture.

Folklore contains various types of literature such as legends, folktales, myths, andfables.

Folktale: a simple story that has been passed from generation to generation by

word of mouth. Folktales are told primarily to entertain rather than to explain or

teach a lesson.

Foot: a unit of meter within a line of poetry

Foreshadowing: when the writer provides clues or hints that suggest or predict

future event in a story.

Free verse: poetry without regular patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Often used to

capture the sounds and rhythms of ordinary speech.Generalization: a broad statement about an entire group.

Genre: a type or category of literature. The four main literary genres include:

fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. \

Haiku: a traditional form of Japanese poetry, usually dealing with nature. A

haiku has three lines and describes a single moment, feeling or thing. The first and

third lines contain five syllables and the second line contains seven syllables.

Heroic couplet or closed couplet: acoupletconsisting of two successive rhyming

lines that contain a complete thought.

Historical fiction: fiction that explores a past time period and may containreferences to actual people and events of the past.

Horror fiction: fiction that contains mysterious and often supernatural events to

create a sense of terror.

Humor: the quality that provokes laughter or amusement. Writerscreate humor

through exaggeration, sarcasm, amusing descriptions, irony, and witty dialogue.

Hyperbole: a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or

humorous effect.
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Idiom: a phrase or expression that means something different from what the words

actually say (for example, using the phrase over his head instead of He doesnt

understand).

Imagery: the use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use

sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, andtaste.

Inference: is a logical guess based on evidence based on evidence in the text.

Interview: a meeting in which one person asks another about personal matters,

professional matters or both.

irony: a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens.

Irony spices up a literary work by adding unexpected twists and allowing the

reader to become more involved with the characters and plot.

There are many types of irony, including:

1. Verbal irony: occurs when the speaker means something totally different

than what he or she is saying and often times the opposite of what a character issaying is true.

2. Dramatic irony: occurs when facts are not known to the characters in a

work of literature but are known by the audience.

3. Cosmic irony: suggests that some unknown force brings about dire and

dreadful events.

4. Irony of situation: the difference between what is expected to happen and

the way events actually work out.

Legend: a story handed down from the past about a specific person, usually

someone of heroic accomplishments.Limerick: a short humorous poem composed of five lines that usually has the

rhyme scheme aabba, created by two rhyming couplets followed by a fifth linethat rhymes with the first couplet. A limerick typically has a sing-song rhythm.

Literal meaning: the actual meaning of a word or phrase.

Lyric: poetry: a song-like poem written mainly to express the feelings or

emotions of a single speaker.

Main idea: the most important point that a writer wishes to express.

Memoir: a specific type of autobiography; like autobiography, a memoir is about

the authors personal experiences. However, a memoir does not necessarily coverthe authors entire life.

Metaphor (met-AH-for): a type offigurative language in which a comparison is

made between two things that are essentially unalike but may have one quality in

common. Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not contain an explicit word of

comparison, such as like or as.

Meter: the regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. Although all

poems have rhythm, not all poems have regular meter. Each unit of meter is

known as a foot. The conventional symbols used to identify accented and

unaccented syllables are: / to indicate an accented syllable; and an X or asmall symbol shaped like a U to indicate an unaccented symbol. The metrical


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foot is the basic unit of meter. The most common metrical feet and their patterns

of stressed and unstressed syllables are as follows:

iamb: X /

trochee: / X

anapest: X X / dactyl: / X X

spondee: / /

pyrrhic: X X

The meter of a poem is determined by the predominant metrical foot, and by the

number of feet per line that predominates in the poem. The following terms

indicate the number of feet per line:

monometer: one foot per line

dimeter: two feet per line

trimeter: three feet per line

tetrameter: four feet per line pentameter: five feet per line

hexameter: six feet per line

heptameter: seven feet per line

octameter: eight feet per line

A poem written in predominantly iambic meter, with five feet per line, would be

called "iambic pentameter." One written in primarily trochaic meter, with four

feet per line, would be "trochaic tetrameter." One written in anapestic meter, with

three feet per line, would be "anapestic trimeter."

Metonymy: the metaphorical substitution of one word or phrase for anotherrelated word or phrase. Example: The pen is mightier than the sword. The word

pen is used in place of words and the word sword is used to represent the

idea of fighting or war.

Mood: a mood or atmosphere is the feeling that a literary work conveys to

readers. Mood is created through the use of plot, character, the authors

descriptions, etc.

Moral: a lesson that a story teaches. A moral is often stated directly at the end of

a fable.

Motif: a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. A motif mayalso be two contrasting elements in a work, such as good and evil. A motif is

important because it allows one to see main points and themes that the author is

trying to express, in order that one might be able to interpret the work more

accurately.

Motivation: the reason why a character acts, feels or thinks in a certain way.

Myth: a traditional story that attempts to explain how the world was created or

why the world is the way that it is. Myths are stories that are passed on from

generation to generation and are of unknown authorship.


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Narrative: any writing that tells a story. Most novels and short stories are placed

into the categories of first-person and third-person narratives, which are based on

who is telling the story and from what perspective.

Terms that relate to "narrative

1. Narrative poetry: poetry that tells a story. A narrative poem can come inmany forms and styles, both complex and simple, short or long, as long as it tells a

story. Like fiction, narrative poetry contains characters, settings and plots.

2. Narrator: one who tells a story; the speaker or the voice of an oral or

written work. The narrator is not usually the same person as the author. The

narrator is the direct window into a piece of work. Who the author chooses to

narrate establishes the point of view in the story.

3. Unreliable narrator: one who gives his or her own understanding of a story,

instead of the explanation and interpretation the author wishes the audience to

obtain. This type of action tends to alter the audiences opinion of the conclusion.

Nonfiction: is prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about realpeople, places, objects or events. Some examples of nonfiction include

autobiographies, newspaper articles, biographies, essays, etc.

Novel: a work offiction that is longer and more complex than a short story. In a

novel, setting, plot and characters are usually developed in great detail.

Ode: a lyric poem of some length, usually of serious or meditative nature and

having an elevated style and formal structure.

Onomatopoeia: the use of words whose sound suggest their meaning (ex. buzz,

bang, hiss).

Oral history: stories of peoples lives related by word of mouth. These historiesusually include both factual material and personal reactions.

Oxymoron: a form of figurative language combining contradictory words or

ideas (ex. jumbo shrimp, bittersweet).

Paradox: a statement that seems to contradict itself but is, nevertheless, true.

Parallelism: the use of similar grammatical constructions to express ideas that are

related or equal in importance. For example: The sun rises. The sun sets.

Paraphrasing: the restatement of a text by readers in their own words or in

another form.

Parody: a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of anauthors work for comic effect or ridicule.

Personification: a figure of speech where animals, ideas or inanimate objects are

given human characteristics.

Persuasion: persuasive writing is meant to sway readers feelings, beliefs, or

actions. Persuasion normally appeals to both the mind and the emotions of

readers.

Plot: the sequence of related events that make up a story.

Terms Associated with Plot1. Exposition: introduces the characters and the conflicts they face.


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2. Inciting incident: occurs after the exposition and introduces the central

conflict within the story.

3. Rising action: following the introduction of the central conflict;

complications arise as the characters struggle with the conflict.

4. Climax: the turning point, point of maximum interest, and highest tension inthe plot of a story, play, or film. The climax usually occurs towards the end of

story after the reader has understood the conflict and become emotionally involved

with the characters. At the climax, the conflict is resolved, and the outcome of the

plot becomes clear.

5. Falling action: the end of the central conflict in a story, when the action

starts to wind down.

6. Resolution or denouement: occurs after the climax and is where conflicts

are resolved and loose ends are tied up.

7. Subplot: an additional minor plot that involves a secondary conflict in the

story; the subplot may or may not affect the main plot.Poetry: a type of literature in which ideas and feelings are expressed in compact,

imaginative, and often musical language. Poets arrange words in ways designed to

touch readers senses, emotions, and minds. Most poems are written in lines that

may contain patterns of rhyme and rhythm. These lines may in turn be grouped in

stanzas.

Point of view: perspective from which a story is told. Understanding the point of

view used in a work is critical to understanding literature; it serves as the

instrument to relay the events of a story, and in some instances the feelings and

motives of the character(s).Terms Associated with Point of View:

1. First person point of view: the person telling the story is one of the

characters in the story. It is the I point of view. It is the most limited among the

types because the narrator can only state what he or she sees, feels, and hears. He

or she cannot go into the minds of the other characters.

2. Second person point of view: refers to the use ofyou in explanations or

arguments. It is not frequently used, but is appropriate in certain circumstances.

Most second person points of view occur within instructions that are meant to be

followed.3. Third person limited or third person objective: the person telling the

story is not one of the characters in the story. He or she is an outside observer.

The reader can only know what one character learns through interaction with other

characters or through overheard conversations. The narrator cannot supply the

thoughts or feelings of other characters in the story.

4. Third person omniscient: the narrator is not a character in the story, but the

events in the story are seen through the eyes of more than one of the characters.

The narrator is considered to be all knowing and cannot only see and hear

everything that is happening to all characters in the story, but can also enter their


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minds and tell the reader what each is thinking and feeling. This is the least limited

point of view because the narrator has knowledge of all the characters.

Predicting: the process of gathering information and combining it with the

readers own knowledge to guess what might occur in the story.

Primary source: a first hand account of an event; primary sources include:diaries, journals, letters, speeches, news stories, photographs, and pieces of art.

Propaganda: text that uses false or misleading information to present a slanted

point of view.

Prose: the ordinary form of spoken and written language; that is, language that

lacks the special features of poetry. Examples of prose include: essays, stories,

articles, speeches, etc.

Questioning: the process of raising questions while reading in an effort to

understand characters and events.

Realistic fiction: imaginative writing set in the real, modern world. The

characters act like real people who use ordinary human abilities to cope withproblems and conflicts typical of modern life.

Refrain: repetition in literature of one or more lines at regular intervals;

sometimes called the chorus.

Repetition: a technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for

effect or emphasis.

Rhyme: repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in a work.

Rhyme gives poems flow and rhythm, helping the lyricist tell a story and convey a

mood.

SomeTerms Associated with Rhyme:1. End or terminal rhymes: words that rhyme at the end of a verse-line.

2. Eye rhymes: are words that when written appear to rhyme, but when

spoken do not (ex: dog/fog, cough/enough/bough, etc).

3. Internal rhyme: rhyme found within a line of poetry (alliteration,

assonance, and consonance).

4. Slant rhyme is also known as near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme,

imperfect rhyme, oblique rhyme, or pararhyme. A distinctive system or pattern of

metrical structure and verse composition in which two words have only their final

consonant sounds and no preceding vowel or consonant sounds in common.Instead of perfect or identical sounds or rhyme, it is the repetition of near or

similar sounds or the pairing of accented and unaccented sounds that if both were

accented would be perfect rhymes (stopped and wept, parable and shell).

Alliteration, assonance, and consonance are accepted as slant rhyme due to their

usage of sound combinations (spilled and spoiled, chitter and chatter).

Rhyme scheme: the pattern of end rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by

matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhyme. The letter "a" notes the first

line, and all other lines rhyming with the first line. The first line that does not

rhyme with the first, or "a" line, and all others that rhyme with this line, is noted by


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the letter "b", and so on. The rhyme scheme may follow a fixed pattern (as in a

sonnet) or may be arranged freely according to the poet's requirements.

rhythm: refers to the pattern of flow of sounds created by the arrangement of

stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. The accented or stressed

syllables are marked with: stressed or accented syllables: /

unstressed or unaccented syllables: X or U

Sarcasm: the use of praise to mock someone or something; the use of mockery or

verbal irony

Satire: a literary technique in which ideas or customs are ridiculed for the

purpose of improving society.

Scanning: the process of searching through writing for a particular fact or piece

of information.

Scene: a section in a play presenting events that occur in one place at one time.

Science fiction: prose writing in which a writer explores unexpected possibilitiesof the past or the future by using scientific data and theories as well as his or her

imagination.

Secondary source: a secondary source presents information compiled from or

based on other sources.

Sensory details: words and phrases that help readers see, hear, taste, feel, or

smell what an author is describing.

Sequence: the order in which events occur or in which ideas are presented.

Setting: the time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a story

occurs. Settings include the background, atmosphere or environment in whichcharacters live and move, and usually include physical characteristics of the

surroundings.

Settings enables the reader to better envision how a story unfolds by relating

necessary physical details of a piece of literature.

Short story: brief work of fiction that generally focuses on one or two main

characters who face a single problem or conflict.

simile: a simile is a type offigurative language that makes a comparison between

two otherwise unlike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words "like" or

"as."Soliloquy: a speech delivered by a character who is alone on the stage.

Sonnet: a sonnet is a distinctive poetic style that uses a system or pattern of

metrical structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen lines,

arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern. There are two main styles of sonnet,

the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet.

1. The Italian orPetrarchan sonnet is usually written in iambic pentameter. It

consists first of an octave, or eight lines, which asks a question or states a problem

or proposition and follows the rhyme scheme a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. The sestet, or last

six lines, offers an answer, or a resolution to the proposed problem, and followsthe rhyme scheme c-d-e-c-d-e.


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2. In the English orShakespearean sonnet the octave and sestet were replaced

by three quatrains, each having its own independent rhyme scheme typically

rhyming every other line, and ending with a rhyme couplet. Instead of the Italianic

break between the octave and the sestet, the break comes between the twelfth and

thirteenth lines. The ending couplet is often the main thought change of the poem,and has an epigrammatic ending. It follows the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-

f-e-f, g-g.

sound devices: see alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyme and rhythm.

Speaker: the voice that talks to the reader in a poem, as the narrator does in a

work of fiction. The speaker in the poem is not necessarily the poet.

Speech: a talk given in public.

Stage directions: the instructions to the actors, director and stage crew in the

script of a play.

Stanza: a grouping of two or more lines within a poem. A stanza is comparable to

a paragraph in prose. Some common stanza forms include:

two line stanza: couplet

three line stanza: triplet or tercet

four line stanza: quatrain

five line stanza: cinquain or quintet

six line stanza: sestet or sextet

seven line stanza: septet

eight line stanza: octave

fourteen line stanza: sonnetStereotype: a broad generalization or an oversimplified view that disregards

individual differences.

Story mapping: a visual organizer that helps a reader understand a work of

literature by tracking setting, characters, events and conflicts.

Style: how a writer says something; many elements contribute to style, including

word choice, sentence length, tone and figurative language

Summarizing: the process of briefly recounting the main ideas of a piece of

writing in a persons own words, while omitting unimportant details.

Suspense: a feeling of growing tension and excitement. Writers create suspenseby raising questions in readers minds about what might happen.

symbolism: using something specific to stand for something else, especially an

idea. A symbol is a person, place, object or action that for something beyond itself.

For example, a dove may represent peace. The dove can be seen and peace cannot.

Synecdoche: a literary technique in which the whole is represented by naming one

of its parts (genus named for species), or vice versa (species named for genus).

Example: You've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels. The vehicle

here is represented by its parts, or wheels.

Tall tale: a humorously exaggerated story about impossible events.


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Theme: a common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a

literary work. A theme is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader about

life or human nature. Generally, a theme has to be extracted as the reader explores

the passages of a work. The author utilizes the characters, plot, and other literary

devices to assist the reader in this endeavor. The author often intertwines thetheme throughout the work, and the full impact is slowly realized as the reader

processes the text. The ability to recognize a theme is important because it allows

the reader to understand part of the authors purpose in writing the book.

Tone: the writers attitude or feeling about his or her subject.

Tragedy: a dramatic work that presents the downfall of a dignified character or

characters who are involved in historically or socially significant events. The

events in a tragic plot are set in motion by a decision that is often an error in

judgment. Succeeding events inevitably lead to a disastrous conclusion, usually

death.

Understatement: a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what mighthave been said; the opposite of hyperbole. Understatement is usually used for a

humorous effect.

Urban legend: a contemporary story that is told in many rumored versions that

have little basis in fact.

Voice: an author or narrators distinctive style or manner of expression. Voice can

reveal much about the author or narrators personality.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest

of all dramatists. Hundreds of editions of his plays have been published, including

translations in all major languages. Scholars have written thousands of books and

articles about his plots, characters, themes, and language. He is the most widely

quoted author in history, and his plays have probably been performed more times

than those of any other dramatist.

There is no simple explanation for Shakespeares unrivaled popularity, but he

remains our greatest entertainer and perhaps our most profound thinker. He had aremarkable knowledge of human behavior, which he was able to communicate

through his portrayal of a wide variety of characters. He was able to enter fully

into the point of view of each of his characters and to create vivid dramatic

situations in which to explore human motivations and behavior. His mastery of

poetic language and of the techniques of drama enabled him to combine these

multiple viewpoints, human motives, and actions to produce a uniquely

compelling theatrical experience.

Although the exact date of Shakespeares birth is unknown, his baptism onApril 26, 1564, was recorded in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church in


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Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, a prosperous town in the English Midlands.

Based on this record and on the fact that children in Shakespeares time were

usually baptized two or three days after birth, April 23 has traditionally been

accepted as his date of birth.

The third of eight children, William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John

Shakespeare, a locally prominent glovemaker and wool merchant, and Mary

Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do landowner in the nearby village of Wilmcote.

The young Shakespeare probably attended the Stratford grammar school, the

Kings New School, which educated the sons of Stratford citizens. The schools

rigorous curriculum was based largely on the study of Latin and the major classical

writers. Shakespeares writings show that he was well acquainted with the Latin

poet Ovid as well as other Latin works, including comedies by Terence and

Plautus, two much-admired Roman playwrights.

Shakespeare seems to have arrived in London about 1588, and by 1592 he

had attained sufficient success as an actor and a playwright to attract the venom of

an anxious rival. In his Groats Worth of Wit, English dramatist Robert Greenesneers at an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tigers heart

wrapped in a players hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank

verse as the best of you; and, being an absolute Johannes factotum [jack of all

trades], is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country. The pun on

Shakespeares name and the parody in the quotation of a line from Henry VI leave

no doubt of Greenes target. Shortly after this remark, Shakespeares firstpublications appeared.

Shakespeares poetry rather than his plays reached print first: Venus andAdonis in 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece in 1594. These two fashionably eroticnarrative poems were probably written to earn money as the theaters were closed

from the summer of 1592 to the spring of 1594 because of plague, and

Shakespeares normal source of income was thus denied him. Even so, the two

poems, along with the Sonnets, established Shakespeares reputation as a gifted

and popular poet. Shakespeare dedicated the two poems to Henry Wriothesley, 3rdearl of Southampton. Scholars disagree on whether the dedications are evidence of

a close relationship between Shakespeare and Southampton. Literary dedications

were designed to gain financial support from wealthy men interested in fostering

the arts, and it is probable that Southampton rewarded Shakespeare for his two

poems. Both poems became best-sellersThe Rape ofLucrece appearing in eighteditions by 1632, Venus and Adonis in a remarkable 16 editions by 1636and

both were widely quoted and often imitated.

The Sonnets were not published until 1609, but as early as 1598, acontemporary, Francis Meres, praised Shakespeare as a mellifluous and honey-


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tongued poet equal to the Roman Ovid, praising in particular his sugared

sonnets that were circulating among his private friends. The 154 sonnets

describe the devotion of a character, often identified as the poet himself, to a

young man whose beauty and virtue he praises and to a mysterious and faithless

dark lady with whom the poet is infatuated. The sonnets are prized for theirexploration of love in all its aspects. Sonnet 18, which begins Shall I compare

thee to a summers day, ranks among the most famous love poems of all time.

See also Shakespeares Sonnets.

Shakespeares reputation today is, however, based primarily on the 38 plays

that he wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Records of Shakespeares plays begin

to appear in 1594, when the theaters reopened with the passing of the plague that

had closed them for 21 months. In December of 1594 his play TheComedy ofErrors was performed in London during the Christmas revels at Grays Inn, one of

the London law schools. In March of the following year he received payment fortwo plays that had been performed during the Christmas holidays at the court of

Queen Elizabeth I by his theatrical company, known as the Lord Chamberlains

Men. The receipt for payment, which he signed along with two fellow actors,

reveals that he had by this time achieved a prominent place in the company. He

was already probably a so-called sharer, a position entitling him to a percentage of

the companys profits rather than merely a salary as an actor and a playwright. In

time the profits of this company and its two theaters, the Globe Theatre, which

opened in 1599, and the Blackfriars, which the company took over in 1608,

enabled Shakespeare to become a wealthy man.

It is worth noting that Shakespeares share in the acting company made him

wealthy, not any commissions or royalties from writing his plays. Playwriting was

generally poorly paid work, which involved providing scripts for the successful

theater business. His plays would have belonged to the acting company, and when

they did reach print they then belonged to the publisher. No system of royalties

existed at that time. Indeed, with the exception of the two narrative poems he

published in 1593 and 1594, Shakespeare never seems to have bothered about

publication. The plays that reached print did so without his involvement. The onlyform of publication he sought was their performance in the theater.

The theater served Shakespeares financial needs well. In 1597 he bought

New Place, a substantial three-story house in Stratford. With the opening of the

splendid Globe Theatre in 1599, Shakespeares fortunes increased and in 1602 he

bought additional property: 43 hectares (107 acres) of arable land and 8 hectares

(20 acres) of pasture north of the town of Stratford and, later that year, a cottage

facing the garden at New Place. In 1605 he bought more property in a neighboring

village. His financial activities can be traced, and his final investment is thepurchase of a house in the Blackfriars district of London in 1613.


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Shakespeare wrote nearly all of his plays from 1590 to 1611, when he retired

to New Place. A series of history plays and joyful comedies appeared throughout

the 1590s, ending withAs You Like Itand Twelfth Night. At the same time as he

was writing comedy, he also wrote nine history plays, treating the reigns ofEnglands medieval kings and exploring realities of power still relevant today. The

great tragediesincludingHamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbethwerewritten during the first decade of the 1600s. All focus on a basically decent

individual who brings about his own downfall through a tragic flaw. Scholars have

theorized about the reasons behind this change in Shakespeares vision, and the

switch from a focus on social aspects of human activity to the rending experience

of the individual. But no one knows whether events in his own life or changes in

Englands circumstances triggered the shift, or whether it was just an aesthetic

decision. Shakespeares only son, Hamnet, had died in 1596 at the age of 11, his

father died in 1601, and Englands popular monarch, Elizabeth I, died in 1603, soit is not unreasonable to think that the change in Shakespeares genre and tone

reflects some change in his own view of life prompted by these events. In his last

years working as a playwright, however, Shakespeare wrote a number of plays that

are often called romances or tragicomedies, plays in which the tragic facts of

human existence are fully acknowledged but where reassuring patterns of

reconciliation and harmony can be seen finally to shape the action.

Shakespeares plays were performed at the courts of Queen Elizabeth I and

King James I more frequently than those of any other dramatist of that time.Shakespeare risked losing royal favor only once, in 1599, when his company

performed the play of the deposing and killing of King Richard II at the request

of a group of conspirators against Elizabeth. In the subsequent inquiry,

Shakespeares company was absolved of any knowing participation in the

conspiracy. Although Shakespeares plays enjoyed great popularity with the

public, most people did not consider them literature. Plays were merely popular

entertainments, not unlike the movies today.

After about 1608 Shakespeare began to write fewer plays. For most of hisworking life he wrote at least two plays a year; by 1608 he had slowed usually to

one a year, even though the acting company continued to enjoy great success. In

1608 the Kings Men, as his company was called after King James took the throne,

began to perform at Blackfriars, an indoor theater that charged higher prices and

drew a more sophisticated audience than the outdoor Globe. An indoor theater

presented possibilities in staging and scenery that the Globe did not permit, and

these can be recognized in the late plays.

In 1613, fire destroyed the Globe Theatre during a performance ofHenry

VIII. Although the Globe was quickly rebuilt, Shakespeares association with itand probably with the companyhad ended. Around the time of the fire,


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Shakespeare retired to Stratford, where he had established his family and become a

prominent citizen. Shakespeares daughter Susanna had married John Hall, a

doctor with a thriving practice in Stratford, in 1607. His younger daughter, Judith,

married a Stratford winemaker, Thomas Quiney, in 1616.

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616the month and day traditionally

assigned to his birthand was buried in Stratfords Holy Trinity Church. He had

made his will the previous month, in perfect health and memory. The cause of

his death is not known, though a report from the Holy Trinitys vicar in the 1660s

claims that he died of a fever contracted after a night of drinking with Ben

Jonson and Michael Drayton, friends and fellow writers.

Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his daughter Susanna and the sum of

300 pounds to his daughter Judith. The only specific provision for his wife was

their second-best bed with the furniture [linens], although customary practiceallowed a widow one-third of the estate. Shakespeare also left money for the poor

of Stratford, and remembered the three surviving original members of his acting

company, Richard Burbage, John Heminges, and Henry Condell, with small grants

to buy memorial rings.

Shakespeares wife, Anne, died on August 6, 1623. She lived long enough to

see a monument to her husband erected in Holy Trinity Church, but she died just

before the publication of the First Folio of Shakespeares plays, the more lasting

monument to his memory. Soon after her death, Susanna and John Hall moved intoNew Place, where they lived until their deaths, his in 1635 and hers in 1649. Their

daughter, Elizabeth Hall, died childless in 1670. Judith Quiney had three sons, but

none lived long enough to produce heirs, and she died in 1662. Thus, by 1670, the

line of Shakespeares descendants had reached its end.

King Lear

Context

The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespearewas born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-

Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education

proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and

had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled to

London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical success quickly

followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in

England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of

Elizabeth I (ruled 15581603) and James I (ruled 16031625), and he was a

favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeares company thegreatest possible compliment by bestowing upon its members the title of Kings


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Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at

the age of fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeares death, literary luminaries such as

Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.

Shakespeares works were collected and printed in various editions in thecentury following his death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as

the greatest poet ever to write in English was well established. The unprecedented

admiration garnered by his works led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeares life,

but the dearth of biographical information has left many details of Shakespeares

personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have concluded from this fact

and from Shakespeares modest education that Shakespeares plays were actually

written by someone elseFrancis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most

popular candidatesbut support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial,

and the theory is not taken seriously by many scholars.

In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be

viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name.

The legacy of this body of work is immense. A number of Shakespeares plays

seem to have transcended even the category of brilliance, becoming so influential

as to affect profoundly the course of Western literature and culture ever after.

Shakespeare authoredKing Leararound 1605, between Othello and Macbeth,and it is usually ranked withHamletas one of Shakespeares greatest plays. The

setting ofKing Learis as far removed from Shakespeares time as the setting ofany of his other plays, dramatizing events from the eighth century b.c. But the

parallel stories of Lears and Gloucesters sufferings at the hands of their own

children reflect anxieties that would have been close to home for Shakespeares

audience. One possible event that may have influenced this play is a lawsuit that

occurred not long beforeKing Learwas written, in which the eldest of three sisterstried to have her elderly father, Sir Brian Annesley, declared insane so that she

could take control of his property. Annesleys youngest daughter, Cordell,

successfully defended her father against her sister. Another event that Shakespeare

and his audience would have been familiar with is the case of William Allen, amayor of London who was treated very poorly by his three daughters after

dividing his wealth among them. Not least among relevant developments was the

then recent transfer of power from Elizabeth I to James I, which occurred in 1603.

Elizabeth had produced no male heir, and the anxiety about who her successor

would be was fueled by fears that a dynastic struggle along the lines of the

fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses might ensue.

Elizabethan England was an extremely hierarchical society, demanding that

absolute deference be paid and respect be shown not only to the wealthy andpowerful but also to parents and the elderly.King Leardemonstrates how


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vulnerable parents and noblemen are to the depredations of unscrupulous children

and thus how fragile the fabric of Elizabethan society actually was.

Analysis of Major Characters

King LearLears basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances above

reality. He wants to be treated as a king and to enjoy the title, but he doesnt want

to fulfill a kings obligations of governing for the good of his subjects. Similarly,

his test of his daughters demonstrates that he values a flattering public display of

love over real love. He doesnt ask which of you doth love us most, but rather,

which of you shall we say doth love us most? (1.1.49). Most readers conclude

that Lear is simply blind to the truth, but Cordelia is already his favorite daughter

at the beginning of the play, so presumably he knows that she loves him the most.

Nevertheless, Lear values Goneril and Regans fawning over Cordelias sincere

sense of filial duty.An important question to ask is whether Lear develops as a characterwhether he

learns from his mistakes and becomes a better and more insightful human being. In

some ways the answer is no: he doesnt completely recover his sanity and emerge

as a better king. But his values do change over the course of the play. As he

realizes his weakness and insignificance in comparison to the awesome forces of

the natural world, he becomes a humble and caring individual. He comes to

cherish Cordelia above everything else and to place his own love for Cordelia

above every other consideration, to the point that he would rather live in prison

with her than rule as a king again.Cordelia

Cordelias chief characteristics are devotion, kindness, beauty, and honesty

honesty to a fault, perhaps. She is contrasted throughout the play with Goneril and

Regan, who are neither honest nor loving, and who manipulate their father for their

own ends. By refusing to take part in Lears love test at the beginning of the play,

Cordelia establishes herself as a repository of virtue, and the obvious authenticity

of her love for Lear makes clear the extent of the kings error in banishing her. For

most of the middle section of the play, she is offstage, but as we observe the

depredations of Goneril and Regan and watch Lears descent into madness,Cordelia is never far from the audiences thoughts, and her beauty is venerably

described in religious terms. Indeed, rumors of her return to Britain begin to

surface almost immediately, and once she lands at Dover, the action of the play

begins to move toward her, as all the characters converge on the coast. Cordelias

reunion with Lear marks the apparent restoration of order in the kingdom and the

triumph of love and forgiveness over hatred and spite. This fleeting moment of

familial happiness makes the devastating finale ofKing Learthat much morecruel, as Cordelia, the personification of kindness and virtue, becomes a literal

sacrifice to the heartlessness of an apparently unjust world.Edmund


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Of all of the plays villains, Edmund is the most complex and sympathetic. He is a

consummate schemer, a Machiavellian character eager to seize any opportunity

and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. However, his ambition is

interesting insofar as it reflects not only a thirst for land and power but also a

desire for the recognition denied to him by his status as a bastard. His serialtreachery is not merely self-interested; it is a conscious rebellion against the social

order that has denied him the same status as Gloucesters legitimate son, Edgar.

Now, gods, stand up for bastards, Edmund commands, but in fact he depends not

on divine aid but on his own initiative (1.2.22). He is the ultimate self-made man,

and he is such a cold and capable villain that it is entertaining to watch him work,

much as the audience can appreciate the clever wickedness of Iago in Othello.Only at the close of the play does Edmund show a flicker of weakness. Mortally

wounded, he sees that both Goneril and Regan have died for him, and whispers,

Yet Edmund was beloved (5.3.238). After this ambiguous statement, he seems to

repent of his villainy and admits to having ordered Cordelias death. His peculiarchange of heart, rare among Shakespearean villains, is enough to make the

audience wonder, amid the carnage, whether Edmunds villainy sprang not from

some innate cruelty but simply from a thwarted, misdirected desire for the familial

love that he witnessed around him.

Goneril and Regan

There is little good to be said for Lears older daughters, who are largely

indistinguishable in their villainy and spite. Goneril and Regan are cleveror at

least clever enough to flatter their father in the plays opening sceneand, early in

the play, their bad behavior toward Lear seems matched by his own pride andtemper. But any sympathy that the audience can muster for them evaporates

quickly, first when they turn their father out into the storm at the end of Act 2 and

then when they viciously put out Gloucesters eyes in Act 3. Goneril and Regan

are, in a sense, personifications of evilthey have no conscience, only appetite. It

is this greedy ambition that enables them to crush all opposition and make

themselves mistresses of Britain. Ultimately, however, this same appetite brings

about their undoing. Their desire for power is satisfied, but both harbor sexual

desire for Edmund, which destroys their alliance and eventually leads them to

destroy each other. Evil, the play suggests, inevitably turns in on itself.Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.Justice

King Learis a brutal play, filled with human cruelty and awful, seeminglymeaningless disasters. The plays succession of terrible events raises an obvious

question for the charactersnamely, whether there is any possibility of justice in

the world, or whether the world is fundamentally indifferent or even hostile to

humankind. Various characters offer their opinions: As flies to wanton boys arewe to the gods; / They kill us for their sport, Gloucester muses, realizing it foolish


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for humankind to assume that the natural world works in parallel with socially or

morally convenient notions of justice (4.1.3738). Edgar, on the other hand, insists

that the gods are just, believing that individuals get what they deserve (5.3.169).

But, in the end, we are left with only a terrifying uncertaintyalthough the wicked

die, the good die along with them, culminating in the awful image of Lear cradlingCordelias body in his arms. There is goodness in the world of the play, but there

is also madness and death, and it is difficult to tell which triumphs in the end.

Authority versus Chaos

King Learis about political authority as much as it is about family dynamics. Learis not only a father but also a king, and when he gives away his authority to the

unworthy and evil Goneril and Regan, he delivers not only himself and his family

but all of Britain into chaos and cruelty. As the two wicked sisters indulge their

appetite for power and Edmund begins his own ascension, the kingdom descends

into civil strife, and we realize that Lear has destroyed not only his own authority

but allauthority in Britain. The stable, hierarchal order that Lear initiallyrepresents falls apart and disorder engulfs the realm.

The failure of authority in the face of chaos recurs in Lears wanderings on the

heath during the storm. Witnessing the powerful forces of the natural world, Lear

comes to understand that he, like the rest of humankind, is insignificant in the

world. This realization proves much more important than the realization of his loss

of political control, as it compels him to re-prioritize his values and become

humble and caring. With this newfound understanding of himself, Lear hopes to be

able to confront the chaos in the political realm as well.

ReconciliationDarkness and unhappiness pervadeKing Lear, and the devastating Act 5represents one of the most tragic endings in all of literature. Nevertheless, the play

presents the central relationshipthat between Lear and Cordeliaas a dramatic

embodiment of true, self-sacrificing love. Rather than despising Lear for banishing

her, Cordelia remains devoted, even from afar, and eventually brings an army from

a foreign country to rescue him from his tormentors. Lear, meanwhile, learns a

tremendously cruel lesson in humility and eventually reaches the point where he

can reunite joyfully with Cordelia and experience the balm of her forgiving love.

Lears recognition of the error of his ways is an ingredient vital to reconciliationwith Cordelia, not because Cordelia feels wronged by him but because he has

understood the sincerity and depth of her love for him. His maturation enables him

to bring Cordelia back into his good graces, a testament to loves ability to

flourish, even if only fleetingly, amid the horror and chaos that engulf the rest of

the play.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help todevelop and inform the texts major themes.

Madness


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Insanity occupies a central place in the play and is associated with both disorder

and hidden wisdom. The Fool, who offers Lear insight in the early sections of the

play, offers his counsel in a seemingly mad babble. Later, when Lear himself goes

mad, the turmoil in his mind mirrors the chaos that has descended upon his

kingdom. At the same time, however, it also provides him with important wisdomby reducing him to his bare humanity, stripped of all royal pretensions. Lear thus

learns humility. He is joined in his real madness by Edgars feigned insanity,

which also contains nuggets of wisdom for the king to mine. Meanwhile, Edgars

time as a supposedly insane beggar hardens him and prepares him to defeat

Edmund at the close of the play.

Betrayal

Betrayals play a critical role in the play and show the workings of wickedness in

both the familial and political realmshere, brothers betray brothers and children

betray fathers. Goneril and Regans betrayal of Lear raises them to power in

Britain, where Edmund, who has betrayed both Edgar and Gloucester, joins them.However, the play suggests that betrayers inevitably turn on one another, showing

how Goneril and Regan fall out when they both become attracted to Edmund, and

how their jealousies of one another ultimately lead to mutual destruction.

Additionally, it is important to remember that the entire play is set in motion by

Lears blind, foolish betrayal of Cordelias love for him, which reinforces that at

the heart of every betrayal lies a skewed set of values.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract

ideas or concepts.The Storm

As Lear wanders about a desolate heath in Act 3, a terrible storm, strongly but

ambiguously symbolic, rages overhead. In part, the storm echoes Lears inner

turmoil and mounting madness: it is a physical, turbulent natural reflection of

Lears internal confusion. At the same time, the storm embodies the awesome

power of nature, which forces the powerless king to recognize his own mortality

and human frailty and to cultivate a sense of humility for the first time. The storm

may also symbolize some kind of divine justice, as if nature itself is angry about

the events in the play. Finally, the meteorological chaos also symbolizes thepolitical disarray that has engulfed Lears Britain.

Blindness

Gloucesters physical blindness symbolizes the metaphorical blindness that grips

both Gloucester and the plays other father figure, Lear. The parallels between the

two men are clear: both have loyal children and disloyal children, both are blind to

the truth, and both end up banishing the loyal children and making the wicked

one(s) their heir(s). Only when Gloucester has lost the use of his eyes and Lear has

gone mad does each realize his tremendous error. It is appropriate that the play

brings them together near Dover in Act 4 to commiserate about how theirblindness to the truth about their children has cost them dearly.


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William Congreve (1670-1729)

English dramatist who shaped the English comedy of manners through his

brilliant comic dialogue, his satirical portrayal of the war of the sexes, and hisironic scrutiny of the affectations of his age. His major plays were The OldBachelour(1693), The Double-Dealer(1693),Love for Love (1695), and The Wayof the World(1700).

In 1674 Congreve's father was granted a commission in the army to join the

garrison at Youghal, in Ireland. When he was transferred to Carrickfergus,

Congreve, in 1681, was sent to school at Kilkenny, the Eton of Ireland. In April

1686 he entered Trinity College, Dublin (where he received his M.A. in 1696). He

studied under the distinguished philosopher and mathematician St. George Ashe,

who also tutored his elder schoolfellow and ultimate lifelong friend JonathanSwift. It was probably during the Glorious Revolution (168889) that the family

moved to the Congreve home at Stretton in Staffordshire, Congreve's father being

made estate agent to the earl of Cork in 1690. In 1691 he was entered as a law

student at the Middle Temple. Never a serious reader in law, he published in 1692

under the pseudonym Cleophil a light but delightfully skillful near-parody of

fashionable romance, possibly drafted when he was 17,Incognita: or, Love andDuty reconcil'd. He quickly became known among men of letters, had some versesprinted in a miscellany of the same year, and became a protg of John Dryden. In

that year Dryden published his translation of the satires of Juvenal and Persius(dated 1693), in which Congreve collaborated, contributing the complimentary

poem To Mr. Dryden.

It was in March 1693 that he achieved sudden fame with the production at the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, ofThe Old Bachelour, written, he said, in 1690 toamuse himself during convalescence. Warmly heralded by Dryden, who declared

that he had never read so brilliant a first play, though it needed to be given the

fashionable Cutt of the Town, it was an enormous success, running for the then

unprecedented length of a fortnight. His next play, The Double-Dealer, played inNovember or December at Drury Lane but did not meet with the same applause (it

later became the more critically admired work, however). Its published form

contained a panegyrical introduction by Dryden.Love for Love almost repeated thesuccess of his first play. Performed in April 1695, it was the first production staged

for the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was opened after protracted

crises in the old Theatre Royal, complicated by quarrels among the actors.

Congreve became one of the managers of the new theatre, promising to provide a

new play every year.


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In 1695 he began to write his more public occasional verse, such as his

pastoral on the death of Queen Mary II and his Pindarique Ode, Humbly Offer'd

to the King on his taking Namure; and John Dennis, then a young, unsoured

critic, collecting hisLetters upon Several Occasions (published 1696), extracted

from Congreve his Letter Concerning Humour in Comedy. By this time,Congreve's position among men of letters was so well established that he was

considered worthy of one of those sinecure posts by which men of power in

government rewarded literary merit: he was made one of the five commissioners

for licensing hackney coaches, though at a reduced salary of 100 per annum.

Though Congreve signally failed to carry out his promise of writing a play a

year for the Lincoln's Inn theatre, he showed his good intentions by letting them

stage The Mourning Bride. Although it is now his least regarded drama, this

tragedy, produced early in 1697, swelled his reputation enormously and became

his most popular play. No further dramatic work appeared until March 1700, whenCongreve's masterpiece, The Way of the World, was producedwith a brilliantcastat Lincoln's Inn Fields; though it is now his only frequently revived piece, it

was a failure with the audience. This was Congreve's last attempt to write a play,

though he did not entirely desert the theatre. He wrote librettos for two operas, and

in 1704 he collaborated in translating Molire's Monsieur de Pourceaugnac forLincoln's Inn Fields. In 1705 he associated himself for a short time with the

playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh in the Queen's theatre, or Italian Opera

house, writing an epilogue to its first production. It is likely that Congreve's retreat

from the stage was partly a result of a campaign against the supposed immoralityof contemporary comedies. This attack was led most notably by Jeremy Collier,

author of the tractA Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the EnglishStage (1698), which specifically censured Congreve and Dryden, among others. Inreply, Congreve wroteAmendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations(1698).

The rest of his life he passed quietly enough, being in easy circumstances

thanks to his private income, the royalties on his plays, and his not very exacting

posts in the civil service. In 1705 he was made a commissioner for wines, a postthat he retained by virtue of Swift's good offices at the change of government in

1710 but which he relinquished in 1714 when he joined the customs service; his

position was improved at the end of 1714 with the addition of the secretaryship of

the island of Jamaica. He wrote a considerable number of poems, some of the light

social variety, some soundly scholarly translations from Homer, Juvenal, Ovid,

and Horace, and some Pindaric odes. The volume containing these odes also

comprised his timely "Discourse on the Pindarique Ode" (1706), which brought

some order to a form that had become wildly unrestrained since the days of the

poet Abraham Cowley. Congreve's friendships were numerous, warm, andconstant, as much with insignificant people, such as his early companions in


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Ireland, as with the literary figures of his time. No quarrels are attributed to him,

except for a very brief one with Jacob Tonson, a publisher. Swift, whose

friendship with him had begun in early days in Ireland, was unvarying in his

affection; for John Gay, poet and author ofThe Beggar's Opera, he was the

unreproachful man; Alexander Pope dedicated hisIliadto him; and Sir RichardSteele his edition of Joseph Addison's The Drummer. As to his relations with theother sex, his affection for Mrs. Anne Bracegirdlewho acted most of his female

leadsis well known; they were always close friends, but whether the intimacy

was of a deeper nature is undetermined. In his later years he was devotedly

attached to the second duchess of Marlborough, and it is almost certain that he was

the father of her second daughter, Lady Mary Godolphin, later duchess of Leeds.

This would account for the large legacy, of almost all his fortune, which he left to

the duchess of Marlborough. He died after a carriage accident.

Congreve's character was praised in Giles Jacob'sPoetical Register(1719),

where he is described as being so far from being puff'd up with Vanitythat heabounds with Humility and good Nature. He does not shew so much the Poet as

the Gentleman. The last phrase will serve as a comment on the notorious meeting

with Voltaire, who in 1726 had come celebrity-seeking in England and wished to

extract what he could from the great English writer of comedy. Congreve, failing,

fatigued, attacked by gout, and half-blind, did not feel equal to discussing the

minutiae of comic writing or a play he had written some 30 years earlier. He told

Voltaire that he would be delighted to talk on general subjects, on the footing of a

gentleman as he phrased it, but not on subjects of which he would be expected to

display expert critical knowledge and affect the pundit.

Congreve is the outstanding writer of the English

drama king lear and the way of the world

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