King Lear

King Lear, in my opinion, is both mad and crazy. He turns away his beloved daughter because she refuses to flatter him and divides his land foolishly into two between his other two daughters who only flattered him to get a piece of the kingdom. He starts to come to his senses when the fool is introduced to us. The fool in King Lear is not like the typical fool in other Shakespearean books. He speaks of what he sees and tells the king honestly. Among all the other members of the King's court only the fool and Kent remain loyal to him.

King Lear's life becomes a tragedy as soon as he dismisses Cordelia. He becomes even more ignorant and his arrogance becomes even more distrubing.

Reflection on the play

The play emphasised the problems that young people face today and as a result the manyt problems that they can get themselves into if they are not helped. The play mainly focused on the character of Kayla and how she viewed everyone who was apart of her classroom. in her diary she wrote about how each one of them was special and the qualities she admired in each of them. She was considered as the quiet weird one. In the end of the play, she committed suicide as their problems became hers.

The play also focused on the misguided ones such as Leslie who was the bully of the class. She later became involved in a gang and though her attitude towards everyone was bad before it became increasingly worst. There was "chatty" one who felt that it was her right to be involved in everyone's business and to help them. But it is her "miss know it all" attitude that was her downfall.

In addition, the playwrit was able to involve the audience in every aspect. It appealed to the audience's sense of humor and sense of saddness. By the end of the play, almost everyone was either near tears or in tears.

Reflections

In the beginning, we see that King Lear is a stubborn old man who likes to be flattered. He foolishly gives his land (wealth) away to both of his disloyal daughters after the third refuses to flatter him with how much she loves him. In giving away his land he gave away his power. After Cordelia's response to his question, he disowns her. Cordelia is then approached by Burgundy who tries to save her relationship with her father but as she had none, told her that she has lost a husband as well. france then takes her hand in marriage as the queen of France and departs with her, but not before she confronts her sisters about their cruel intentions. We see King Lear's stubborn side when he refuses to Kent's reasoning. He becomes blinded by his daughter's false love.

Answers to tutorial questions

Kent and Gloucester opened the play. They were discussing Gloucester's bastard son. I dont think that Edmund felt any diferent than before. If he did feel any emotions whatsoever, it might be happiness that he now has a brother though he may be illegitimate. King Lear had plan to divide his kingdom into three between his daughters. In order for them to get a part of the kingdom they had to flatter their father with how much they love him. Goneril was the first to answer him saying that she loved him more tha words can say and more than space and liberty. Regan's response to her father's question was a little different for she claimed to have loved her father more than her sister Goneril, claiming that she came too short in her answers. Cordelia's answer however shocked her father into disbelief. When came time for her to tell her father how much she loved him her answer was "nothing". That meaning that he knew how much she loved him and she and she did not have to exprss in words how much she did. I belive that her answer was deserving and that she needed not to impress him to make her love seem insincere. Cordelia told her father that he "begot" her "bred" her and "lov'd" her and that she return all of theses back to him as are fit. She then brought uo the argument that if her sisters said that they love him, then why do they have husbands. In additon she claimed that when she got married half of her affection would be to her husband but as she would not marry all of her love belongs to her father. Corelia is in no sense of the word being cruel to her father. However i do see the point that he was trying to make, that if her sisters had to express how much they loved him then so should she: what goes for one goes for all. King Lear is furious with her response and disowns her. In doing this kent becomes furious with the King for his foolish behaviour pointing out that he was tricked by his two older daughters and their false pretense of affection towards their father.