Literary Influences

King Lear

Themes in King Lear

There were various themes and motifs in King Lear which can be explored in essays. I have put some small examples by each of the smaller titles.

Blindness - Relation to King Lear and Gloucester with both their physical and metaphorical blindness.

Nothingness - Relation greatly to the characters with the referral to "nothing". Cordelia, Lear and The Fool. The Fool uses the word "nothing" often in forms of humor to ridicule the king, but he is also trying to give serious advice to Lear who has reduced his possessions to "nothing" by giving away his land, and thus his title.

Nature - the influences of the storm over Lear, and his relations with the 'gods'

Madness - King Lear's suffering "let me not be mad"

Suffering - a key element of Tragedy as discussed by Kastan, "Tragedy, for Shakespeare, is the genre of uncompensated suffering" and its presence is brought upon many characters.

Context in King Lear 

Context can come in many forms, but specific knowledge about Shakespeare himself is not extremely useful. It must be focused to the quotations or the question, some contextual points here are not overly relevant.

Based on a number of sources - previous play called King Leir, spoke fondly of his wife, and Shakespeare changed this to the character that spoke of his wife only once.

King James - Queen Elizabeth I had died, and ended the Tudor lineage, so the Scottish king had been placed on the throne of England. Many people did not like this changing of dynasty. But, a further point is that James unified the country, as opposed to King Lear's splitting of it. Shakespeare is commenting on his world, giving a warning and shows that the public should agree with James.

Old World & New World - Loyal, flawed, mysogynistic older characters VS scheming newer characters.

Machiavellian - Edmund can fit under this archetype. Machiavelli was a controversial Italian philosopher who's text was banned in Shakespeares time. He stated that you didn't have to be good or godly to be successful, but rather scheming and deviant to get to the top. Shakespeare presents.

The Fool & Cordelia

In older versions of the play, Cordelia and The Fool are often played by the same actor. Linking the two further together, especially with the removal of Cordelia.

Characters

Key characters of interest are stated below. Cordelia can be used as a way to portray innocence, King Lear as madness and justice, Edmund as suffering, and The Fool as reason.

Cordelia - Rutter (feminism) 

King Lear - Kastan (tragedy)

Edmund - Kastan (tragedy)

The Fool - Mack (visionary with Cassandra)