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King Lear A02 - Language Analysis
- Context of language
- Even some of
Shakespeare's
contemporraies would
have found it difficult to
understand some of his
language because he
often used rare words
or invented new ones
and experimented with
unfamiliar syntactical
contructions
- Ben Jonson famously remarked that
Shakespeare 'wanted art' (lacked technical
skill) but this view, along with the one about
Sh being a 'natural, spontaneous writer' is
mistaken as he actually possessed a detailed
knowledge of language techniques of his own
and previous times - despite it seeming
effortless
- Even some of
Shakespeare's
contemporraies would
have found it difficult to
understand some of his
language because he
often used rare words
or invented new ones
and experimented with
unfamiliar syntactical
contructions
- In crucial moments his language
is plain and direct, expressing
profound feelings in simple words
- Lear and Cordelia's
reconciliation: 'You must not
kneel,' 'Do not laugh at me,'
'Pray you, undo this button,'
etc.
- Lear and Cordelia's
reconciliation: 'You must not
kneel,' 'Do not laugh at me,'
'Pray you, undo this button,'
etc.
- Imperatives:
- Lear's imperative style is suited to a
monarch utterly convinced that he has a
right to rule and be obeyed: His first
words are an abrupt order to Gloucester,
'Attend the lords of France and
Burgundy.' and even in madness he still
tries to cling to his power over the
elements, dictating that the storm,'Blow
winds, and crack your cheeks!'
- But by the end of
the play his
requests are polite,
'Pray you undo this
button/thank you
sir.'
- Lear's imperative style is suited to a
monarch utterly convinced that he has a
right to rule and be obeyed: His first
words are an abrupt order to Gloucester,
'Attend the lords of France and
Burgundy.' and even in madness he still
tries to cling to his power over the
elements, dictating that the storm,'Blow
winds, and crack your cheeks!'
- Religion
- It is a pagan setting, but
it is permeated by
Christian terminology
and the aspect of
characters learning
through suffering
- Examples of pagan imagery
- 'O you mighty Gods'
- Hear, nature,
hear, dear
goddess,
hear/thou
nature art my
Goddess.'
- 'O you mighty Gods'
- Examples
of
Christian
imagery
- Cordelia's language
possesses Christian
qualitiesas tolerance
and understanding:
'Goodness,' 'restore,'
'pity,' 'repair,'
'benediction.'
- Cordelia's
words in Act 4
sc 3 and 6 echo
Jesus' 'O dear
father/ it is thy
business I go
about.'
- Cordelia's language
possesses Christian
qualitiesas tolerance
and understanding:
'Goodness,' 'restore,'
'pity,' 'repair,'
'benediction.'
- It is a pagan setting, but
it is permeated by
Christian terminology
and the aspect of
characters learning
through suffering
- Imagery
- Vivid phrases
that conjure
emotionally
charged
pictures and
add to the
atmosphere of
the play
- Early critics such as
John Dryden felt
that many images
obscured meaning
but more recently
modern critics have
appreciated Sh's
imagery,
recognising that it
stirs the reader's
imagination and
deepens dramatic
impact
- Metaphor - a comparison,
suggesting two dissimilar
things are actually the same
'Thou art a boil/a
plague-sore'
- Simile -
compares one
thing to another
'They flattered
me like a dog.'
- Personification
gives many objects
feelings or
attributes 'Thou,
Nature, art my
goddess.' - makes
it seem more
powerful too
- Recurring
imagery
- Sight and Blindness -
'Out of my sight!(L),' 'See
better Lear(K),' 'Pluck out
his eyes(Corn),' 'I
stumbled when I saw(Gl).'
- Animal imagery - Likens
daughter's cruelty and
ingratitude to beasts 'How
sharper than a serpent's tooth,'
and 'pelican daughters' feeding
on flesh and blood.' Oswald is a
'whoreson dog,' Gloucester's
description of people 'as flies
/they (Gods) kill us for sport,'
reduces humans to
insignificance
- Disease and pain
- Political and moral
disruptions are reflected
in images of suffering
- Lear's madness
and Gloucester's
blinding are
parallel examples
of mental and
physical
suffering
- Language studded with sickness
,'pestilent gall to me,' thou art a boil...'
- yet this is contrasted with language
of healing from Cordelia 'restoration
hang/thy medicine on my lips.'
- Political and moral
disruptions are reflected
in images of suffering
- Sight and Blindness -
'Out of my sight!(L),' 'See
better Lear(K),' 'Pluck out
his eyes(Corn),' 'I
stumbled when I saw(Gl).'
- Vivid phrases
that conjure
emotionally
charged
pictures and
add to the
atmosphere of
the play
- Antithesis
- Setting of
word/phrase
against
word/phrase
e.g. 'So young
and so
untender?'
- One of Sh's
fave
language
devices
- As it powerfully
expresses conflict
through use of
opposites - 'conflict is
the essence of all
drama' Gibson
- As it powerfully
expresses conflict
through use of
opposites - 'conflict is
the essence of all
drama' Gibson
- Examples: Father against
daughter(s), son against father,
brother against brother, sister
against sister, good vs evil, sight vs
blindess, natural against
unnatural and division of kingdom
- Gloucester 1.2 'This villain of
mine comes under the
prediction: there's son
against father. The king falls
from bias of nature, there's
father against child.'
- Gloucester 1.2 'This villain of
mine comes under the
prediction: there's son
against father. The king falls
from bias of nature, there's
father against child.'
- Setting of
word/phrase
against
word/phrase
e.g. 'So young
and so
untender?'
- Verse and prose
- 3/4 of play in verse
(High status
characters) and 1/4
Prose (Low status and
comic)
- Shakespeare often
contradicts this
rule: even though
King Lear is King
when talking with
fool, Poor Tom and
Gl he uses prose
- Could suggest Lear
realises his common
humanity with those
who are most wretched
'Is ma no more than
this? Consider him well.
Unaccommodated man
is no more but such a
poor, bare, forked
animal as thou art.'
- Could suggest Lear
realises his common
humanity with those
who are most wretched
'Is ma no more than
this? Consider him well.
Unaccommodated man
is no more but such a
poor, bare, forked
animal as thou art.'
- Iambic pentameter is more experimental in his
later work of Lear than in Richard III - less end
stopping and more enjambment and five-beat
metre less rigid. This may be to express more
fractured emotions or increase dramatic intensity
- 3/4 of play in verse
(High status
characters) and 1/4
Prose (Low status and
comic)
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