PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM OF KING LEAR PPT

In undertaking a psychoanalytical approach to King Lear, this paper treads in the footsteps of Freud in his 'The Theme of the Three Caskets.' Clearly early Jacobean society was very different from our own; expectations of patriarchy and the place of daughters was only partly covered by the image of the now dead Virgin Queen Elizabeth. One theory alone will not be enough to explain the complexities of the text and modern ideas such as historicism and feminism are also shown to bring new insights, even though they are insights the playwright themselves may not have understood.

While King Lear is thought to be one of Shakespeare's more difficult works, the play is accessible to advanced high school students and certainly to most college students. The topics of (1) natural, (2) unnatural, (3) self-knowledge, (4) public perception, (5) written words, and (6) spoken words are accessible to both levels of student. Whether we can express our opinions or not, each of us has a basic belief about each of those topics. Sometimes the feeling is innate and inexpressible. Shakespeare questions this feeling and shows his Elizabethan audience what can happen if accepted belief is challenged. He turns events on their ear and plays out a tragedy that speaks as eloquently today as it did more than three centuries ago.

Human frailty is concerned with the new aspirations that appeared during the Renaissance that often showed how an individual was shaped by his weakness such as uncontrolled ambition, passion and a limitless need to know, to rule, to have revenge and to love. Such ideas occupied the minds of many playwrights at that time. This paper is mainly concerned with the treatment of these ideas in William Shakespeare?s King Lear, chosen because this play represents the emergence of human weakness during that conflicting period leading man to his downfall, the embodiment of tyrannical power, King Lear, is a tragedy of a protagonist who falls because of his weakness. In King Lear, the main idea is how a man of a royal position foolishly wastes. And the tragedy of a king who over trusted his daughters as he divides his own kingdom. He has doomed accordingly.

This academic essay explores the Shakespearean's King Lear fool through a psychological lens. With the wisdom of the Bible, the antiquity and mysticism of Tarot cards, and comparison to other Shakespearean fools, I seek to prove that the archetypal fool is in fact the wisest character and embodies the multifaceted wisdom and knowledge of humanity.

This paper has been written to unveil the moral blindness of king Lear and the aftermath of blind judgement towards Cordelia, thereforeLear has gone through the phase of madness. In the play King Lear, moral blindness has been considered as the metaphorical blindness. Lear's blind love for Cordelia forcedhim to set up the love test. He was so sure about his younger daughter's declaration of love for him in a flattering way. But Cordelia did expressthe love for her father in a simple and lucid manner. It was the king who became blind morally after he disowned Cordelia, his youngest daughter. Without any hesitation Lear has banished Cordelia. However Kent advised Lear to reconsider his rash action and told him to see better. Instead of taking the good daughter, Lear took his evil minded daughters based on their spurious praiseworthy words to him. Besides the blindness of King Learwe have seen another example of moral and physical blindness through the character Gloucester. As ...

The Creative Launcher, 2024

William Shakespeare's much celebrated play King Lear (1606) deals with socio-political themes revolving around the protagonist Lear who divided his fortunes between his daughters on the basis of their flattery. King Lear is a play which is political in nature and the politics of it lie not only on the kingly position of Lear but also on his role as a father. The play depicts the picture of a state where social, domestic, and filial order has fallen down. The daughters of the old man Lear betray him. The reasons behind their betrayal are significant to explore. For Lear his two daughters’ betrayal lies in their lack of consideration for their father and lust for his money which they have already got, making Lear just a useless man to them now. But on the other hand, Edmund’s betrayal to his father raises questions on the hypocrisy of the social orders of the society which have kept him marginalized because of his status as an illegitimate child in the society. The paper attempts to explore the idea of social order being subverted by bringing forth two of the often-overlooked factors which are extremely crucial in driving the plot of the play. The study ventures into this field through the lenses of marginalized characters of Lear and Gloucester who are betrayed by their children and brings another perspective to this argument by bringing forth the conflicted position of Edmund who has been a victim of his father’s wrong doings. The study primarily uses close reading and textual analysis and theoretically uses Gerontological studies in the socio-political background of Shakespeare’s time and takes it further by examining its traces in the contemporary social scenarios.

isara solutions, 2020

The paper provides an insight in the retrogression of the protagonist King Lear from the play King Lear written by Shakespeare. It deals with a critical analysis of the evolution of madness or as we say insanity that the character occupies in the play. We begin with a concise diegesis of the plot line and how things transpire for the protagonist King Lear followed by detailed analysis of the instances that lead us to conclude that King Lear is a veritable example of “Reason in madness and madness in reason” as asserted by Shakespeare himself to be the leitmotif of the play. The discussion is centralised on Lear and his actions along with multiple lines and quotes from the actual play. We endeavour to prove our point that indeed it was King Lear only who because of his arrogance driven insanity led himself and his kingdom to ruins. Insanity is a recurring thread in the play and is associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. Even the advise provided by few wise characters in the play seem mad babble rather a sage counsel. In the latter parts of the play when lear descends into madness, his turmoil and mind reflect the chaos that unfurls across the kingdom, which was once his. It’s only when he has lost all sane thought that he learns to be humble.

Shakespeare Illuinations, 1998

The accurate performance of Shakespeare’s script of King Lear as written requires the presence of true comedy almost throughout: that the Fool be funny, not a solemn, sententious chorus; that Edmund’s black humor glitter to his death; that at least until the final scene Lear himself should achieve more and more witty, satirical, and paradoxical insights – transcending his own subjective misery by sharing in proletarian ridicule of the hypocritical establishment of which he was once the head. Indeed, it is Lear who helps the audience to transcend the overpowering suffering which is supposed to be the hallmark of the play, recurrently reversing the audience’s mood, achieving wonder and delight at these unexpected changes of tone.