Multiple Viewpoints of Shakespeare’s King Lear
Shakespeare’s King Lear is a tragic about an aging King of Britain and his three daughters. When it comes time to divide his kingdom, he puts his daughters through a test to prove how much they love him. The two older daughters, Goneril and Regan, give King Lear flattering answers and therefore receive great amounts of finer land. The third and youngest daughter, Cordilia, says that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father. King Lear becomes enraged with Cordilia and disowns her and gives her no land. The rest of the play tells the story of how the two older daughters become corrupt and get greedy. King Leer is thrown out of his own house by his daughters and begins his decline into madness. This plot has lead to the development of different interpretations and versions of the play. These slants change the setting and viewpoint of the play, but not the basic plot and story line.
Shakespeare sets up King Leer as a tragedy. The play is meant to be very dramatic and done with lots of emotion. This can be seen when King Leer is having his rage with the storm as well as when he finds his daughter Cordilia dead. He begins to slip in and out of madness once again. This same drama is tried to be displayed in the slant of Shakespeare’s King Lear, King of Texas.
The director of King of Texas, Ulrich Edel, a director from Neuenburg am Rhein, Germany, has directed many movies, television shows, as well as television mini series since 1984. Ulrich Edel also has some experience with Shakespeare before. In 2002 he directed the television mini series on USA, Julius Caesar.
Ulrich Edel selects a cast that also has some excellent credentials. Patrick Stewart plays the lead of John Leer in the movie. Patrick Stewart is famous for being Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek the Next Generation, which ran from 1987-1994. Stewart also has extensive Shakespeare experience. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, to begin 27-year association. Patrick Stewart in supported by Marcia Gay Harden, Oscar-nominated for "Pollock”, Lauren Holly, and Julie Cox. All of these actors and actresses along with Ulrich Edel’s credentials bring good credibility to the movie. The movie itself was nominated and won some awards. Patrick Stewart was nominated for a ...
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... very good job of this, however many people of the audience said it helped them relate more to King Lear after watching the movie. Although the details of the movie may not have been up to par with most, it seemed to entertain and be enjoyed by the audience. King of Texas is only one viewpoint on King Lear. This version can be taken as just a movie to entertain or a slant on Shakespeare’s King Leer.
Works Cited
Halio, Jay L., ed. Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s King Lear. New York: Prentice Hall International, 1996.
“King of Texas.” Culture Vulture. September 21, 1998. 2 March 2005. http://www.culturevulture.net/Movies4/KingofTexas.htm “King of Texas.” IMBD. 2 March 2005. http://imdb.com/title/tt0282659/
“King of Texas.” American Western Magazine. 2 March 2005. http://www.readthewest.com/FilmTNTkingoftexas2002.html “King of Texas.” Amazon. 2 March 2005. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007AJFY/qid=1109863409/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-4653801-4063160?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846#product-details Quinn, Edward G., ed. William Shakespeare’s King Lear. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970.
In her article, Worthen, claims that lecturing the “old fashioned way” is the true and correct way for students to learn in a classroom environment on a higher level. She
Shakespeare, William. "King Lear: A Conflated Text." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York:
Bradley., A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
The first meeting Charity had with Harney was unexpected while working in the library. “The fact that, in discovering her, he lost the thread of his remark, did not escape her attention, and she looked down…” (Wharton3), the look that Harney gives to Charity, drew her attention on him. Harney would start off with a conservation looking for a book about the architecture of
During the exposition of Summer, Charity mostly accepts the role society imposes on her, though she occasionally reveals a hidden desire to resist this responsibility. Her considerations of North Dormer illuminate the slight tension Charity experiences between her desires and those of society. Charity frequently states that she should feel grateful for Royall’s bringing her down from the Mountain when she was a child, but consistently follows this statement with a remembrance of how North Dormer’s denizens inform her that she “ought, as Miss Hatchard had once reminded her, to remember that she had been brought down from [the Mountain] , and hold her tongue and be grateful” (Wharton 161). Rather than Charity believing in North Dormer’s supposed superiority to the Mountain, members of the community stress this idea to her. This insistence concerning North Dormer’s preferability to the Mountain cannot quell Charity’s feeling stifled by North Dormer and her inability to do as she pleases. The North Dormer Library, even as Charity’s preferred place of employment, feels like a prison cell to her. Charity depicts her entrance to the
Bevington, David, "Introduction to King Lear." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Bradley., A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
When you think about school one of the first things that pops into people’s mind is homework. Basically if you have asked your parents or your grandparents they would say that they remember the homework load. Now we all know that homework can be beneficial but also can be very unhealthy with all of the stress that it causes. Over the years the homework load has increased because of the fact that schools think that they need to try to keep up with other countries in academics. And will doing all of this homework now be all for nothing later? The homework load has increased these past couple of years and it is causing a lot of stress on kids and overall is not helping their academics in the long run.
Bullough, Geoffrey. "King Lear". Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespear. The Tragedy of King Lear. Second edition. W. W. Norton & Company. New York. London 2008.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Vol. Vol. 46. PSU- Hazleton, Hazleton, PA 18202: Electronic Classics Series, n.d. Print. Part 3 of 51.
King Lear is at once the most highly praised and intensely criticized of all Shakespeare's works. Samuel Johnson said it is "deservedly celebrated among the dramas of Shakespeare" yet at the same time he supported the changes made in the text by Tate in which Cordelia is allowed to retire with victory and felicity. "Shakespeare has suffered the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, what is yet more strange, to the faith of chronicles."1 A.C. Bradley's judgement is that King Lear is "Shakespare's greatest work, but it is not...the best of his plays."2 He would wish that "the deaths of Edmund, Goneril, Regan and Gloucester should be followed by the escape of Lear and Cordelia from death," and even goes so far as to say: "I believe Shakespeare would have ended his play thus had he taken the subject in hand a few years later...."3
King Lear as a Tragedy Caused by Arrogance, Rash Decisions and Poor Judgement of Character
Shakespeare expresses two major themes in King Lear: love and wisdom. King Lear’s struggle to recognize authentic love, love himself, and acknowledge the wisdom imparted on him, due to his weak emotional state, results in needless conflicts and the deaths of many. In the first scene of King Lear, Lear reveals his plan to split his kingdom between his daughters by asking them how much they love him. The daughter that proves she loves him the most receives the largest portion of the kingdom (1.1.46-50). Kent intends to calm Lear down, yet Lear’s unstable emotions at the time lead to him thrashing out against Kent, even threatening him.
Bengtsson, Frederick. “King Lear by William Shakespeare.” Columbia College. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.