The Wandering of King Lear’s Mother
After he experiences all kinds of humiliation done by Goneril, and finds his
messenger Kent in the stocks, King Lear, in Act 2 Scene 4, conjures up the “mother”
to express his outburst of rage and physical symptom sensations:
O! how this mother swells up toward my heart;
Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow!
Thy element’s below. Where is this daughter? (II.iv.56-58)
Who is this “mother”? Or what is this “mother”? As many critics have
identified, this “mother” is another name for the womb, matrix, or uterus. That the
“mother swells up” points to the disease called hysteria. Yet, who is responsible for
the rise or wandering of Lear’s “mother”? Does Lear experience some sort of
gender confusion by conjuring up the “mother”? As Janet Adelman keenly points
out, “The bizarreness of these lines has not always been appreciated; in them Lear
quite literally acknowledges the presence of the sulphurous pit within him” (114).
But still why do we want to focus on this “mother” after all? One thing is certain
that the (m)othering of the “mother” is overwhelmingly sophisticated, to the extent
that the “mother” is located in the inside of Lear’s body and her implicated
wanderings can be traced throughout the whole play. For our purpose, the “mother”
holds significant clues to our interpretive enterprise and her (m)othering must be
handled with extreme care.
1. Introduction
In Renaissance England, medical interest in hysteria dates from Edward Jorden’s
publication of A Briefe Discourse of a Disease called the Suffocation of the Mother
(1603). The title of the book suggests the disease called the “m...
... middle of paper ...
... to bolster up male identity.
Works Cited
Adelman, Janet. Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in
Shakespeare’s Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Camden, Carroll. “The Suffocation of The Mother.” Modern Language Notes,
63.6 (June., 1948), 390-393.
Jorden, Edward. A Briefe Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the
Mother (London 1603). In Witchcraft and Hysteria in Elizabethan London.
Ed. & introd. Michael MacDonald. London: Tavistock/Routledge, 1991.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. The Arden Shakespeare. Ed. Kenneth Muir.
London: Methuen, 1972.
Notes
1 As Carroll Camden argues, “Apparently a male who presented choking as a nervous symptom was,
by analogy, said to be suffering from the same disease” (393). Carroll Camden, Modern Language
Notes (June 1948).
Even though internal controls do not always work, every entity that has workers should have internal controls. Internal controls protect entities from dishonest workers. Internal controls are a series of checks and balances. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was needed to gain control of accounting improprieties. Dishonest accounting has cost company employees millions of dollars in retirement funds. It has also cost investors millions of dollars.
...ly. It’s not Gardner’s goal to take over the education system and have it all reformed, but he does want educators to rethink their everyday lessons and see if they can improve them using his theory in order to broaden the comprehension of ideas to all students. Now all our society has to do is learn how to use this theory as an advantage and put all the intelligences to work. Gardner has started this concept of multiple intelligences but no one knows where it will end and what other implications it will have along the way.
Rush, Benjamin. Medical Inquiries and Observations, upon the Diseases of the Mind. Diss. Philadelphia: Kimber and Richardson, 1812. Print.
In Shakespeare story King Lear, two of the women were portrayed as emasculating and disloyal while the third was honest and truthful. Showing, that most women who have power can’t be trusted. The story told of a king named Lear who had three daughters named Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. Lear had given his two oldest daughters Goneril, and Regan a piece of land even though they had lied to their father telling him feelings that they didn’t really have. Then there was his youngest daughter she was as honest and truthful as any other child could be.
Shaw, A.B. "Depressive Illness Delayed Hamlets Revenge." Medical Humanities 28.2 (2002): 92+. Academic Onefile. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
The point of departure of Lear into the unknown of existence is seen when he plunges himself into the harshness and relentlessness of nature. While immersed in the storm, Lear has been reduced to the bare essentials of man, he has lost those that he perceived as loving, and despite being accompanied by the Fool and Kent, Lear is more alone than he has ever been. The daughters he thought who loved him abandoned him and have taken his kingdom. The daughter who truly loved him was banished by his irrationality; Lear is alone. The presence of the Fool and Edgar should not necessarily be looked upon as that of a companion, but rather as catalyst for Lear’s progression. As for Kent, his presence is barely felt by Lear. Lear’s isolation is critical for his progression. Similar to Sartre’s Roquentin in Nausea, isolation and loneliness are the foundations for becoming existentially aware. “The tempest in my mind/ Doth from my senses take all feeling else”(III, iv 13-14)[1] Lear is completely alone in the universe, abandoned by love and cloistered from all outside emotion; he is now prepared to perceive the realit...
Fate in King Lear & nbsp; "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will. I will be able to do so. " These words from Hamlet are echoed, even more pessimistically, in Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of King Lear, Gloucester. Like flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport". In Lear, the characters are subjected to the various tragedies of life over and over again. & nbsp; An abundance of cyclic imagery in Lear shows that good people are.
King Lear is a play about a tragic hero, by the name of King Lear, whose flaws get the best of him. A tragic hero must possess three qualities. The first is they must have power, in other words, a leader. King Lear has the highest rank of any leader. He is a king. The next quality is they must have a tragic flaw, and King Lear has several of those. Finally, they must experience a downfall. Lear's realization of his mistakes is more than a downfall. It is a tragedy. Lear is a tragic hero because he has those three qualities. His flaws are his arrogance, his ignorance, and his misjudgments, each contributing to the other.
Research shows that the U.S. hosts the highest incarceration rate among all nations in the world with 40 percent of the arrested inmates having been convicted for non-violent drug crimes. The federal government has spent billions for drug control while only a pi...
Although the Fool and Cordelia are similarly candid towards their King, they never interact in Shakespeare’s King Lear, because the Fool is a chaotic influence while Cordelia is a stabilizing force. While the Fool and Cordelia both act in the Lear’s best interest, it is not always evident to Lear. The Fool’s actions often anger the King, and lead to an increase in his madness. On the other hand, Cordelia’s actions more often soothe Lear, and coax him back into sanity. Another commonality between the Fool and Cordelia is their honesty. Both the Fool and Cordelia are frank with Lear, though he may not always appreciate that they do so for his own good.
“Drug use is associated with an outstanding 20-40 percent of criminal activity in the U.S. today” (Keene, 2005, p.3). The use of illicit drugs can almost always be considered when discussing property crime, theft, burglary, murder, rape, aggravated assault, etc. There is a significant relationship between drug abuse, of both legal and illegal substances, and the effects it has on crime. The major correlations between drugs and crime portray primarily in heroin, cocaine, pcp (Phencyclidine), and opiates. However, alcohol even though it is legal, has an impact on crime more than most people realize. Ordinarily much prevention to include the increase in rehabilitation centers, heightened levels of law enforcement, stricter laws, and the legalization of illicit drugs may be tactics to limit drug use and crime.
After Kent delightfully brings the two together and Lear realizes who he is talking to, he begs for forgiveness: “Pray, do not mock me. / I am a very foolish fond old man, / Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less /....Do not laugh at me, / For as I am a man, I think this lady / To be my child Cordelia.“ (IV.vii.68-79). Lear has finally achieved self-awareness regarding his mistaken banishment of Cordelia, and proclaims to her in a surprising display of humility that he is just a “foolish fond old man.” Shocking the audience, Lear does not hold back his newfound sense of shame. He goes on: “Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not. If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me, for your sisters Have, as I do remember, done me wrong. You have some cause; they have not.” (IV.vii.81-85). In another case of both humility and misjudgment, Lear believes that Cordelia no longer loves him due to his mistakes. Lear could not be more wrong because Cordelia 's love for her father is unconditional and still lives. Cordelia virtuously accepts his apology and assures him “No, sir, you must not kneel,” (IV.vii.67). Although the two do not live much longer, Lear intends to live out the rest of their lives being the best a father can
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
William Shakespeare’s tragic play King Lear is a well-plotted play about obsession of power and land, blindness, and sacrifices for the restoration of the kingdom. King Lear has split his three kingdoms amongst his three daughters; Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, however, Cordelia refused his offer and she spoke the truth and Lear has disowned her. Lear blindly trusted the two daughters but Cordelia. However, this character Cordelia is a significant character through the play, her name means the "heavenly queen" and the word "heart". This character also shows how she can be a Christ-like figure. Cordelia can be a Christ-like figure through her actions, suffering and her righteous path. Furthermore, this significant character shows that she is similar to Christ through her actions and righteous acts.
When Kent tries to confront lear about the mistake he is making about his daughters lear refuses to listen to Kent because he is still heated towards Kent while Kent being his devoted follower tries to tell lear that cordelia is the honest of his daughters. Lear still refuses to listen because of his pride as a king he won’t change his mind and is dead sure that he is right and everyone else is wrong about this opinion of his daughters betraying him and only loving him for his land and possessions like Reagan and goneril do.