| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: LoveLink to other theme: NatureCharacter: Lear, Cordelia | “Here I disclaim all my paternal care”- Lear pg. 9 |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: LoveLink to other theme: PowerCharacter: Lear, Cordelia | “Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so// That heaven’s vault should crack” pg. 195 |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: LoveCharacter: Gloucester, Edgar, Edmond | “You know the character to be your brothers?”- Gloucester |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: LoveCharacter: Cordelia | “I cannot heave my heart into my mouth” |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: LoveCharacter: Cordelia Lit Crit | “[Cordelia’s] defeated by the genuineness of her love”- Frank Kermode |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: Anger Link to other theme: NatureCharacter: Lear | “But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter// or rather a disease that’s in my flesh” |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: BetrayalCharacter: Lear, Cordelia | “I did her wrong” |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: BetrayalCharacter: Gloucester, Edmond | “All dark and comfortless. Where’s my son Edmond?”- Gloucester |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: BetrayalCharacter: Lear | “Your kind old father, whose frank heart gave all// O, that way madness lies” |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: BetrayalLink to other theme: NatureCharacter: Edmond | “Edmond I hear you have shown your father a child-like office” pg. 63 |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: Resentment Character: Edmond, Edgar | “Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land”- Edmond |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Evil Link to other theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsCharacter: Lear, Goneril, Regan | “Is there any cause in nature that made these hard hearts?”- Lear |
| Theme: NatureCharacter: All of themLit Crit | “[Suffering] reduces humanity to a bestial condition under an apparently indifferent heaven”- Frank Kermode |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Savage CreaturesCharacter: Goneril | “Sharp-toothed… like a vulture” “wolfish visage” |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Savage CreaturesLink to other theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsCharacter: Goneril, Regan | “Tigers, not daughters”- Lear |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Savage CreaturesLink to other theme: PowerCharacter: Lear | “Come not between the dragon and his wrath” |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: The UnnaturalLit Crit | “The ending of the play is in a sense a second ending. We have already had the conventional moral ending”- Fintan O’Toole |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: The UnnaturalLink to other theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsCharacter: Gloucester, Edmond | “Loyal and natural boy”- Gloucester |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: The UnnaturalLink to other theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsCharacter: Lear, Goneril, Regan | “Unnatural hags”- Lear |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: The UnnaturalCharacter: Lear, Goneril, Regan | “Nature disclaims in thee: a tailor made thee”- Lear |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: GodsLink to other theme: PowerCharacter: Lear, Goneril | “Suspend thy power if thy didst intend to make this creature fruitful”- Lear |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: GodsLink to other theme: PowerCharacter: Edmond | “Thou nature, art my goddess to thy law my services are bound” |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Gods | “As flies to wanton boys, are we to th’ gods/ they kill us for their sport”- Gloucester |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: Men vs. Women Link to other theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsCharacter: Goneril | “I will not speak with him” |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: Men vs. WomenCharacter: Lear | “Let not women’s weapons… stain my mans cheeks” |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: Men vs. WomenCharacter: Lear, Goneril, ReganLit Crit | “They now assume the male voice, the male space Lear has abandoned”- Carol Rutter |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: Age Character: Lear | “Here I stand your slave// a poor, infirm, weak and despised old man”- Lear |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: AgeLink to other theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsCharacter: Edmond, Gloucester, Lear, Goneril, Regan | “The younger rises when the old doth fall”- Edmond |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: AgeCharacter: Lear | “Old fools are babes again” |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: IdentityCharacter: Lear | “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: IdentityCharacter: Lear | “Lear’s shadow”- Fool pg. 43 |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: IdentityLink to other theme: NatureCharacter: Lear | “I’ll resume the shape that thou dost think I have cast off forever” |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: MadnessLit Crit | “The break up of the kingdom is followed by the breakup of Lear’s mind”- Robert Rehder |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: StatusCharacter: LearLit Crit | “Shakespeare chooses the most important man in the kingdom in order to maximize the importance of the action of the play”- Robert Rehder |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: Status, Men vs. Women, AgeCharacter: LearLit Crit | “He is subordinate to no one except by his own choice and failings”- Robert Rehder |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: StatusCharacter: Lear | “Attend the Lords of France and Burgundy”- Lear’s first words |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: StatusCharacter: Lear, Kent | “Out of my sight!”- Lear |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Pathetic Fallacy of the StormCharacter: Lear | “Tempest in my mind” |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Pathetic Fallacy of the StormLink to other theme: PowerCharacter: Lear | “You cataracts and hurricanes spout” |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: Pathetic Fallacy of the StormCharacter: Lear, Gentlemen | “One minded like the storm, most unquietly” |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: BetrayalContext | It was written after the Gunpowder Plot 1604 in 1606, Edmond’s letter appears like the letter written by Guy Fawkes |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: Betrayal Context | Son vs. father conflict was seen as natural but daughter vs. father conflict was seen as unnatural |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: BetrayalContext | Recent legal case of Sir Brian Annesley whose daughters tried to have him declared insane but one, Cordell, defended him |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsSub-theme: ResentmentContext | Property was beginning to be much more important than your title |
| Theme: Parent-Child RelationshipsContext | Sir William Allen in the era popularized lurid and brutal stories of suffering |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: The UnnaturalContext | Lear messes with the natural order of succession, James I believed strongly in divine right monarchy |
| Theme: NatureSub-theme: GodsContext | By discussing paganism, Shakespeare sidesteps the fierce religious controversy of the period |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: Men vs. WomenContext | Patriarchal society but Elizabeth I proved men could rule just as well as women |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: AgeContext | Retirement was never usually considered an option by the gentry |
| Theme: PowerSub-theme: StatusContext | Direct criticism of the monarchy was not allowed which is why Shakespeare’s plays are set in the past or abroad |
A Level English King Lear Quotes
July 27, 2019