Dramatic irony, caesura, enjambment & Rhyming couplets King Lear

WHo GOES THERE-Dramatic Irony-Gloucester is blind to the fact that Edmund is there in disguise “Who’s there” “what, hath your grace no better company”
Base-Caesura -The consonant pauses and question in Edmund’s soliloquy almost present a franticness and even sadness to his tone, in the constant pauses and questioning, he is distressed and upset about his fortune. “Why brand us with base? With baseness, bastardy? Base, Base?”
Great wheel runs down…-Enjambment-The enjambment offers an auditory version of what the Fool is saying through the echoing and constant nature of the sentence, symbolic of the wheel. “Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs lest it break thy neck with following it, but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after”
Time shall unfold…-Rhyming couplet -Makes a point that the sisters will bring sorrow and adds a tone of finality as if this is destined to happen “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides, who covert faults at last with shame derides”
Vengeance overtake…-Dramatic Irony-Ironic: The audience know that Gloucester will never see anything again. “I shall see the winged vengeance overtake such children”
Here i stand…-Caesura-The use of listing and caesura draws attention to the words he uses to describe himself; Lear is fully aware of what he has become.-Self-fulfilling prophecy “Here i stand your slave, a poor, infirm, weak and despised old man”
No you unnatural…-Enjambment -The contrast between caesura and enjambment eludes to how uncontrollable Lears rage is, in not being able to stop his insults, he almost runs out of breath. “No, you unnatural hags I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall- I will do such things-“
land for wit not birth-Rhyming couplet-The use of Rhyme highlights Edmund’s sinister plan and adds a sense of finality as if this is destined to be. “Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me’s meet that i can fashion fit”
Outlawed from my blood…-Caesura -The constant breaks in the phrase makes Gloucester’s speech sounds very disjointed to the audience. Perhaps symbolizing the breaking down of his family, and foreshadowing the eventual disintegration of all he knows. “I had a son, Now outlawed from my blood; he sought my life, But lately, very late. I loved him friend”
But yet i call you…-Enjambment-Notable whenever Lear directly mentions his two daughters, enjambment presenting the anger and hatred he fees towards them is unstoppable and often riddled with caesura. “But yet I call you, servile ministers, that will with two pernicious daughters join Your high-engendered battles ‘gainst a head so old and white as this”
July 18, 2019