A brilliant resource bank of approx. 100 useful criticisms for King Lear AO5. Ensure you have a variety of critical opinions ready - so you're fully prepared to read the top level!
'King Lear' Essay Plans for Edexcel A Level English
'King Lear' Context and Critical Opinions
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A/AS Level
PEARSON (PEARSON)
English Literature 2015
Unit 1 - Drama (9ET001)
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CRITICISM BANK – KING LEAR
KING LEAR
Suffering as “unexpected, and contrasted with previous happiness and glory”
“Pity” directed to the hero – A.C. Bradley
“Tragedy with Shakespeare is concerned always with persons of a ‘high degree’” – A.C Bradley
“His fate affects the welfare of a whole nation or empire” A.C Bradley
“Madness is to some degree a punishment” – Maynard Mack
‘the excess of any passion approached madness’ – Maynard Mack
‘single figure of tragic hero and buffoon’ – Maynard Mack
“even giving his kingdom away is a selfish act” – Frank Kermode
“It might be argued that he is responsible for Goneril and Regan” - William Tamblyn
“unleashes a breakdown in the basic categories of father and daughter” Fintan O’Toole
“by nature, children are the fortress and defence of their parents” Thomas Kyd
“failure of a father’s power to command love” Coppélia Kahn
“the humiliating loss of parental authority” Stephen Greenblatt
The Love Competition as: “childish, foolish but very human” Wilson Knight
“The threefold dignity of a king, an old man, and a father is dishonoured” August Wilhelm Schlegel
“After surviving so many sufferings, Lear can only die” August Wilhelm Schlegel
“He acquires sanity via madness” Michael Billington
KENT
Lear “rejects the love of Cordelia and of Kent” – Frank Kermode
Loyalty as “basic moral category in those times” – Fintan O’Toole
Kent exhibits a “relatively simple idea of faithful service” – Fintan O’Toole
“It is true that Kent is a fatalist.” - William Tamblyn
In A1S1 he addresses: “Lear as unceremoniously as possible” Richard Strier
“Kent’s rudeness is chosen” Richard Strier
THE FOOL
‘madness has a further dimension, as insight’ Maynard Mack
Legendary figure of Cassandra – “she is doomed to know…she is doomed never to be believed” – Maynard Mack
“the Fool is taken as the chorus of the play” - William Tamblyn
“In King Lear it is the Fool who deprives majesty of its sacredness” Jan Kott
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