РефератыИностранный языкAnAn Argument To Support The View That

An Argument To Support The View That

‘everything About The Pl Essay, Research Paper


An argument to support the view that “everything


about the play [King Lear] hangs on the first two scenes not


just the plot but the values as well.”


“King Lear, as I see it, confronts the perplexity and mystery of human


action.” (Shakespeare’s Middle Tragedies, 169) As the previous quotation


from the scriptures of Maynard Mack implies, King Lear is a very complex


and intricate play which happens to be surrounded by a lot of debate. “The


folio of 1623, which was, as is well known, edited by two of Shakespeare’s


fellow actors” (Notes and Essays on Shakespeare, 242), contains not only


historical errors, but errors which pertain to certain characters speaking other


characters lines. Amidst all the controversy one fact can be settled upon by


all; King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s best tragedies. While being a great


play, the bulk of the plot in King Lear comes mainly from the first two scenes


where most of the key events happen. Along with the plot there is also


extensive amounts of setup that occur within the dialogue which key the


audience in on the morals and values of the characters. Marilyn French is


completely accurate when she states that “Everything about the play hangs on


the first two scenes not just the plot but the values as well” (Shakespeare’s


Division of Experience, 226).


The opening scenes of King Lear do an immaculate job of setting up


the plot and forming the basis for all the events which occur in the later


scenes of the play. “The elements of that opening scene are worth pausing


over, because they seem to have been selected to bring before us precisely


such an impression of unpredictable effects lying coiled and waiting in an


apparently innocuous posture of affairs.” (Shakespeare’s Middle Tragedies,


170) Not only do the opening scenes impress upon us what events could


happen in the future, they seem to give us the whole plot in a neatly wrapped


package. After the first two scenes are over the audience is basically just


along for the ride, waiting to see how the events given to us in the opening


scenes unfold. “As we look back over the first scene, we may wonder


whether the gist of the whole matter has not been placed before us, in the


play’s own emblematic terms, by Gloucester, Kent, and Edmund in that brief


conversation with which the tragedy begins.” (Shakespeare’s Middle


Tragedies, 171) In the first scene Lear, having realized that death is closing


in on him, decides to divide his land between his daughters. This is one of


the most pivotal points in the play as the effects of this action are enormous.


Lear ends up casting aside Cordelia, who is the only daughter he has who


truly loves him, and gives all his land to his other two, power hungry,


daughters. The other pivotal point in the first scene which has a huge affect


on the rest of the play is the inclusion of the talk about Edmund. Edmund


realizes that, due to his illegitimacy, he can never amount to anything. “The


first action alluded to is the old king’s action in dividing his kingdom, the dire


effects of which we are almost instantly to see. The other action is


Gloucester’s action in begetting a bastard son, and the dire effects of this will


also speedily be known.” (Shakespeare’s Middle Tragedies, 171) The


consequences of these two actions are what the whole play revolves around.


The division of Lear’s kingdom causes Reagan and Goneril to realize that


“Lear had lived long, but he had not learned wisdom.” (Notes and Essays on


Shakespeare, 262) As they begin to realize just how easy they can take


advantage of him, Lear begins to see this as well and is furious, at first, then


his madness starts to set in. Gloucester’s bastard son, Edmund, plays a very


important role in the plot of the play as well. His struggle for power and


notoriety causes much havoc throughout the play. He deceives both his


brother and his father just so that he can advance his title. While the extreme


outcomes of the two actions noted are not known until after the first two


scenes of the play, they are the two most important pieces of plot information


that are given throughout the length of the play. The fact that the two most


important pieces of plot information are structuralized in the two opening


scenes of the play add a profound amount of credit towards Marilyn French’s


opinion that everything about the play hangs on the first two scenes.


The plot of King Lear is not the only part of the play that rests on the


first two scenes. An enormous amount of the dialogue is specifically used to


reveal the values and morals of each char

acter. It is very important to know


the values that each character has in order to have a greater understanding of


why the play unfolds the way it does. For example, it would be hard to


believe that Goneril and Reagan could be so contemptible to their own father,


without the incident in the first scene where both Goneril and Reagan show


that they are morally corrupt, by making exaggerated claims of love and


devotion to their father. The first scene plays a huge role in disclosing the


views of Lear, Goneril, Reagan, and Cordelia while the second scene exposes


Edmund for what he really is. The views of King Lear himself are more


apparent in the first scene than the views of any other character. When the


play starts out, Lear is very much in control of his kingdom “but the very first


scene gives us a hint of how Lear is going to lose contact with his natural


relation to his environment.” (The Development of Shakespeare’s Imagery,


134) Armed with the foreknowledge that Lear is self-destructing it becomes


easier to understand why he would make such obviously rash decisions.


Along with his rashness, it is shown that Lear asks questions, only willing to


receive the response he wants. When Lear asks Cordelia “what can you say


to draw / A third more opulent than your sisters?” and she replies “Nothing,


my lord.” He inevitably becomes enraged and disowns her simply because


her answer to his question was far from what he had expected to hear. “Lear


determines in advance the answers he will receive; he fails to adapt himself to


the person with whom he is speaking. Hence his complete and almost


incomprehensible misunderstanding of Cordelia.” (The Development of


Shakespeare’s Imagery, 134) Lear’s values permit him only to see one side


of every situation, which is his side. This trait of Lear’s is what causes the


onset of his madness and is thus a very important part of his psyche to


consider. Since Lear feels that he has to be in control of every situation,


when the time finally comes that he realizes he no longer has control of


anything, he snaps. “More and more Lear loses contact with the outside


world; words become for him less a means of communication with others


than a means of expression of what goes on within himself.” (The


development of Shakespeare’s Imagery, 134) While it can be shown that


Lear’s values are what eventually drive him to the verge insanity and beyond,


the first scene does more than outline Lear’s values. As discussed earlier, the


first scene also brings to light the underlying values and immorality in both


Reagan’s and Goneril’s personality. Another important set of values that is


expressed in the first scene is that of Cordelia’s. By not trying to outdo her


sisters outlandish proclamations of love she shows that she truly loves her


father and that she values her love for her father more than anything. This


value that is expressed in the first scene of play becomes very important when


she accepts her father without condition at the end of the play regardless of


the fact that he was so uncaring towards her.


Shakespeare has, without a doubt, written some of the most powerful


plays ever to grace the stage of a theatre. King Lear is no exception. At first


glance, the play seems to be completely ridiculous, in that no human beings


would possibly act the way the characters in King Lear act but there is more


to be offered by the collection of eclectic characters than can be seen at first


glance. The first two scenes offer a great insight into the characters


behaviour by revealing their values through carefully crafted dialogue. Aside


from showing the true colors of the characters, the opening scenes serve to


create an atmosphere for the plot to be outlined in great detail without giving


away how it will unfold. The first two scenes of King Lear are pivotal in


influencing every aspect of the play including the plot, and the values of the


characters contained within the plot.


63d


Clemen, Wolfgang. The Development of Shakespeare’s Imagery. New York,


NY, USA: Methuen & Co. 1977.


French, Marilyn. Shakespeare’s Division of Experience. New York: Summit


Books. 1981.


Hales, John. Notes and Essays on Shakespeare. New York, NY, USA: AMS


Press. 1973.


Lerner, Laurence. Shakespeare’s Tragedies. Middlesex, England: Penguin


Books Ltd. 1964.


Shakespeare, William. King Lear. As reprinted in Elements of Literature.


Toronto: Oxford University Press. 1990.


Young, David. Shakespeare’s Middle Tragedies – A Collection of Critical


Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1993.

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