King Lear Journal #4: Response to passage

"This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me

That which my father loses -- no less than all.

The younger rises when the old doth fall." (3.3.23-25)

On their own, the lines mean:

It seems fair that I will get what my father loses

I'll get all of it because when the old begin to fall, the young begin to rise.

Within the context of the scene:

Gloucester hears that the French troops have already landed and he wants to help King Lear, even though it is forbidden and should not be spoken of. Edmund feels that a lot about Gloucester will eventually be revealed and as a result, he will receive all that Gloucester will end up losing. If Gloucester's power suffers, Edmund is able to benefit.

Connection to other parts of the play and/or major ideas in the play:

These particular lines especially reveal the cunning, deceitful mind that Edmund has. He only has his wants and needs in mind and does not truly care about his father's interests. He is mostly focused and stuck on revenge for what he was born into. He resents the fact that he is an illegitimate child and still is unable to move on from that detail. It again relates to the motif/theme of deception and how the characters can manipulate others because they have their own interests in mind.

My response to the lines:

I feel like Edmund does not truly deserve all that he thinks he does because he is so insincere. He is a selfish, greedy character and it shows that you cannot always trust everyone because there may be some motive that we are unaware of. He thinks that the only way for him to improve status-wise is if his family members suffer and that just reveals his true intentions of bringing others down so he can thrive.

King Lear Journal #3: Two passages that connect to what I'm tracking

I am tracking the reactions that characters have to certain situations and taking note of the kinds of things they do in response.

Edmund is fed up with the fact that he is an illegitimate child when his brother, Edgar, is legitimate. Because of his resentment of his current situation, he plots against his brother and is able to convince Gloucester, their father, that Edgar is trying to gain the estate. After many more of Edmund's lies, Gloucester responds by saying, "Let him fly far!/Not in this land shall he remain uncaught,/ and found-dispatch" (Shakespeare 66-68). I chose this passage because it definitely reveals the extreme reactions that Gloucester had in response to (the thought of) Edgar gaining the estate. It is unfortunate that Gloucester would jump to such quick conclusions because the information he has been given is not necessarily the truth. He is easily persuaded and this just helps to reveal the manipulation of the other characters that can take place.

Another passage that supports what I am tracking is seen when Kent speaks up against Cordelia's being disowned. Kent tries to inform King Lear that he is being irrational, but Lear's reply is, "Hear me, recreant; [...] That thou hast sought to make us break our vows--/Which we durst never yet--and with strained pride to come betwixt our sentence and our power" (Shakespeare 191-194). I chose this passage because Lear's temperamental reaction here shows that he really was not thinking rationally and he definitely allowed his emotions to take over. He, along with Gloucester, felt that his power was being threatened and as a result he took extreme actions.

It is interesting to me that Lear's reaction was a result of Cordelia's honesty with him in saying that she did love him, but not whole-heartedly. When Kent tries to defend Cordelia, Lear's irrational side comes out and we see the temperamental response. However, Gloucester's reaction was built up of the lies that Edmund told him about Edgar. Although they incorporated different means of coming about, they essentially both received the same reaction in that Lear and Gloucester both executed their anger because they felt affected in some way.

King Lear Journal #2: Character of the Fool

The Fool is a character that is open to many interpretations because of the unique way that even though the character is of a lower status, he is able to get away with his insults of King Lear. When Kent speaks of how irrational King Lear is being, Lear ends up banishing Kent because King Lear feels that his power is being threatened. However, the Fool also offers King Lear advice which is seen when he says, "Have more than thou showest,/Speak less than thou knowest,/Lend less than thou owest,/Ride more than thou gowest,/Learn more than thou trowest,/[...] And thou shall have more/Than two tens to a score" (Shakespeare 122-131). The Fool is characterized by his short, rhyming lines because through those, he provides the audience with comic relief in otherwise serious content. The relationship between Lear and the Fool is interesting because at some points, Lear refers to the Fool as 'boy' and the Fool refers to Lear as 'nuncle'. This allows the reader to see that Lear and the Fool have established a sense of trust because there is some form of relationship between the two of them. In Act 1 Scene 5, the Fool explains to Lear that "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise" (Shakespeare 43-44). The Fool is able to offer rational advice while providing the audience a break from the heavy things going on in the play. The Fool's relationship to Lear is so different from the other relationships because although the Fool realizes that King Lear may have made a major mistake, he delivers the news in a more uncommon way and Lear does not react in the ways he has previously.

I perceive the Fool as a character that may not be of a very his stature, but still is wise and knowledgeable. He shows that he knows Lear has not made the most well-thought out decisions and does it in a mocking manner. Somehow he is able to continue poking fun at Lear and his decisions because Lear does not do much about it.

King Lear Journal #1: The relationship between wealth and love

In Shakespeare's King Lear, the king wants to hear how much he is loved by all his daughters before they receive any of the land that has been divided up. "Know that we have divided In three our kingdom [...] Interest of territory, cares of state-] Which of you shall we say doth love us most" (Shakespeare 39-56). This shows how much more power is valued than love because it reveals King Lear's intentions of ensuring that he is loved before any wealth or power is distributed to his family members. It also shows that the oldest two daughters have the land they're about to receive in mind and are willing to tell their father what he wants to hear instead of truly speaking from their hearts and telling the truth like Cordelia does. When Cordelia explains to Lear that she cannot love him with all of her heart, like her sisters say they do, because she knows that someday she is expected to love her husband as well, her father removes her dowry, which is seen when he says, "With my two daughters' dowers digest the third" (Shakespeare 144). Because Lear does not receive the praise and love he wants to hear, he strips his youngest daughter of that estate, illuminating that to Lear, wealth is something that can be taken away and used as a consequence when he does not receive the love he is interested in hearing.