King Lear and A Thousand Acres Comparative Literary Analysis

Shakespeare 's King Lear is regarded to be one of his most successful piece of literature, published in the 17th century, in which he depicts a dramatic adaptation of relationships between parents and their children. Preceding the twentieth century, several critics have deemed King Lear as a classic tragedy and therefore labelling the character of Lear as a "tragic hero". This is because much-like the ancient Greek legend of Oedipus, Lear 's sense of pride is what consequently leads to his demise from the very beginning, where Lear is arguably at the pinnacle of his power. Therefore, upon the traditional reading of King Lear, Lear’s human qualities shown following his downfall as king would prove this character suitable for the title as a tragic hero; where a lesson can be learned, thus allowing an Elizabethan audience to feel a sense of moral justice at the end of the play (however, the existence of the sub-plot involving Edmund and Gloucester alongside that of Lear 's tragedy and his daughters implies a lack of distinction from Lear 's character to other true tragic heroes). In light of this, it could change our overall interpretation of the play itself to be Shakespeare 's personal comments on the Human Condition to his advantage, removes any suspicion that he may be making a direct comment on the death of an ageing monarchy and rise of a usurper towards the Catholic James 6th of Scotland by intentionally setting the play in a pre-Christian Albion world.

One’s downfall may be caused by many factors, such as an individual’s traits. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s cynical behaviour towards those around him causes him to see his classmates around him in a negative perspective. Similarly, in King Lear, King Lear’s attitude towards his honest daughter, Cordelia causes him to banish his most-loving and caring daughter away from England. Then, both protagonists are prompted to a punishment of physical humiliation. Likewise, both protagonists are mentally ill and have reached a breaking point, causing psychological problems. In The Catcher in the Rye and King Lear, Holden and King Lear are led to an eventual downfall due to their behaviour towards those around them, physical humiliation, and

     Shakespeare uses subplots to dramatize the action of the play and give spark on the contrast for the themes in King Lear. Sub plots usually improve the effect of dramatic irony and suspense. The latter, which is used in King Lear, gives us the understanding of the emotions of the characters in the play. This follows the parallelism between Gloucester and King Lear.

   King Lear meets all the requirements of a tragedy as defined by Andrew Cecil Bradley.  Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy has to be the story of the hero and there is exceptional suffering and calamity slowly being worn in.  Also, the current time must be contrasted to happier times.  The play also depicts the troubled parts in the hero’s life and eventually he dies instantaneously because of the suffering and calamity.  There is the feeling of fear in the play as well, that makes men see how blind they are not knowing when fortune or something else would be on them.  The hero must be of a high status on the chain and the hero must also possess a tragic flaw that initiates the tragedy.

With one being brought up in a medieval time with a different status and set of morals, and the other being brought up in a world where the men control the ways of business and family, both Shakespeare and Jane Smiley introduce their own respective versions of a strong willed woman who sets out for freedom from her overbearing father. Shakespeare creates the malicious controlling character of Goneril in his play “King Lear”, who sets out to destroy her father in order to get what she believes she deserves. Jane Smiley, in her modern counterpart “A Thousand Acres”,then went on to create Ginny, who is mild minded woman who caves into her father’s tyranny. In the same ways, both Ginny and Goneril have a tyrannical father who forces them to succumb

King Lear's View of Himself "King Lear" is a play all about the cruelty of human nature and the ways in which all people, "good" and "bad", can sin, or be sinned against. Lear is a very difficult character to categorise as either "good" or "bad" as he is both "sinned against" and "sinning". It is also very difficult to use these sins as a measure of his character as they a varying in severity. When we first meet Lear he is in the process of dividing his kingdom into three, preparing to hand it to his three daughters. This is a sin, as according to The Divine Right of Kings, each monarch is chosen by God, and is there fore answerable to none but him.

Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear can be interpreted in many ways and many responses. The imprecision’s and complication of the play has led

The tone and themes in Shakespeare’s King Lear and Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres are the same. In fact, the only difference at the heart of the two versions of this story of familial strife is perspective. In Shakespeare’s King Lear the titular character’s youngest daughter, Cordelia, truly loves her father. Her loyalty to him represents truth and compassion in a story rife with deception and betrayal. In A Thousand Acres, farmer Larry Cook’s youngest daughter Caroline loves her father just as deeply as Cordelia does Lear. The difference between these two characters is that Caroline lives in ignorance of her father’s true colors. Caroline stands for justice and truth as a successful lawyer and loyal daughter, but the shifted perspective of A Thousand Acres shows that she is more in the dark than

When observing gender in our society, women and men are stereotyped with specific roles. Men have always been seen as the family’s main source of income whereas the women take care of their home and children. However, Shakespeare challenges these gender roles in his play with the three female characters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. While all three are independent, powerful women and even lead their armies into battle, the men seem to be foolish and weak such as King Lear and Albany. Furthermore, Mira cel Batran makes a point in her essay, “Feminist Reading of William Shakespeare’s King Lear”, that although women are regarded as dependent on men, Shakespeare explains that it can be the exact opposite. The men seem to depend on the women such as King Lear depending on Cordelia and Albany depending on Goneril. Shakespeare, in his play, King Lear, portrays women who are strong and intelligent and men who are weak or overpowered by female characters, challenging the societal belief that women are inherently less than or dependent on men.

This quote is coming from Cordelia in the first scene of the first act. Lear has just called his three daughters in and is dividing up his kingdom. The daughters are telling Lear how much they love him in order to influence the decision on dividing the kingdom. Regan and Goneril both lie and say that they love him more than words can express but Cordelia doesn't lie and tells the truth. In this quote, she says, “Lear you have raised me and loved me and I’m returning the favor. I love you just as I should, I obey you, I love you and I honor you. Hopefully, when I get married I will give you my husband and half of my love.” This quote is showing that in King Lear, Shakespeare uses characters to represent something greater. In the story, there are a few main characters that are big metaphors one being King Lear representing madness and insanity. A second being Goneril representing greed and lastly, Gloucester used to show the metaphors of people not opening their eyes to what's actually going on. All these metaphors have an important lesson to them that can be applied into the

We may wonder what has Lear to do with the mother, since his anatomy is

The opportunity to view both productions of King Lear has appeared twice for me in the past two years. The first time I viewed Trevor Nunn’s 2009 production of King Lear my review would have been based solely on my ability to understand the dialogue and my appreciation of the acting of Ian McKellen. Two years later I have a better understanding of the actual play and while I still enjoy the 2009 production the 1982 production directed by Jonathan Miller presents the words of William Shakespeare in a more accurate and period specific manor.

In the play, ‘King Lear’, Shakespeare incorporates challenge throughout his play in order to allow a more studious view of human motivation and action. Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, is challenged by the lack of power he has and as a result of this, he vies for Gloucester’s throne hence becoming the challenger. On the other hand, King Lear’s narcissistic personality lays down the ‘love auction’ which is a challenge to help him feed his self centred persona. Challenge is extensively used throughout the play by Shakespeare to show emotions, personalities and ideologies but more specifically, it shows the consequence of the actions which they have undertaken.

The most prevailing images in King Lear are the images (metaphoric and actual) of nature. The concept of nature seems to consume the dialogue, monologues, and setting.

Despite its first performance being in 1608 where women were not allowed to take part in theatre, William Shakespeare’s King Lear is arguably dominated by the female characters. The story focuses on a king who is driven into madness and decides to handover his power to his two eldest daughters, Regan and Goneril. These two daughters are exceptionally important to the development of the play since it can be argued that they are the ones commanding a fair share of the events that take place. This can also be said about Cordelia. According to Kate Downey Hickey and Catherine S. Cox, Cordelia is the essence of the play as she offers truth and evasiveness. In the following, the role of women will be discussed in King Lear. How are the female characters