[Shakespeare] Discussion Questions for King Lear on Tuesday, June 15

Tue Jun 15 15:10:47 UTC 2010

Dear Friends,

A final reminder that we will be discussing King Lear *tonight at 8pm EST.* As
always, to take a seat at our virtual round table, just call +1.201.793.9022 a
few minutes before 8. When prompted, please enter the following code:
2278583#. There is also a toll-free number you may call: +1.888.350.0075.

As you finish looking over the play, take a moment to review the
suggested *discussion
questions.* We will begin with *question 4 *("Good and Evil"); Marilyn will
kick us off.

As a follow-up to question 4, I'd like to pose the following: *if you were
directing a new film production of King Lear, whom would you cast for King
Lear? for Cordelia? for Goneril and Regan? for Kent? Gloucester?
Edgar/Tom-o-Bedlam? Edmund the Bastard? The fool?* Assume you have an
unlimited budget. Can't wait to hear your imaginings...

All best,

Rich

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 7:44 PM, Richard Johnston <rrjohnst at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> Just a reminder that our next discussion will take place *tomorrow, June
> 15 at 8pm EST. *I will send out a final reminder tomorrow morning, along
> with the dial-in instructions in case you've forgotten.
>
> The *discussion questions* for King Lear are below. Marilyn has kindly
> volunteered to take question 4, but we still need volunteers for the rest,
> so I'm opening them up to the whole group. *If one of the other questions
> strikes your fancy, please claim it by replying to all.* I look forward to
> hearing your thoughts on this incredibly rich play!
>
> See you soon,
>
> Richard
>
> *****
>
> DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
>
> *1. ONE WORD?*
>
> One way of getting into a play or other work of literature is to identify a
> single word which, to your mind, captures the heart of the play--or at least
> your vision of interpretation of it. As you read through or look back over
> King Lear, try to isolate this word, and then try to explain to yourself why
> it feels so important. Trust your insticts, and run with your imagination.
> Your word may be one that appears many times in the play, or only once.
>
> *2. FILIAL PIETY?*
>
> William Hazlitt, the great nineteenth-century essayist and critic, wrote
> that King Lear was Shakespeare's best play, and that the source of its awful
> power was its treatment of filial piety, the bond between parents and
> children. Here is what he says at the beginning of his essay on the
> play: "The passion which he has taken as his subject is that which strikes
> its root deepest into the human heart; of which the bond is the hardest to
> be unloosed; and the canceling and tearing to pieces of which gives the
> greatest revulsion to the frame. This depth of nature, this force of
> passion, this tug and war of the elements of our being,* *this firm faith
> in filial piety, and the giddy anarchy and whirling tumult of the thoughts
> at finding this prop failing it, the contrast between the fixed, immoveable
> basis of natural affection, and the rapid, irregular starts of
> imagination, suddenly wrenched from all its accustomed holds and
> resting-places in the soul, this is what Shakespeare has given, and what
> nobody else but he could give."
>
> What does the play tell us about the relationship between parents and
> children? If Lear's "firm faith in filial piety" leads to his tragic fall,
> what hope is there for the family? In Shakespeare's dark portrayal of
> generational conflict, do you think he sides more with the old or the young?
> What is your evidence for this?
>
> *3. A POLITICAL PLAY? *
>
> Is King Lear primarily a political play that happens to be shaped by family
> dynamics, or a family drama that happens to have political repercussions?
> Does Shakespeare put more emphasis on the political or the familial? Why?
> Can you identify moments in the play where the emphasis shifts? What is
> happening in those moments?
>
> *4. GOOD AND EVIL?*
>
> In his essay about King Lear, William Hazlitt said that Goneril and Regan
> are "so thoroughly hateful that we do not even like to repeat their names."
> Occasionally when we read works of literature we meet characters we
> absolutely despise. Then there are characters we absolutely love: Lear,
> Cordelia, Kent, Edgar. Something both literary critics and directors like to
> do is to read characters "against the grain," whether by portraying a
> hateful character sympathetically or a loveable character critically. Choose
> one character in King Lear whom you strongly liked or strongly disliked
> after reading the play. Now, try to complicate your reading of the play by
> playing the devil's advocate to yourself. Try to find what's culpable in the
> beloved, and redeemable in the despised. Can you reconcile your two
> readings?
>
> *5. A HAPPY ENDING FOR LEAR?*
>
> In today's world, if a director wants to put on a (modern) play, s/he must
> follow the playwright's script to the "t". That hasn't always been the case.
> Before the era of modern copyright law, plays weren't protected in this way;
> theatrical companies could change them pretty much at will, whether to
> appease the censors or appeal to audiences. It may astonish you to know
> that, for almost 150 years between 1681 and 1823, King Lear was performed
> with a* "happy ending" supplie*d by an 17th-century editor named Nahum
> Tate. In this ending, Lear regains his throne and Cordelia marries Edgar.
>
> The great eighteenth-century critic, essayist, and scholar Samuel Johnson
> restored the original ending of King Lear in his landmark edition of
> Shakespeare's plays, even though Tate's version continued to be performed,
> and he found Shakespeare's morally appalling. In his notes to the play, he
> writes, "Shakespeare has suffered the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just
> cause contrary to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader,
> and, what is yet more strange, to the faith of chronicles. […] A play in
> which the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless be good,
> because it is a just representation of the common events of human life: but
> since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily
> be persuaded, that the observation of justice makes a play worse; or, that
> if other excellencies are equal, the audience will not always rise better
> pleased from the final triumph of persecuted vice."
>
> What do Johnson's remarks tell us about his views of the purpose of drama
> and the relationship between life and literature? Are you sympathetic to
> Johnson's comments? Would you prefer the happy ending?
>
> *6. THREE FILM CLIPS (optional)*
>
> **If you have time, you might be interested in looking at one or more of
> the following film clips of Act 2, scene 4, where Lear, having stormed out
> of Goneril's house, seeks accommodation with Regan. In a scene remarkable
> for its dramatic compression, Lear is rapidly stripped of all his followers
> and then shut out of doors as a storm approaches. The clips are from the
> 1971 production with Paul Scofield, the 1974 production with James Earl
> Jones, and the 2008 production with Ian McKellan, respectively.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ajDJ_uEVBo&feature=related
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftW7WcoOuU8
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ZDo9dhNaE
>
> Which interpretation do you like the most, and why? Is making a film of
> King Lear quite the same thing as putting it on stage? What do you think are
> the advantages and disadvantages, the opportunities and drawbacks, the
> possibilities and limitations, etc., of each medium?
>
> *****
>
> See you Tuesday!
>
> All best,
>
> Rich
>
> --
> Richard Johnston
> Resident Tutor, Cabot House
> Teaching Fellow, Department of English
> Harvard University
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Richard Johnston
> Resident Tutor, Cabot House
> Teaching Fellow, Department of English
> Harvard University
>
>
>

-- 
Richard Johnston
Resident Tutor, Cabot House
Teaching Fellow, Department of English
Harvard University
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