Act 4 Scene 6- be prepared... numerous plot points ahead
SETTING:
Countryside near Dover
SUMMARY: Edgar and Gloucester enter as Edgar is persuading Gloucester that he is climbing a steep cliff, Gloucester realises Edgar is mysteriously getting less and less mad.....
Gloucester 'commits' suicide by 'falling' of the 'cliff' (yes that is a lot of quotation marks but we got to suspend belief some times) but SURVIVES!!!!
Edgar changes disguise (again) and convinces Gloucester that the gods have saved his life.
Lear enters in his flower crown and starts talking causing Gloucester to despair.
Lear starts talking about social justice and Cordelia's soldiers arrive and try and coax Lear in.
Gloucester and Edgar still on stage and Gloucester decides not to die!
However..... sneaky, douche Oswald arrives and tries to kill Gloucester but Edgar defends and kills him.
Edgar finds letter from Goneril to Edmund and is infuriated, afterward pocketing it and they both leave.
KEY THEMES:
Loyalty
Social Justice
Fate
Clothing/Disguises
Wisdom in madness
KEY CONTEXT
Romans verse= everyone is a sinner so shouldn't judge
Social Justice/ system
Ref. to As you like it 'all the world's a stage' pg.209 line 181
KEY QUOTATION
'Your eyes are in/ a heavy case...yet you see/how this world goes' top og pg.207 SIGHT
'Thorough tattered clothes small vices do appear;/Robes and furred gowns hide all...' pg.207 line 162-163 DISGUIS/SOCIETY
'None does offend, none I say, none' pg. 207 166 NOTHING
'O! matter and impertinency mixed;/ Reason in madness' pg.209 line 172-173 MADNESS/WISDOM
'A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,/Past speaking of in a King!' pg.211 line 201-202 POWER
Lear's speeches- pg. 203 Betrayal of Goneril and Regan
- pg. 205 lusts of woman
- pg. 207 social justice & hypocrisy of Law
YOU ARE READING
The Discombobulated Guide to King Lear
Non-FictionAnyone else trying to wade through English Literature books?? Join the club! Although I love English Literature one does have to keep the passion alive and therefore during my exams I got a couple of ways of making it fun and decided to share with y...
