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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help
The way Cordeilia dies should be VERY upsetting: Edmund seems
ready to save her after his duel with Edgar, then everybody
get's to talking about other things. Kent wanders in and asks
about Lear and Albany says "great thing of us forgot." Then
Edmund tries to stop the murder he's called for, but it's too late.
If he had just sent to stop it slightly earlier might the
murder have been averted? Who knows, but the play seems to
want to raise the question. And if the death of Cordelia
- CORDELIA!!! - is so accidental then maybe Glouchester is
correct after all: "as flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods:
they kill us for their sport."Anyway, it is clearly possible to find the play absolutely
pessimistic in the end, though the humanist reading (Lear
finally learns - so humans can be morally elevated) is
more common. I rather think the complexity - different
kinds of felling made possible about so many things - is
the point.
Posted by Cloten on April 27, 1997 at 13:51:54
In Reply to "King Lear:is the play devoid of hope? " posted by Elaine on April 25, 1997 at 20:15:42
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help