King Lear, Tragedy

K in g L e a r, T ra g e d y
Literature
1/1
Source: notes de cours CAPES/Agreg Nancy 2
! According to Northop Frye, Fools of Time ; 3 kinds of tragedies :
•
tragedy of order: concerned with rise and fall of kings. (Hamlet, Richard II,
Macbeth).
•
Tragedy of passion: Romeo & Juliet, Merchant of Venice (tragi-comedy), Anthony &
Cleopatra, Coriolan.
•
Tragedy of isolation: Lear is excluded from his social context ==> he has to look for
a purely individual identity.
- 2 tragedies in KL: tragedy of order and isolation.
- In the 1st tragedy, of order, it is the concrete plot of G & R, the threat to the unity of the state.
- In the 2nd tragedy, of isolation, there are long scenes without any events, no sense of direction,
no apparent plot (importance of plot, cf Aristotle). Lear understands the horror of man confronted
to reality --> he can see that because he accepted to be isolated.
- Isolation is necessary for revelation/
- Frustration: pas d’action ds ce doute existentiel.
- Gloucester: symbolizes the martyr in the context of his tragedy. In KL, many references to the
Bible and the life of Christ.
- Edmund: villain, rebel --> eventually punished.
- Edgar: role of Nemesis: Greek goddess of retribution and justice. Invoked at the end of tragedies
to reward the good. Here, nemesis by killing his brother.
- Gloucester tragedy can be explained: major flaws: pride, lust (adultery) which engendered
Edmund.
- Anagnorisis: revelation, recognition: Edgar is reveled as the just heir of his father. Social
disorder more or less repaired, but it’s not the end of the play !
- Gloucester’s tragedy is a screen tragedy for L’s: hides the real tragedy.
- Lear tragedy is not Aristotelian: he begins as a tragic hero: orgueil, colère, domineering,
authoritative, failures of judgment. His mistakes are the root of his fall. But we are led to respond
to his cry of pain, to sympathize with him. The degree of suffering which is making him mad is an
excessive purgation: a sacrificilal figure.
- Obsession with idea of suicide in the play.
- Naturalistic environment (réalisme pessimiste, le monde se résume à un environnement hostile
& indifferent)
- Cordelia: according to Bradley, her death is justified because she’s set free from life rather than
deprived of it. She’s superior to the world: her death does not matter, the principles she
represents remain.
- In our culture, adversity is blessed, suffering means getting better: but that is not in the play:
here we just have an old man dying of pain.
- The refusal of closure: “une pièce qui n’en finit pas de finir” (G. venet, Temps et Vision
Tragique):
• Inconclusive play. A series of false endings + does L die under delusion of
happiness or not ? quarto and folio different endings.