Summary English Literature A level Edexcel - KING LEAR CONTEXT
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Course
Unit 1 - Drama
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
Explore the literary aspects of tragedy and the evolution of the tragic hero, informed by Aristotle's principles, alongside real-life inspirations such as Sir William Allen’s familial conflict.
Analyze the historical backdrop of the Jacobean era, marked by political unrest, issues of successi...
LITERARY: HISTORICAL:
● Tragic heroes appear all over important ● Set in 800 BC, allowing Shakespeare to say
literary works. Many writers at the time had what he wishes about religion, he wrote
different notions of tragedy and a tragic extensively about Kingship.
hero
● Aristotle's strict definition for what makes ● Shakespeare wrote "King Lear'' in the early
a tragic hero has changed. 17th century, during the Jacobean era. This
● The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was a time of political unrest and uncertainty in
was the first to define a "tragic hero." He England, with issues of succession, familial
believed that a good tragedy must evoke betrayal
feelings of ‘fear and pity’ in the audience,
since he saw these two emotions as being ● Elizabethan society was a highly hierarchical
fundamental to the experience of catharsis society in which a lot of respect was to be paid
(the process of releasing strong or pent-up to those wealthy, parents, and elderly.
emotions through art). Shakespeare may use this as social
commentary on how fragile the Elizabethan
The modern tragic hero: society was- as his elderly and parental figures
- Can be all types of genders, characters, (Lear and Gloucester) are those treated the
backgrounds worst.
- Can be the characters that don't usually fit
the conventional notion of a tragic hero ● Ideas around Madness
"Lunatics" only started being properly confined
to institutions in the 1800s- earlier generations
Inspiration of story- real life- Sir William Allen may have seen it as part of human condition-
Sir William Allen divided property between 3 people would have seen madmen roaming
daughters and he thought to stay with one of his around early villages.
daughters and ended disastrously by being - Insanity was poorly understood and
treated badly by all. Contrasts to the way Cordelia often associated with demonic
treated Lear. possession or punishment from God.
● The storm may be a physical ● Divine Right Of Kings:
representation In Jacobean society the monarch was seen to
of a liminal state of purgatory. be appointed by god. Lear decisions thus
Purgatory, in Christian theology, is often would be seen as unnatural and hubris filled
depicted as a state of purification and leading up to chaos.
transition, where souls undergo suffering
and penance before reaching a state of ● Great Chain Of being: a strict, religious
spiritual redemption. Similarly, the storm hierarchical structure of all matter and life,
in "King Lear" can be seen as a liminal believed to have been decreed by God.
state of purgatory, where the characters - Causes disruption in order. Lear
confront their sins, face the consequences splitting up his kingdom and giving it
of their actions, and undergo a process of away to his daughters reflects him
moral and spiritual transformation. relinquishing his authority and power.
As a result there is disruption to natural
order causing chaos. E.g Lear's mental
decline and insanity
● Fools were normally kept around to be laughed
at for their mental disabilities, while Jesters
were storytellers and singers in. in king lear,
the fool ultimately seems wise - directs lear
through his mental decline and advices him
● Primogeniture, a traditional method of passing
on wealth and property. Primogeniture meant
that the first-born son inherited the family
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