king lear essay help (1 Viewer)

[mabel.]

hi everyone, i just need a bit of clearing up on a question i'm working on from the 2005 hsc:

"Your class has been exploring the question, 'What will continue to make King Lear worthy of ciritical study?'

Your personal response has been challenged by another student. Defend your response through critical evaluation of King Lear, analysing the construction, content and language of the text."


what exactly are they talk about when they mean the construction? do they want you to talk about the actual structure of the play? like, what happens in each act and the significance of that or do they mean shakespeare's context etc?

 

[Evercursed]

Construction is about the structure of the text, how KL has been set up to further the tragic elements of the death of Lear and Gloucester and the destruction of the status quo by the greed and ambition of Edmund, Regan and Goneril. People approach the question in different ways but an easy approach to do this is to just analyse scenes and link them properly. For example, if you want to talk about the construction of feminism within Lear, you can analyse the progression in Lear's character through the Love Contest of Act 1 Scene 1 and his tirades in Act 1, Scene 4 as he curses Goneril. The conclusion could be the redemptive reunion with Cordelia and through the construction of these scenes, you can draw meaning about the role of women within an unrelenting patriarchy.

 

[mabel.]

thanks for your help

 

[duckz]

I'd go with the Aristotlean tragedy theory. KL being a person with a high status and suffers a great loss of status. Also mention KL's inability to understand and value family relationships. One theme of King Lear is "Insight". He pretty much fails at that. Evercursed idea about drawing attention to the role of women would be great. Since the role of women in the play changes drastically. From being lovable ass-kissing daughters to b***** who makes their father go nuts. Lol:burn: