Overview of the Semester

I would have to say that my favorite piece of literature that we ready this semester was Dante's inferno.  Mainly because I have read it before and it was a lot easier to understand, and the imagery made it easy to follow along.  Everything was separated out into different circles and pouches which made it so much easier to follow along.

My least favorite piece of literature would have to be King Lear.  I have never been good at interpreting and understanding Shakespeare.  Each night of reading the play I would have to go on No Fear Shakespeare and read the play in modern language, and then I would go back and read the actually play written by Shakespeare himself.

I think the purpose of literature is to expand our mind, and open it up to new thoughts, ideas, belief systems, and culture.  It has allowed me to vastly expand my knowledge of the subject, and helped me in interpreting many of the pieces of literature that we have read this semester.  It was interesting to read literature from a variety of cultures all the way from Japanese to European.  Some of them were more difficult to understand than others, but in the end it gave me a better idea and perspective on the values and beliefs of other cultures.

I really wish that we could have read the Odyssey as it has always been one of my favorite stories to read, mainly because of the number of crazy gods with different personalities and powers.  I am somewhat disappointed we did not have the opportunity to read it this year.

Gloucester, Edgar and Lear

While reading Act 4 I came across a specific part that interested me.  Edgar takes Gloucester to the Cliffs of Dover in order for the old man to commit suicide by jumping off.  The cliff is described as being so tall that the people walking on the beach below appear to be the size of mice, while the boats do not look much bigger.  At this point Gloucester is blind after his scruffle with Cornwall. He is coping with this opposing hatred upon himself by wanting to jump off of a cliff.  Edgar is smart for lying to Gloucester saying that he was descending off of the cliff.  Gloucester believes it because he doesn't know any better because he cannot tell whats around him, and his sense of proprioception or where he is in space is obviously blocked because of this blindness.  Although it makes me wonder how Gloucester didn't realize that Edgar was lying to him.  Clearly Gloucester was suffering no pain, so there is no way he could have fell the distance that Edgar was describing.  Edgar also saves Gloucester later in the play by jumping in front of a sword for him and killing Oswald.

I get a feeling that in this play there is a theme of confusion.  Gloucester is confused early on in Act 4, but he is not the only one, Lear is confused himself.  Its almost as if Edgar and Cordelia keep Lear and Gloucester somewhat sane, while Goneril and Regan only cause trouble for the two.  At the end of act four when Cordelia is speaking to Lear and trying to wake him up from his anger driven sleep due to his evil daughters, it is clear the compassion she has for her father.  They share tears, and she comforts him with her love, and Cordelia is the only person recognized by Lear as soon as he wakes from his "Coma."

The Storm

So now that we no that King Lear is selfish and and begs his daughters to keep the knights, he becomes enraged at that and decides to leave the castle.  I did not see this coming, I mean what difference does it make if Lear has 25 knights or 50.  He seems a little selfish at this point thinking he needs all of these people to protect them, which then again may make sense because he is becoming very old and he needs all of the help and guidance, and reassurance that he can get.

Lear storms out of the castle and is frustrated and takes the Fool along with him.  The Fool does him no good throughout his frustrated battle through the storm, but who would expect him to?  It is storming, thundering. lightning, and is even described as so intense that it keeps the animals hidden in their homes.  Usually animals could travel through pretty severe weather, but in this case the storm was too intense.  The text is full of imagery, and the storm is describing how angry Lear is at the time, as well as the state of France, and life back at the castle.  There is a sense of tension and uprising in all of these areas and the storm only exemplifies this situation.

It is somewhat ironic that Lear is offered shelter, even though it is just a little hut, and enough to keep away from the storm which Lear continues to fight.  I cannot imagine this old King making his way through these gruesome conditions and still coming out alive.  The storm is so strong it is causing floods, it is strong enough to split trees, and to singe the white hair on Lear's head.  Maybe this could be possibly foreshadowing Lear being struck by lightning?  We will see as we continue to read further, but up to this point i see the storm as describing the state of France, Life back at Gloucester's castle, and Lear's mind, which is all in a fury of enragement

King Lear as a Person

I am going to start off by saying that I think King Lear has many flaws as well as triumphs.  Overall, I do not think he is that good of a ruler, because I personally think that he is lazy.  One quality of a ruler is that they must rule the people, with authority, but take into consideration the thoughts and beliefs of the people. An example that shows King Lear being a bad ruler is when he lets his daughters take control of  his land, but he still wants to have the power.  This shows that he is lazy and wants them to fulfill the obligations of a king, and do all the hard work that is involved, while he sits back and enjoys the power of being a king.  He is immature for putting his daughters in charge of his land mainly because of the manner he picked them.  He asked them "Which of you shall we say doth love us most" showing that he only cares about what they say, rather than if they actually love their father or not.  In this instance he chooses public display of affection over real love. 

I am 100% on Cordelia's side and I think that she does the right thing when she states that she loves her father because he is her father.  She is being honest, and not lying to Lear in this case, which I think shows trust and bravery.  Despite the fact that Cordelia is Lear's favorite daughter, he doesn't accept her plead for fulfillment of duty to her father, but instead is blind to her case, and accepts the false plead from his two other daughters Goneril and Regan.  I think King Lear will regret this decision in the end, and wish he would have chose Cordelia to control the land instead of his other two daughter, because they are selfish, and want the land just to feel like they have power.