Category: Music – Theater

Be not afraid of greatness:some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. – From Act II, Scene V of “Twelfth Night”  by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Enjoying “King Lear”, by William Shakespeare

by Ed Friedlander M.D.
erf@kcumb.edu

If there was ever a historical King Lear, his memory has faded into mythology and/or been conflated with others. Llyr and his son Manannan are Celtic ocean-gods; Manannan reappeared in Yeats’s plays and the “Dungeons and Dragons” games. The “children of Lir / Llyr” were transformed into waterbirds in another Celtic myth. Anglo-Israelite lore describes (“Llyr Lleddiarth “Half-Speech”, king of Siluria / the Britains, father of Bran the Archdruid, who married Anna, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea; his close relatives included Cymbeline (Cunobelinus, fictionalized in Shakespeare’s later play), and Caractacus (Caradoc), a well-attested historical figure better-known today from the children’s song (“It’s too late… they just passed by”). In the Mabinogion, one of Llyr’s two wives is Iweradd (“Ireland”).
Continue reading Enjoying “King Lear”, by William Shakespeare

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Analysis of King Lear

 King Lear, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic tale of filial
conflict, personal transformation, and loss.  The story revolves
around the King who foolishly alienates his only truly devoted
daughter and realizes too late the true nature of his other two
daughters.  A major subplot involves the illegitimate son of
Gloucester, Edmund, who plans to discredit his brother Edgar and
betray his father.  With these and other major characters in the
play, Shakespeare clearly asserts that human nature is either
entirely good, or entirely evil.  Some characters experience a
transformative phase, where by some trial or ordeal their nature
is profoundly changed.  We shall examine Shakespeare's stand on
human nature in King Lear by looking at specific characters in
the play:  Cordelia who is wholly good, Edmund who is wholly
evil, and Lear whose nature is transformed by the realization of
his folly and his descent into madness.

Continue reading Analysis of King Lear

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Goneril

Image One of Lear's three daughters. Having received her moiety of Lear's kingdom, the unnatural daughter first abridged the old man's retinue, then gave him to understand that his company was troublesome. (Shakespeare: King Lear.)

Goneril and Regan

There is little good to be said for Lear's older daughters, who are largely indistinguishable in their villainy and spite. Goneril and Regan are clever Continue reading Goneril