S t ru c t u re a n d d ra m a t u rg y in K in g Le ar 1/ Litté

Source: Première leçon sur: The Tragedy of King Lear, Henri Suhamy, Ellipses.

! 25 scenes (23 in our edition). In Sh’s dramaturgy, each scene corresponds to a particular setting and a distinct phase in the diegesis. Btw 2 scenes there can be either continuity or discontinuity in the time sequence. For instance the 3rd scene of the 1st act, which announces the quarrel about to break out btw L & Goneril, seems to take place a few weeks or months after the beginning, whereas this scene and the next one follow each other closely. ! The stylistic variety of KL makes it look like a patchwork in which all theatrical genres are represented. But is is a tragedy, the crisis breaks out in the 1st scene. Tension never flags: it wd be difficult to ascribe the quality of dramatic

climax to any particular passage. Series of climaxes ? ex series of banishments. ! KL does not respect the 3 unities: !

But unity of action: 2 plots merge inot each other very soon.

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No strict unity of time, but impression that events follow each other without intermission

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Unity of place: q° of unity does not even deserve to be raised, as the contrast btw the Court (protective environment) & the inhospitable desert is essential to the drama.

! Impression of cosmic scope: strange balance btw simplicity and grandeur, familiar realism & metaphysical symbolism, theatrical convention & physical vividness. ! The play has often been called a Passion (from Latin patior = to suffer). L begins to suffer from the => of his rashness and folly as early as Act 1 sc 4. ! The alternate voices of wrath and resignation provide a constant effusion of vehement lyricism/ soliloquies are numerous.

! Pathos is a key-word to describe the mood of this tragedy, but there was a time when the actors were accused of indulging in bathos = a kind of magniloquence so much exaggerated that it lapses into the ridiculous. ! KL has also been called a dark pastoral, or an anti-pastoral. In its structure it resembles Sh’s pastoral comedies. The only tragedy to which it bears some similitude in this respect is Timon of Athens: deceived by his friends, Timon runs away to the wilderness and bursts out in an agony of pessimism, and dies in despair. Also a subplot. ! The starting-point is separation (by destiny or ill-will). In a tragedy there is a strife opposing friends, fellow-countrymen of mbs of a same family (epic opposes enemies who are foreign to each other). => this happens in real life => the public feels emotionnally concerned by the play. A tragedy must involve the affectivity of the audience, otherwise it fails. ! The 2nd phrase of pastoral comedies and romances: The heroes and heroines either are banished from town or have to take refuge in nature (wilderness: forest, on the sea, wild mountains, a village). In their exile and their unsophisticated environment the banishes personages find a certain kind of rejuvenating purity, though forests, deserts and other uncivilized places are not hospitable to mankind. But there they realize they cannot escape the fundamental tragedy of life. (ex: As

You Like it). ! 3rd phase: develops the theme of re-union and reconciliation. Return to peace. The new or old ruler pronounces the last cue, doubt in KL as to who speaks last. ! The end is bitterly tragic: its catharsis seems mainly negative: humanity has been purged indeed of its ugly passions, but of its heroism and of its hope too. The last cue, delivered either by Albany or Edgar contains a curious statement. The last 2 lines express a feeling of nostalgia for a heroic past, never to be recaptured. ! Sh, in both KL & Timon of Athens, seems to have introduced the subplot in order to teach a lesson, & moreover to make it clear that he did intend to teach a lesson. Plot & subplot both deal with same theme (ingratitude): exceptional in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Usually a 2nd plot is introduced either to complicate the main

story, or to provide a kind of disconnected and temporary relief from it. Here the 2 plots deal with filial ingratitude and paternal injustice, and soon flow into each other when Edmund betrays his father to Cornwall. ! The abundant use of theatrical conventions creates a constant effect of stylization which is unusual in a tragedy. The Fool belongs to the stock-in-trade of comedy, rather than tragedy. The trick used by Edmund to get rid of his brother and dupe his father wd appear impossible even in an Italian farce. The disguises put on by kent & Edgar enabling them to escape recognition amit their acquaintance imply that the spectators practise that willing suspension of disbelief (Coleridge). ! The chronoly baffles verisimilitude: how cd Cordelia possibly hear of the injuries bonre by her fathern and muster an army, just after the public is informed that he has just left G’s castle? ! The play is not realistic but there are many realistic elements in it. It is not an allegory, but there are many allegorical elements in it. It transcends and contains all genres. ! There is a frequent contrast btw the futility of the incidents and their momentous consequences, a medley of the sublime and the grotesque. The quarrels btw Lear & his daughters arise from petty ridiculous conflicts btw their respective servants. Interestingly, the audience is not allowed to know the truth about the behavior of L’s 100 knights. According to Goneril they are „debauched“ and transform the castle into a „tavern or a brothel“. According to Lear, they „are men of choice and rarest parts“ (1.4). ! The play is made of a string of incidents either grotesque or horrible, comic or poetic, but the vents that constitute the usual elements of serious drama, such as battles, duels, political intrigues, diplomatic interplay, do not take place on the stage. Anything serious happens on the stage. The whole of the play appears grand and heroic, but it is difficult to refer to any particular passage in the play as sounding frand and heroic. ! Great amount of dramatic irony. Either the irony concerns the facts & events, or the philo lessons that the characters draw from what happens to them.

! KL has often been called a tragedy of ingratitude, but in a way it runs counter the usual notons about what a tragedy is, because ingratitude does not constitute the hamartia of the hero. In this respect, he is more sinned against than sinning. ! L’s tragic flaw derives its origin from his own domineering position as a king. The chastisement phase of the tragedy is called nemesis. At the end comes the

catharsis: controversy on what is catharsis. Does it mean purgation of the soul of the hero, or does it concern the public? ! In relation to catharsis, it seems that both conceptions of the notion work in KL. ! Pb of the final lines: in the Quarto, the last 4 lines delivered by Albany, whereas the Folio attributes them to Edgar. Usually in Shak, the concluding lines of a play are spoken by the man who represents authority (see notes of Arden edition). ! Tragic structure: follows usual pattern, but gt amount of iriginality. ! The hubris phase does not last long, it’s practically over after the 1st scene, whereas the nemesis phase occupies a long period, explains why the play has been called a passion. ! Madness was sometimes considered in Antiquity as a punishment inflicted on sin. ! L’s perso catharsis is somewhat difficult to grasp. It seems that after C’s death, it is only in death that he can find appeasement. ! Subplot: Gloucester’s being duped by Edmund evinces a degree of stupidity worthy of an Italian farce. Yet Shak succeeds, after such an unpromising beginning, to make him follow a line // to that of L. his blindness can be interpreted as corresponding to L’s madness. ! In KL all the chs are gradually involved in the same plot; the agents of evil are not spared, they fall into their own snare or are crushed by the course of violence that they themselves have set in motion, as if punished by a vengeful providence. Innocent people are not spared either, not all of them anyway, because violence, once on the move, works havoc.