Shakespeare & the modern world

To the course leader

There are 5 separate documents in this course “kit”.

• Full notes.
• Background to Shakespeare
• Plot summaries
• Synopsis
• To the course leader
The course is intended for delivery over a minimum of four 1½ hour sessions. The
number of sessions needed will depend on the amount of discussion generated and the
number of supplementary activities undertaken. The aim of the course is to have
participants come to see Shakespeare’s plays as relevant to modern times – to
recognise that in the 21st century we are facing the same challenges and asking the
same questions as Shakespeare’s characters faced and asked. An essential element of
the course is sustained reaction to/discussion of issues raised in the plays.

To help the course leader initiate and sustain discussion ‘trigger questions’ are
interspersed throughout the full notes. They are by no means exhaustive. The course
leader will come to sense what is interesting his/her audience and ‘run’ with it. The
important thing is for the course leader to pause regularly and invite participants to
relate issues raised in the play to their own experience and understanding of the times
in which we live.

It is not essential for participants to have read the plays prior to the course, nor is it
necessary for them to bring copies of the play to class with them, although some
participants like to do so. A plot outline is provided for each play. It has been found
useful to issue copies as each play is introduced. Participants seem to find the
quotations of interest and the fact that they would all be recognisable serves to help
illustrate that Shakespeare is still with us and relevant! Perhaps they might like to
volunteer further quotations from Shakespeare.

A sheet titled Background to Shakespeare is included. The same information is

included at the beginning of the full notes, but you may decide to provide it as a hand-
out to help participants more fully understand the times in which Shakespeare wrote.

There is also a synopsis which can be used as a hand-out. I’ve used it prior to splitting
the class into groups for discussion. Participants also seem to appreciate it as a final
take-away from the course – hopefully this means they spend some time pondering
those final questions on the sheet! If they do, the aim of the course would seem to
have been achieved.

Course leaders should feel free to adapt these notes as needed. He/she may, for
example, choose to:
• include more direct quotation from the play;
• develop themes/issues raised in the play which are not addressed in these
notes;
• expand on or reduce emphasis on the themes which are dealt with in the notes;

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 • suggest alternative characterisations.
• expand the course by using film version of the plays. There is Mel Gibson’s
version of Macbeth – brilliant! Kenneth Branagh and Ian Holme have both
portrayed King Lear on film and there are the 1948 (Lawrence Olivier”) and
1996 (Branagh again) versions of Hamlet.

Activity 1.
The course lends itself to group work. Perhaps divide the class into 3 groups and
have them discuss issues raised in the plays which are still relevant to the modern
world. Here are just as few examples.
ambition – good or bad? Give examples of both over the past 100 years. (Macbeth)
isolation – how do we in the 21st century cope with an ever-changing world? (Hamlet)
justice: what is the nature of justice? In the 21st century are the law and justice
synonymous? (King Lear)

Activity 2
Put one of the characters “on trial” (e.g. Macbeth or Lady Macbeth)
Divide the class into two groups.
• Group one prepares the case for the prosecution and appoints a Prosecutor:
Group 2 prepares the case for the defence and appoints a defence counsel. (20
minutes)
• Group leader is presiding Judge Group as a whole the jury.
• Accused takes the stand.
• Prosecution presents opening case (5 minutes)
• Defence presents opening case (5 minutes)
• Both prosecution and defence question the accused. (10 minutes each)
• Summing up by both sides (5 minutes each)
• Jury votes

Activity 3
A debate
• “That ambition is a positive force in society”
• “That one must to his own sense be true”
• “That parents always know best.”
(I’m sure the group will be able to suggest others.)

It has been found that this course generates a lot of discussion. On one occasion (to
date the course has been presented eight times to different groups) so much discussion
ensued that it extended into lunch at a nearby club and continued as people walked to
their cars. Who said Shakespeare was dead?

The message is – feel free to adapt! Make it your course!

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this course and/or its presentation, please
don’t hesitate to phone me on (02) 4959 2867 or email [email protected]

Mel Davies
March 2008

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 Shakespeare and the modern world
How believable do we find the central characters in Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear
and to what degree are the issues raised in these plays relevant to us in the 21st
century?

BACKGROUND

Any literature needs to be seen against the world as it was at the time of writing. So
before we embark on a look at three of the Plays of William Shakespeare, let us look
briefly at his world – Elizabethan England.

The Renaissance came late to England. That outburst of learning through art and
industry that came with the Renaissance marked the change from the medieval to the
modern world, from feudalism to capitalism, from loyalty to a lord to patriotism for a
nation. Also what has come to be called “The Great Age” in literature had begun.
There were writers such as John Donne; Christopher Marlowe [Tamburlane];
Edmund Spenser [The Faerie Queene]. During the reign of James 1 the “Authorised
Version Bible – a translation from the Latin – was produced by a committee. There
was a translation of Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey. And of course William
Shakespeare was born in 1564. [died 1616]

It was not only the arts which flourished, but all kinds of intellectual endeavour – and
we need to realise that distinctions which we today make between science and art and
technology and superstition would have had no meaning for the Elizabethans. For
example, John Dee, [1527-1608] who was Elizabeth’s fortune-teller, was also a
brilliant mathematician and believer in the Copernican system of astronomy before
the rise of Galileo [1564-1642] the great Italian astronomer whose observations first
demonstrated that the Sun and not the Earth was the centre of the universe.

Sir Walter Raleigh [1552-1618] courtier and adventurer, founded the first English
colony in America. Journeys of exploration, trade and in many cases simple piracy
were financed by the nobility and the great merchant companies of London.

But though England’s power, wealth and importance increased enormously, though
Queen Elizabeth 1 and her Council provided good and stable government, and though
she was loved and revered by her subjects, we should not accept too rosy a picture of
the life of that time. In a period of rapid and radical economic, social and intellectual
change the efforts of the government were mostly conservative and like most
governments at all times they usually applied yesterday’s solutions to tomorrow’s
problems. (Beginning to sound familiar?) Unemployment was common, particularly
in rural areas. There was congestion of the cities, particularly London, by the
dispossessed, and squalid suburbs developed. Plague was common. In 1564, the year
of Shakespeare’s birth, more than 250 people died of it in the little town of Stratford
alone. Though the Queen was enlightened as despots go, she was certainly no
democrat and maintained an efficient Secret Service under Sir Francis Walsingham.

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The use of torture was a normal judicial procedure; public executions were common
and sometimes spectacularly horrible and bestial.

Geocentric V Heliocentric universe.

Before going any further it is important to note that during Shakespeare’s time there
were two views of the nature of the universe: the old medieval geocentric (earth) and
the new heliocentric (sun) view of Copernicus. While both theories existed parallel in
Shakespeare’s time, the most widespread belief was still the medieval one. It was to
be decades before the new Copernican theory gained wide acceptance.

The philosophers of the Middle Ages had constructed and built upon a system of the
world which was orderly, harmonious and self-consistent, and it was still this view
which held sway. It is therefore understandable that a playwright would use this in his
plays and not become involved in the latest academic findings. Something to
remember is that Shakespeare was not an academic, although he seems to have had at
least a little grammar school education. However, he’d certainly never been to a
university. He was a practicing playright with the perennial concern of playrights –
bottoms on seats!

Elizabethan concept of order or degree – maintaining the natural order of

things.
When studying Shakespeare it is necessary to have some understanding of the
Elizabethan hierarchical view of life & the world, i.e. the Elizabethan concept of
ORDER or DEGREE. An essential part of this system was ‘the great chain of being’.
This idea of a hierarchical cosmos is older than Christianity, but Christianity gave it
extra support, e.g. Paul says in Romans 13:1 "Let every soul be subject to the higher
power" and in 13:7 "Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due,
custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour". There was a
“chain of being” or “scale of degrees” which stretched from the foot of God’s throne
to the meanest of inanimate objects. (Place table below on whiteboard, or issue
printed sheets) The lowest level was mineral – mere existence without life; the next
vegetable – life without feeling; then animal – life with feeling; then man – life with
intelligence. Ranking high above these, on a purely spiritual level, were the angels.
Above all, God.

There was ranking within each category. In the mineral kingdom mud was on the
lowest level, with gold on the highest. There was a “link” to the vegetable kingdom,
moss – immobile yet living. The lowest animals were oysters (they have the sense of
touch but are as immobile as plants). The highest animals were the elephant or lion –
there is disagreement among the experts about this. The lowest among humans were
the peasants, the highest emperors, who came quite close to the lowest of the angels.
Every human being had a superior and an inferior fellow human. Social ranks were
hereby explained as God-given and unalterable. The English rules of succession are
based on this belief; according to these rules even a distant cousin can accede to a
title. This helped to create a sense of an enduring aristocracy, and of course was the
basis for the concept of the Divine Right of Kings.

SEE TABLE BELOW

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 GOD
Angelic creatures Pure intelligence
Man Intelligence
(sense/intellect/feeling) Animals Sense
Plants Growth but no sense
Inorganic matter Mere existence
Chaos Nothingness

It is important to note that within each given rank there are sub-hierarchies: just as
God is the highest spiritual being so is the sun to the plants, the king to his subjects,
the lion or elephant to all animals, man to woman, father to children, gold to other
metals etc. This hierarchy was seen as the structure of the universe and to challenge
any part of the structure was to risk CHAOS, i.e. utter confusion, the reduction of all
existence to formlessness. To us today chaos means hardly more than confusion on a
large scale: to an Elizabethan it meant the cosmic anarchy that existed before Creation
and the wholesale dissolution of everyone and everything. One link missing in the
chain could destroy the whole order. The only way to ensure that this chain of being
remained intact was to restore and maintain order.

To defy this NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS was a dangerous practice because such
action would release evil! The interesting thing in Shakespeare’s plays, of course,
(and equally a concern today!) is where evil resides. A universal theme. More about
that later.

This chain of being was a simple system, yet it had contradictions. All ages have had
them. The quest for the Grand Unified Theory in physics can be seen as an attempt in
our time to explain contradictions in our modern world view. However, the quest for
the ultimate answer to the ultimate question – ‘what is man?” - goes on. In fact it is
one of the central issues in one of our plays in particular. We’ll get to it later. But for
now, let’s accept that the concept of ORDER is central to all three tragedies we are
about to consider.

What is tragedy?
Now, let’s look briefly at what is meant in the theatre by tragedy, in particular
Shakespearean tragedy.

The Classical (Ancient Greek) tragic hero:

• Must be noble in nature, but imperfect so the audience can see themselves in
him.
• He is doomed from the start, as his Fate is decided for him by the gods.
• He is destroyed by his own actions (i.e. defying the will of the gods.)
• He is in the end destroyed.
• Those close to him are often destroyed as well.

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 • He eventually comes to see and understand his doom.
• His story arouses empathy and fear.

The Shakespearean tragic hero.

All the above dramatic conventions apply, except one. Shakespeare gave his
characters free will. Their Fate is not determined by external forces. They determine
it themselves through their own decisions and actions.

Now: to our three plays.

In the three plays we are to consider, Shakespeare examines the nature of man.
Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear are three of his most complete characters – and note I
say are and not were. They’re still with us today. Hopefully during our discussions
throughout this course you’ll be able to identify some contemporary Macbeths,
Hamlets and King Lears!!

…………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

MACBETH

Circa (1605)

Macbeth was written to be performed for King James 1. Before his accession to the
English throne James had been King James V1 of Scotland, now he was King of both.
Like all artists of his time, Shakespeare depended on the patronage of wealthy people,
and James was interested in and an accepted expert on demonology, writing a book on
the subject which is still today an accepted text for the study of this belief. It is
generally believed that Shakespeare introduced the characters of the 3 witches to
please the King. (Early extant folios of the play do not include them.) He succeeded –
the play was first performed at Hampton Court before the King and his brother-in-
law, King Christian of Denmark in 1606. You have your summaries of the plot. Let’s
quickly run through them. (Summary at end of notes as Appendix)

Ambition
The irony of Macbeth’s situation is that what destroys him – his ambition - is what
has made him great and has the potential for making him greater.

However, from early in the play Macbeth himself recognises it as his “fatal flaw”, in
Act 1 Scene 7 he acknowledges his:

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

And falls on the other side

When we first meet Macbeth he is presented to us as a loyal subject of his King, a

mighty soldier, a man of action. The “bleeding captain” praises “…… brave
Macbeth”, and King Duncan himself calls him “noble Macbeth.” But things are
rarely what they seem in Macbeth. The Witches introduce this theme when they

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intone “Fair is foul and foul is fair ”. The play – an exceptionally violent play – is
full of ambiguity and double meanings, beginning with the Witches’ prophecies.
Then:
• Duncan goes to a place of shelter and security and is murdered.
• One of Duncan’s sons calls “murder” in his sleep and the other laughs.
• Is the dagger (Is this a dagger I see before me…?) real or an hallucination?.
• Is Macbeth regretting his actions when he says “Had I but died an hour….” or
merely regretting that he’s getting into trouble?
• Does Lady Macbeth really faint at the banquet or is she creating a diversion
from her husband’s over-reaction to his vision of Banquo’s ghost.?
• Does Lady Macbeth die naturally or commit suicide?
• What exactly does Macbeth mean when he responds to news of his wife’s
death with “She should have died hereafter”?
• Is Macbeth driven to murder by his wife, or does she merely provide him with
excuses to do what he really wanted to do anyway?

Q: Are things always as they seem today?

This is an intensely violent play. While most of the killings take place off-stage, the
characters provide the audience with gory descriptions of the carnage, from the
opening scenes when the captain describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on
the battlefield to the numerous references to the bloodstained hands of the Macbeths.
In fact the action of the play is book-ended by a pair of bloody battles: in the first
battle Macbeth defeats the invaders. In the second he is slain by Macduff. By the end
of the action, blood seems to be everywhere. (Blood is mentioned some 39 times in
the play.) “Will all great Nature’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand?”
cries Macbeth after he has killed Duncan. Lady Macbeth cries “Out, damned spot, out
I say….who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
Blood symbolises their guilt. In fact, the two dominant colours in the play are red and
black – seldom does the sun (symbolic of the light of goodness) shine. As in other
Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth’s grotesque murder spree is accompanied by a
number of unnatural occurrences in the natural realm. Just prior to the murder,
Lennox arrives at Macbeth’s castle and reports that:

“The night has been unruly. Where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,
Lamentings heard I’ th’air, strange screams of death,
And prophesising with accents terrible
Of dire combustion (tumult) and confused event….”

Immediately following the murder of Duncan there are reports of such unnatural acts
as noble falcons being killed by common owls, and the King’s thoroughbred stallions
breaking loose from their stalls and, it was rumoured, eating one another.
Furthermore, terrible storms reflect this violation of the natural order, symbolising
corruption in the moral and political world of the play.

What has happened, of course, is that the natural order of things has been
disturbed. Duncan was King of the realm, and as such at the top of this “world”.
Macbeth had been his subject, one who had been honoured by Duncan and who owed

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his king loyalty and obedience. Instead he had murdered him, so breaking the chain of
being. The breach also occurred on another level - it was the convention that when
someone was a guest under your roof it was your duty to protect them. So Macbeth
had offended on three levels – as a host, as a friend and as a subject. In addition, to go
even further up the chain, the King held his position as the direct representative of
God, so in challenging the King Macbeth had challenged God. Dire consequences
were to follow, and the wild weather and the reported unnatural acts were but the
beginning. Society was in danger of disintegration.

Q: Do you see moral parallels?

It is obvious from early in the play that that Macbeth is well aware of the significance
of what he is about to do. In his soliloquy commencing “Is this a dagger I see before
me….?” he speaks of “wicked dreams” which “abuse the curtained sleep”. Yet he
persists with the plan to murder his friend, his guest and his King. There is also good
reason to believe that he has been considering something like this for some time.
When Macbeth and Banque meet the Witches on the Heath and they (the Witches)
deliver the prophecies, the two men react differently. Banquo bluntly dismisses them,
remarking that:

“….oftimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to be tray’s
In deepest consequence.”

On the other hand Macbeth’s reaction prompts Banquo to comment that his
companion seems both startled by what has been said and fascinated by it. This,
together with Lady Macbeth’s detailed analysis of the situation in Act 1 Scene 5 leads
us to suspect that the prospect of Macbeth becoming King and how he might go about
it has been discussed by them previously. It is obvious she has been thinking about the
possibility of her husband becoming king –one suspects for some time and at some
length. Immediately on receipt of Macbeth’s letter informing her of his promotion and
of the Witches’ prophecies, she soliloquises:

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be

What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it………………………

Q: Here are two men – Macbeth & Banquo - faced with the same
challenge/temptation but reacting differently. What accounts for this? Any
modern parallels?

How guilty is Lady Macbeth?

We now come, of course, to what is probably the most frequently asked question
about this play – in fact it has been asked ad nauseam over the years – to what degree
was Lady Macbeth responsible for what followed? She speaks in her soliloquy of
Macbeth being “….too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness…”, great, not without

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ambition, but “without/The illness should attend it…” Macbeth enters immediately
afterwards and they discuss the prophecies, with Lady Macbeth telling him to
“….look like th’ innocent flower/But be the serpent under ‘t.” Macbeth’s response is
“We will speak further” and his wife replies “Leave all the rest to me.” Note that
never at any time during this interchange is there mention of murdering Duncan, but
there is the underlying impression that both know exactly what is being referred to,
because this is a continuation a previous discussion. The next time we meet Macbeth
is in soliloquy, one which makes it clear that he is fully aware of what is being
considered – the murder of his King so he, Macbeth, can succeed him. This speech is
so significant that it needs to be considered her in full:

ACT 1, Scene vii, opening speech: “If it were done…………………..And falls on th’
other

Now let us analyse what has been said.

If he is to act he must act quickly.
BUT:
Macbeth is both Duncan’s kinsman (friend) and his subject
AND
On this occasion his host.
ALSO
Duncan is someone so admired that his murder would horrify and enrage all who
knew him.
THEREFORE
While Macbeth admits to possessing “ambition”, he is not prepared to take the
necessary risk/action.

What does he mean when he says “……I have no spur/To prick the side of my
intent?” Has he decided that he cannot abandon his duty?? Has he convinced himself
that such a course is unwise, dangerous, that “vaulting ambition” (note “vaulting’)
can, indeed, lead to disaster? Does he lack the courage to act?

Q: What do you think?

As Macbeth is still soliloquising, his wife enters and he tells her:

“We will proceed no further in this business”,
He hath honoured me of late,
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which could be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.”

Is he trying to put himself in the best possible light here? Who knows, but one thing is
certain – Lady Macbeth is not impressed. She rants at him and, if we analyse all that
she says, we can see that she concentrates on challenging her husband’s manhood
and, most significantly, his courage.

Read speech beginning “Was the hope drunk…………

Lady Macbeth knows her husband. He is a soldier, a man of action, not a thinker. To
accuse him of cowardice is to strike at what he values most, his bravery. To accuse

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him of cowardice is to strip him of his self-esteem. When his determination not to act
begins to waver, he asks “If we should fail/”and she replies: “…screw your courage
to the sticking place/And we’ll not fail.” Finally, the decision is made. Duncan will
be murdered.

Q: Right – now - who is to blame?

It is significant to note that it is Macbeth who refers to what is about to happen as

“this terrible feat.” He is, we have seen and heard, well aware of all the implications
of what he is about to do – personal, moral, political. He chooses to murder Duncan.
At this stage and at any subsequent stage he could have exercised his free will and
called a halt. But he does not.

The “noble” warrior sets out on a path which will see him degenerate into a
“butcher.”

Another major issue raised by Shakespeare in Macbeth is one he examines in all three
of our plays.

The nature of evil.

Q: What is evil? Where is it to be found?

Macbeth examines the nature of evil, the corruption of the human soul. In this play
evil is the opposite of humanity, the deviation from that which is natural for mankind.
Yet evil is shown to originate within man himself; it is the “darkness of the human
heart” that Shakespeare examines in all his tragedies. Many other writers have
followed his lead. (Joseph Conrad, the 20th century English novelist is just one of
them – one of his novels is in fact titled Heart of Darkness.) The supernatural and
unnatural forces in the play are shown as the agents of human beings, not their
instigators. There is no external “evil force” out there waiting to pounce. It is
something lying latent within all humans.

Q: Who/what are the Witches?

Having killed Duncan Macbeth is immediately filled with remorse. “wake Duncan
with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.” he says But, he does nothing to right the
wrong, even though he has free will and the power to do so. His fear of earthly justice
compels him to make even more inhuman choices. He places the blame on the guards
and kills them before they can establish their innocence. He has Banquo, his closest
friend, killed because he fears he is suspicious. Having missed the opportunity to kill
Macduff, he extracts revenge by having the innocent Lady Macduff and her children
slaughtered.

By the end of the play Macbeth is a bloody tyrant, disappointed in all aspects of his
life: his reign, his marriage, no chance of a family to establish a dynasty. Knowing he
is doomed to lose, Macbeth still persists in battling against Macduff, the
representative of virtue and the character who sets out to redress the evil in the play.

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He is no longer “noble Macbeth” but he clings to that which he has prized so highly
during his life – his courage. When Macduff demands “…yield thee, coward,” and
points out to Macbeth that only humiliation awaits him if he lives, Macbeth cries “I
will not yield…” and faces Macduff with the words:
“……………….Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries ‘Enough!”

Macbeth. dies, as he has lived, by the sword.

Q: How much, if any sympathy, do we have for Macbeth? Do we retain any

respect for him? Are we moved to pity by the sight of a hero transformed into a
monster? Any 20th/21st century “monsters”?

………………………………………………………………………………….

Hamlet; Prince of Denmark.

(circa 1600)

Before we proceed with a discussion of this play, it is especially necessary that we

take note of the historical period in which it was written. Shakespeare wrote his plays
at the height of the Renaissance, the humanistic revival of art, architecture, literature
and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century and later spread to the rest of
Europe, lasting until the 16th century. It marked the transition from medieval to
modern times. It was characterised by a spirit of enquiry, of the questioning of
tradition and establoshed ideas.

Q: Sound familiar in the 21st century?

Now – to the play. If we were to describe the plot of Hamlet to someone quite
ignorant of the play, and provided we were careful to tell our listener nothing about
Hamlet’s character, what impression would our synopsis make on him/her? Perhaps
the response would be something like:
“What a sensational story! Why, here are some eight violent deaths, not to speak of
adultery, a ghost, a mad woman and a fight in a grave!?” Then he/she might go on to
ask:
“But why in the world didn’t Hamlet obey the Ghost at once, and so save seven of
those eight lives?”

The answer is - because of the peculiar nature of the central character.

The play certainly does have elements of a revenge tragedy, popular with the
Elizabethans, with its ghost seeking revenge, frantic behaviour by the avenger and a
bloody finale. Elizabethan audiences were familiar with such plots; however, they
would also have been very aware of the huge moral dilemma involved in revenge,
especially for a character such as Hamlet, a thinker rather than a man of action: a
man commanded to do what he is not sure is right. He is very much a Renaissance
man – refusing to accept things as they have always been, exposing old customs and
old values to intellectual examination, thinking for himself. At the same time, of

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course, he is a man caught between two worlds – the old and the new – and not
belonging fully to either.

Hamlet is an isolated man. This is reflected dramatically in performance: at his first

appearance at Court the audience is struck by the symbolic contrast between the
brooding young Hamlet in his unadorned black cloak and the superficial brilliance of
the richly garbed Court at Elsinore. Here dramatic irony is at work – the audience
already know of Hamlet’s meeting with the Ghost when Hamlet first faces the Court –
those at Court do not.
The character of Hamlet embodies the increasing complexity of society and its
moral order.

Q: Is 21st century man isolated?

What aspects/developments over, say, the past 100 years might lead us to answer
“yes?”

During Shakespeare’s time there was a move away from primitive reaction such as
“an eye for an eye” to a life governed by law, order and morality. Queen Elizabeth 1,
for example, instituted a number of reforms in England which made assault or murder
of a fellow citizen illegal. The rule of law came to be the accepted norm and personal
revenge less so. This gave rise to an essential human dilemma – that on one hand a
person would instinctively want to seek revenge on someone who had murdered or
injured a family member or loved one, yet on the other hand know that such revenge
was morally and legally wrong. It is this dilemma that Shakespeare examines in this
play. It seems that what finally destroys Hamlet is procrastination – his delay in
deciding on a course of action. The plot outline shows how he procrastinates. Why
does he do this? Is he justified in doing so? What effect does his procrastination have
on others? Let’s address these questions.

Q: Revenge – do we still find ourselves seeking it?

When Hamlet is first confronted with the truth about his father’s death his
spontaneous reaction is one of pure revenge. In Act 1 Scene 5 he speaks with the
Ghost (of his dead father):
Ghost: Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall unfold.
Hamlet Speak, I am bound to hear.
Ghost So art thou to revenge,…..
On hearing the Ghost tell the tale of murder most foul, Hamlet replies:
Hamlet ………………….I, with wings as swift
As meditation (thought) or the thought of love
May sweep to my revenge.
However, by end of the same scene the Hamlet exclaims:
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!

So, even though Hamlet realises that he must act both to punish his Father’s murderer
and repair the damage done to the State of Denmark (of which he is the heir) he
cannot reconcile what he accepts is his duty with his intellectual need to do what he
thinks is right – and to be seen as doing so.

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 Q: Are people today confronted with situations in which it is demanded, or at
least expected, that we act according to tradition, even though we are not
convinced such action is either wise or right? What are/have been some of these
situations?

Throughout Act 11 Hamlet seems incapable of making a decision. He is the

malcontent, overwhelmed by grief and disgust for the world. He berates himself in a
soliloquy (Act 11 Scene 2) for being a coward, for being a “dull and muddy-mettled
(weak spirited) rascal”, (attempting, perhaps, to whip himself into such a frenzy that
he will extract swift revenge? )But then, significantly, at the conclusion of the
soliloquy and on uttering the words “About, my brain….”, (that is, now let me think
about it,) he decides to seek more proof of Claudius’s guilt and so “……have grounds
(for action) more relative than this.”

Q: Is Hamlet really concerned about being absolutely sure of the new King’s
guilt or is this just another excuse for putting off action that is repugnant to him?

Even after he is presented with clear and uncontrovertible evidence of Claudius’s guilt
(in the play-within-a-play) and when he has the chance to kill the King while he is at
prayer (and so “in a state of grace”) he does not do so. His stated reason – if he kills
Claudius while he (Claudius) is at prayer he will go straight to Heaven. Hamlet
determines to find a more perfect kind of revenge, perhaps:

When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,

Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At game aswearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in’t …..Act 111, Scene 3

Unfortunately, by the time Hamlet does act, Claudius has become aware of his
intentions and implements a plan of his own. Hamlet’s continued procrastination
continues to lead not only to his own destruction , but to the destruction of those
around him. Claudius has had time to realise that Hamlet is aware of the truth about
his father’s death and puts his own plan in place, with tragic consequences for the
assassins Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Meanwhile Hamlet’s protracted insensitivity
towards the innocent Ophelia has driven her to madness and suicide. Hamlet id
manipulated into a public duel with Laertes. His mother, guilty of nothing more than
foolishness, falls into the trap designed by her husband and intended for Hamlet – she
drinks the poisoned wine. Laertes dies because he loved his sister. Earlier the
bumbling, pompous but non-threatening Polonius had died when he was mistaken for
Claudius. Hamlet finally wounds Claudius with the poisoned sword and, having
achieved his purpose, kills himself. But how many could have been saved had Hamlet
not taken so long to decide on a course of action?

Q: Does today’s society procrastinate – i.e. delay acting on difficult issues?

Examples?

Corruption as a symbol of evil.

13
Let us look at another universal theme in Hamlet. – corruption as a symptom of evil.
This is conveyed by the sustained image of a leprous skin disease – an ulcer, which
lurks beneath a layer of seemingly healthy skin but rots the flesh underneath, just as
the colourful, attractive and sumptuous trappings of the Court at Elsinore hides what
is infecting and fatally eating away the whole body of the society. Repulsive images
of sickness appear continually. This image is introduced is introduced by the Ghost of
Hamlet’s father when he reveals how he was murdered:

And in the porches of my ears did pour

The leprous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body,
And with a sudden vigour it doth posset (curdle)
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so it did mine;
And a most instant tetter (scab) bark’d about,
Most lazar-like, (leper-like) with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

Now, of course one can’t leave our look at this play without examining perhaps one of
the best known Shakespearean speeches : To be or not to be……. Act 111 Scene 1
(p65) READ

For many years, indeed several centuries, a common interpretation of this soliloquy
has been that Hamlet is considering suicide. However, this is not the contemporary
view, there is another, one with which I agree. Hamlet is a thinker, given to analysing
situations, some would say ad nauseam. Therefore, it is not surprising to find him
considering objectively the alternatives in the situation in which he finds himself.
Furthermore, would we expect a young man considering taking his own life to be
capable in this situation of the reasoned, logical argument he presents in this passage?
Let us look at how his argument is developed.

“To be or nor to be……………………end them.” Should I act or try to escape from the
problem? he asks. Now he sets out, in his inimitable way, to consider the alternative.
First, logically, the ultimate escape is death, “to sleep, perchance to dream “ BUT here
his argument changes course with an acceptance that this alternative is not as
complete (or desirable) as it might at first appear “ay, there’s th’ rub” he says. The
change in direction is signalled by the word “dream” – after all, what Hamlet is
seeking here is something more desirable than his current situation, and a dream is
just that – something that is unreal, intangible and transitory. Indeed there is, as he
says later in the speech, “….the dread of something after death/the undiscover’d
country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns.” Why then, go from one uncertainty
to one even more uncertain? So, he reasons, it is more logical to “……bear those ills
we have/Than fly to others we know not of…….” than to seek escape via a “bare
bodkin”, especially considering the uncertainty of what one is escaping to. Far from
considering death by his own hand, I would suggest, Hamlet uses the concept purely
in an intellectual sense, to construct a balanced argument.

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Do we see Hamlet simply as a young man who can’t make up his mind? And what
about his relationship with his mother – his intense fury at her hasty re-marriage, his
seeming obsession with the sexual relationship she has with Claudius.
Understandable? A little too much?

What is man?
As I mentioned in my introduction to this course, Shakespeare’s work is relevant to
all ages because he deals with universal themes. Throughout the play, for example,
Shakespeare has Hamlet reflect on the degree of control we humans have over our
own lives. Shakespeare has Hamlet say:

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will ……… Act V, Scene 2, lines 10-11

Q: Do we in the 21st century believe we are controlled by a higher force of some

kind, or do we believe we determine our own fate? What are the implications of
both beliefs as far as restrictions on our behaviour and the way we live our lives
are concerned?

These questions are probably more relevant for us today than any generation since
Shakespeare wrote his play. He lived in a time of rapid change, when traditional
beliefs were being challenged. We live in that kind of world. You see what I mean by
a universal theme – an issue which is of relevance to all people at all times. The
question “Am I controlled by a higher force?” has been asked ever since man first
walked on the earth. Hamlet asks in desperation:

“…………………………………………What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed?...............”

As always, Shakespeare doesn’t give us the answer, he only asks the question,
inviting us to think about it. That is why we are still reading, watching and studying
Shakespeare’s plays.

There is just so much to consider in this, Shakespeare’s longest play. However, we’ll
conclude our consideration of it by asking ourselves the questions:

Q: How much patience with/sympathy for Hamlet do we have?

KING LEAR
(Circa 1607)

Lear is a mythical figure, there is no historical evidence that he ever lived (as opposed
to Macbeth) The actual story of Leir and his daughters had existed prior to
Shakespeare’s time. However, it had been a simple melodrama with a happy ending.

Shakespeare took the basic storyline and crafted his play – one which is in many ways
unsettling. It asks many questions but provides no answers, rather it presents us with

15
diametrically opposed viewpoints. The story is deliberately set in ancient pagan
Britain, far back in the mists of time. There is no mention of the Christian God; there
is reference is to gods plural and certain characters speak of supernatural deities
believed to control events on earth. It is as if Shakespeare chose to begin at the
beginning – to have Lear as Everyman asking the basic human question: “Who is it
that can tell me who I am”

Lear himself.
To begin we need to look at the character of Lear himself. Here is an old man who
moves step by step from a position of enormous power, status, wealth, responsibility,
social complexity and security into a terrible isolation from his fellow human beings,
his family, and nature itself, suffers horribly from the stripping away of his entire
identity, goes mad as a result of his experience, recovers briefly and descends into
despair and insanity again moment before his death.

The central struggle in the play (other than the main one going on in
Lear's own mind) is between people who see their relationship with Lear
and with others from different perspectives. Those who seek to assist Lear
and strive to combat the forces who wish to abuse him (e.g., Kent,
Cordelia, the Fool, Edgar, Gloucester, and eventually Albany) are
motivated principally by a traditional sense of love, respect, and
allegiance—

The other group is made up of those who serve primarily themselves,

whose attitude towards others is largely determined by their desire to use
people for their own self-advancement (e.g., Regan, Goneril, Cornwall,
Edmund, Oswald). For them, traditional notions of the importance of
bonds are illusions, outmoded conventions standing in the way of their
individual desire for power. Thus, they are ready to violate established
bonds (like those between a father and child or between a husband and
wife or between a king and subject) in order to pursue their own agendas.

Q: Sound familiar?

At the start of the play King Lear has a rich, powerful, and complex
social identity. He is both king of his country and patriarch of his family,
the lynch pin which holds together the structure of a society which the
opening scene presents to us in full formal splendour. Everyone looks to
him as the source of order and meaning. Lear himself is very aware of his
importance and his chief purpose at the beginning of the play is to retain
it. However in this scene he is officially transferring the power and the
responsibilities of the throne onto his children: i.e. he is resigning. We are
not given an explicit reason other than that Lear wants to spend the rest of
his life free of the cares which come with the position of king. But we are
to discover that in surrendering the position, Lear has no intention of
ceasing to be treated as if he is, in fact, still the king.

Only we still retain

The name, and all the additions to a king. . . (1.1.135-136)

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Lear's story is a tragedy because, faced with external circumstances which
increasingly do not support his vision of himself, Lear refuses to
compromise. He will not listen to what the fool is telling him, he resists
his own growing awareness that he might have made a mistake, and, most
important, he will not adjust his desires or his conduct to fit what his
daughters are prepared to do for him.

Q: Once again - sound familiar?

Relationships between parents and children and between siblings are at the core
of the plot. Both plot and sub plot of the play focus on what happens when children
turn against parents. Although in King Lear this results in a kingdom being torn apart
and leads to several deaths, the basic conflict in the story is a version of a simple,
ordinary, universal situation: what aged parents expect from their children and the
reaction of their children to these expectations. Shakespeare is here dramatising the
point at which power is shifting from one generation to the next.

When the play opens Lear is planning to abdicate, but the love-test he imposes shows
that he really wishes to retain the authority he is ostensibly renouncing . He demands
love and gratitude., attempting to manipulate affection.

Q: Can this be done?

When Cordelia refuses to honour him with extravagant overtures of love, he rages.
Later, when Goneril and Regan begin to wear him down with their subsequent refusal
to honour him, he rages. This rage at the injustice he sees in his children’s ingratitude
is what drives him to madness.

“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is

To have a thankless child!..........” he cries in fury – and self-pity.

The violence of his language – of father to daughter - towards Goneril is horrendous:

READ: Act 1 Scene 4 commencing “Hear Nature, hear dear

Goddess…………………….. up to “To have a thankless child.”

Cordelia and Edgar are part of the “old” order. They love their parents, bear no
grudge for the wrongs done them and honour the elderly, faults and all. Goneril,
Regan and Edmund, on the other hand, are part of a “new” order, full of (usually
vicious) energy and unwilling to wait for power and position to pass naturally to
them. In a sense they are the modernists, the self-serving revolutionaries who want
their future, now – or even yesterday!

Q: Any modern parallels?

We are given tantalizingly few hints as to what sort of ruler Lear was, or whether
Gloucester deserved honour and respect as a parent. But the little evidence we do
have, combined with the rage and fury and unnatural punishment both men unleash on
their children suggest that neither old man was a model parent.

17
 Q: Shakespeare is suggesting that respect must be earned, not demanded, and
that parents have duties towards children just as children have duties towards
parents.
A 21st century issue?

Indeed we cannot but ask, however quietly, whether Goneril, Regan and especially
Edmund (more about him shortly) are not at least a little justified in their demands at
the beginning of the play. The later deeds of these three characters may render this
question irrelevant, but it is still an issue to consider at the beginning of the story. The
question is complex and debatable, but accounts in part for the timeless relevance of
this story of King Lear and his daughters and Gloucester and his sons.

What we have been considering so far is an absolute monarch. We are reminded of

the adage “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The play is
not only a tragedy of parents and children, of pride and ingratitude; it is also a
tragedy of kingship. Power corrupts not only the possessor’s capacity for loving, but
the spontaneity of other’s love. The person with the power can never be sure that the
professed love of friends and relations is disinterested, it may easily be purposeful
flattery.

Q: Is this why very wealthy people are often unhappy? Examples?

Evil in the worldA reverberating issue in this play is the sense that evil is
something normal, residing in the hearts of people all around us, those
who are on the surface indistinguishable from ourselves, people whom we
would have no reason to suspect of being capable of evil acts and who,
were circumstances different, might very well not turn to evil.

Regan and Goneril, after all, are not witches. Their most distinctive
characteristic is, in some ways, their normality. They are ambitious
women who have waited a long time to receive the power which is to be
their inheritance. And once they have the power, they are anxious to use it
for their own immediate self-interest. No special criticism can really be
made of them for telling their father how much they love him; what they
say is obviously an exaggerated lie, but they are playing a game which he
has set up. And their objections to Lear's retinue are (or can be seen as)
largely justified. One can even have some sympathy for their sense that if
they turn their father loose with all those knights, there may be some
political trouble.

The source of their evil is an absence of love or respect for their father,
both as a father, a king, and a human being. Lear may very well be a
difficult person to deal with--a strong egotist with excessive demands. But
Regan and Goneril, once they have power, have no further interest in Lear
as a person. He is simply a nuisance. We do not need to demonize this
attitude, because Lear clearly is a nuisance. But the casual way in which
they rationalize away their neglect of him speaks volumes. They set their
own interests above those of anyone else, including their father. This does
not spring from any particular desire to hurt their father. It is simply an

18
expression of their pre-eminent concern for their own interests, a concern
which enables them to treat anyone who has nothing they want as an
object. But the habit, once initiated, leads step by step to conduct of
extreme cruelty (like the putting out of Gloucester's eyes) and his
banishment to Dover.

Regan and Goneril thus represent a particular vision of evil as stemming

from a self-interested quest for power and self-interest which simply
ignores any limits which an attention to traditional "bonds" might require
(other than a pretense to honour such bonds when it serves their interests).

Q: Modern examples?

Edmund's attitude is precisely the same. He is not a diabolically evil

person, a devil incarnate. Nor does he have a specific agenda. He is a
recognizably normal person who wants to get on the world and who is
prepared to abandon ancient communal traditions in order to secure an
advantage for himself. He's not all that interested in being cruel to others
or killing them just for sake of hurting others, but he's not going to let any
traditional notions of obligation, respect, virtue, or bonding prevent him
from making what he can of his opportunities. And to be fair, he has
reason to resent his position in his own family. We can understand his
seething resentment. Consider our introduction to him in the opening
scene of the play - his own father speaking about him to a friend in his
(Edmund’s) own presence (we all hate that – being treated as if we were
not present!). Let us look to the opening lines of the play for an example
of Edmund’s humiliation.

(READ opening speech of ACT 1 SCENE 2.) We can understand Edmund’s

humiliation. It’s certainly reflected in the soliloquy. But can his experience be
accepted as an excuse for his later behaviour?

Relevance to the concept of evil in modern times.Part of the disturbing

power of King Lear comes from the fact that Edmund, Goneril, Regan,
and Cornwall are at first so normal in their vision of themselves and their
actions. We all know people like them, and we can even feel some
genuine sympathy for how they initially behave. What this play forces us
to consider, however, is where this individualistic, aggressive self-
fashioning stance logically leads. Everything that Edmund and the sisters
do in this play is quite consistent with their initial attitude, so that we are
invited to consider how the grossest of evils arise out of something we see
all around us and perhaps even feel from time to time in ourselves

In the twentieth century we have become familiar with his vision of

evil, largely as the result of World War II, in which horrific evil
was organized, carried out, and justified by ordinary people, who
often began by simply wanting to "get ahead." The best known
example is Adolf Eichmann, for whom Hannah Arendt, in her
study of his trial (Eichmann in Jerusalem), coined the phrase "The
Banality of Evil." The frequent attempt to demonize such in the

19
 individuals, that is, to make them as abnormal and unnatural as
possible, is one indication of how uncomfortable we are with the
notion that they are recognizably normal.

Part of the disturbing power of King Lear comes from the fact that
Edmund, Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall are at first so normal in their
vision of themselves and their actions. We all know people like them, and
we can even feel some genuine sympathy for how they initially behave.
What this play forces us to consider, however, is where this
individualistic, aggressive self-fashioning stance logically leads. Perhaps
to the “Blow you Jack, I’m all right” attitude?

Everything that Edmund and the sisters do in this play is quite consistent
with their initial attitude, so that we are invited to consider how the
grossest of evils can arise out of something we see all around us and
perhaps even feel from time to time in ourselves

Nature of Justice.

Edmund’s stand is against the convention of his time. Other characters believe the
gods control the actions of man and this is significant, because if this is so, a
significant issue arises – that of justice.

Some have believed that Shakespeare, as well as Gloucester, believed that:

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,

They kill us for their sport.

Others have supposed that he would have subscribed to Kent’s exclamation that the
stars govern our condition, or, more plausibly, that he would have agreed with
Edgar’s stern summing up:

The gods are just, and of our vices

Make instruments to plague us.

But all these, and other, statements about the gods are appropriate to those who speak
them, and to the immediate condition in which they are spoken. Shakespeare the
dramatist stays in the background, showing us his pagan characters groping their way
towards an understanding of justice.

Cordelia, Edgar and Goneril’s husband Albany are the only characters in this pagan
story who appear to have belief in gods with virtues as least similar to those we would
class as Christian. Edgar claims the gods are just. Cordelia calls on “you kind gods” to
restore her father’s sanity. Albany states the hope that while Cordelia is in prison the
gods will defend her. However, Lear’s sanity is not restored and immediately
following the line “May the gods defend her” comes the stage direction “enter Lear,
the dead Cordelia in his arms.”

In Macbeth and Hamlet justice is clearly done at the end: Hamlet kills his father’s
murderer and Macbeth is killed by the man whose family suffered most from his

20
ruthless grab for power. The gods at work in King Lear certainly punish wrongdoing
– Edmund, Goneril, Regan and her husband die: Lear is punished with madness for
his sins against Cordelia, Gloucester with blindness for his actions against Edgar. But
the most innocent, virtuous person in the story is murdered. This lack of justice, in the
conventional sense at least, contributes to this play being the bleakest and most
harrowing of any Shakespearean work. What happens seems more a cruel and final
settlement of scores than justice. At the end of both Macbeth and Hamlet there is hope
for the future: in King Lear none is expressed.

Q: Justice in the 21st century? How do you see it?

Is the play totally pessimistic? The noted 20th century Shakespearean critic Kenneth
Muir says not. He claims that Shakespeare went back to the beginning – to a pre-
Christian world - and built up the nature of man from within man himself and had the
characters seek to develop moral parameters without the aid of an established belief or
revealed religion. Muir asserts that in the created world of lust, cruelty and greed,
with extremes of wealth and poverty, it is shown that man really needs neither wealth
nor power, nor even physical freedom. Instead he needs patience, love mutual
forgiveness and stoical fortitude. Muir points to Edgar’s stern admonition that:
“………….Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
Ripeness is all.

That is, all man can do is accept what ever life brings and deal with it as best he can.

Q: Any relevance to man’s position in the modern world? The novelist George
Orwell maintained that “The tragedy of 20th century man is that he exists in a
moral vacuum.” What do you think?

A huge number of critics have written about King Lear. It is considered by most
Shakespearean scholars to be one of his greatest plays. Much of the thinking and
philosophy is focused on the role and position of the individual and less on systems
of belief and strict social order, which makes it especially relevant for modern
man. During the 20th century there was a growing climate of humanism. Man was
charged with, indeed urged to, determine his own fate and learn to live with it. This is
what the characters in King Lear had been forced to do. They had not been provided
with set answers to life’s problems. Their gods were at the best unpredictable. The
characters in King Lear are on their own. Free (or is it forced) to make their own
decisions. Today we call this individualism.

So let us consider this concept of individualism. People are very ready to demand
their rights as individuals – sounds great. No one can tell me what to do, they say.
Blow you Jack, I’m all right, Taken to the extreme, individualism is the law of the
jungle – the survival of the fittest.

Q: Do we have a 21st century “law of the jungle’? How does it manifest itself?

What is the true nature of man?

21
Moving to the broader philosophical issue of the play, the thread that ties everything
together is the “journey” that Lear makes: from ruler of a kingdom through madness
to an understanding of himself and the world. As already pointed out, Lear himself
asks the central question of the play: “Who is it that will tell me who I am?” i.e –
what is the nature of man.? What am I? Why am I? All the main characters ask this
question at some time. Lear himself finally comes to a realisation of what true
humanity is when during the storm on the heath he sheds his power, his pride, his
egocentricity (and symbolically his clothes) and recognises his one-ness with all men.

It is significant that at this moment, before he goes mad, Lear stops

thinking about himself and calling attention to his own sense of injustice.
Instead, for the first time, he expresses genuine feeling for the sufferings
of others:

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall our houseless heads and unfed sides,
You looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! (3.4.29-34)

Isolation – a theme in all three plays.

One thing you will have noticed about all three of our characters - Macbeth, Hamlet
and King Lear is that they become progressively isolated as the action progresses.
Even at the start, of course, they are “isolated” from mankind in general by their
eminence, but throughout the play they are projected into a private world – Macbeth
finds that he can confide in no-one, not even his wife, Lear “abdures all roofs” and
moves to the stormy heath, and even at the outset of the play Hamlet is estranged and
his isolation intensified by his estrangement from Ophelia. Through this isolation
each is thrown back upon himself.

Lear feels his identity crumbling when, astounded by his daughters’ ingratitude, he
asks:

Does any here know me? This is not Lear.

Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Who is it that can tell me who I am……..Act 1 Scene 4:

On the heath he comes to know who he is: he is one who has taken too little care, and
accepts his common humanity. But, as we would say, it had been a rough ride.

Macbeth comes to a recognition that his actions have had a result opposite from what
he had intended. He aimed at the crown, thinking it would bring him happiness, but
his hopes deceived him:

I have lived long enough. My way of life

Is fall’n in the sear, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

22
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

Surely one of the saddest speeches to be found in literature. He achieved his ambition
– to become king – but at what price?

Q: Deals done on the way up – then paying the price. Modern examples?

Hamlet’s isolation is nowhere in the play more clearly summed up than in the lines
previously quoted;
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!

He is living in a world which he finds alien:

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seems to me all the uses of this world!

Here Hamlet is being Hamlet – thinking, thinking thinking and alone ………uncertain
of himself in a rapidly changing world.

How isolated is modern man?

Conclusion.

If one were charged with identifying one outstanding feature of Shakespeare’s art, it
would have to be his creation of character – not just the provision of people who are
there so the plot can unfold, so things can happen to them, but rounded, flesh-and-
blood, complex characters – believable characters - who make things happen. Before
Shakespeare presented his vast cast of characters to the world, audiences, had never
been shown such real people. But by watching his plays, observing such characters,
his audiences could come to see the humanity in those around them in a new and
more enlightened way. We are still doing this, and sometimes it can be a very
unsettling process! His plays bring us to ask, along with his characters, such universal
and eternal questions as:

• What is man?
• Why am I here?
• How free am I to determine my own destiny?
• Does evil exist and if so where does it reside?
• What is the nature of justice?
• How do I cope with an ever-changing world?

We are still pondering these questions 500 years after Shakespeare had his characters
ask them and five hundred years, five thousand years into the future man will still be
asking them, because times change but human nature does not.

23
Shakespeare created in his dramas the basic understanding of what we call
humanity – that is why his work is still relevant in the 21st century.

As Dame Judi Dench said recently when interviewed by Michael Parkinson,

“Anyone who has ever loved, hated, envied, been passionate about anything, is
ready for Shakespeare.”

24
Synopsis: Shakespeare & the modern world
MACBETH (circa 1606)
A ‘dark’ play. Predominant colours black & red (blood). Contrast between the reactions of
Banquo and Macbeth to the initial predictions of the Witches. The idea of gaining the
kingship is obviously already in Macbeth’s mind. This is reinforced when he meets his wife at
Glamis Castle. Obvious from Macbeth’s soliloquy in the last scene of Act 1 that he is aware
of the significance of what he is considering (i.e. kill Duncan & gain the throne). Decides
against it but persuaded to change his mind by Lady Macbeth who accuses him of cowardice.
So in the full knowledge of what he is doing, Macbeth exercises his free will and kills
Duncan. This is a challenge to the order-of-being on several levels. Macbeth has allowed his
“vaulting ambition” to take over. However, the significant thing to note is that as things
unfold, he could at any time have decided to stop – to have exercised his free-will. However,
his ambition (tragic flaw) escalates and he becomes more brutal. The evil in the play does not
come from the Witches, it is not an external force – it comes from within Macbeth himself
and he fails to use his free will to suppress it. He consults the Witches once again and chooses
to believe what they tell him – they are of course only telling him what he wants to hear, that
his position as King was meant to be and that he must retain it (known as self-justification),
that he is invincible. (Power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely) Finally he is
totally isolated and finally destroyed by the thing that had, ironically, served to make him
great – ambition. The one thing he clings to as he dies is his bravery. We are left wondering
if we feel pity or revulsion for him, and asking ourselves how many Macbeths have strutted
(& continue to strut) the world stage during our lifetime?

HAMLET (circa 1600)

Hamlet is a true “Renaissance Man” – a thinker, rather than a man of action: a man
commanded to do what he is not sure is right. He is a man caught between two worlds –
the old and the new – and not belonging fully to either. He asks “why”? He is an isolated
man. He faces an essential human dilemma – that on one hand a person would instinctively
want to seek revenge on someone who had murdered or injured a family member or loved
one, yet on the other hand know that such revenge was morally and legally wrong. It is this
dilemma that Shakespeare examines in this play. The evil (corruption) at the Court of
Elsinore lies beneath the surface. Things are not as they seem. Hamlet is aware of this, but his
“tragic flaw” is procrastination, He spends an inordinate amount of time thinking -
agonizing over the nature of man, clarifying his own concept of justice. By the time he
finally acts a number of innocent people have been destroyed. Do we today spend too much
time thinking, talking about righting a wrong but failing to do anything about it? Do we
sometimes refuse to compromise, take the high moral ground and refusing to face up to
reality, Do we believe that corruption (evil) will always be visible, that something “ordinary”
and “socially “acceptable” cannot be evil (e.g the “ordinary” Adolph Eichman?) How just,
how humane is society? These are just a few of the questions asked by Hamlet that are as
relevant today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. The character of Hamlet embodies the
increasing complexity of society and its moral order. HAMLET IS MODERN MAN.

KING LEAR (circa 1607)

The story is deliberately set in ancient pagan Britain, far back in the mists of time. There is no
mention of the Christian God; the reference is to gods plural and certain characters speak of
supernatural deities believed to control events on earth. It is as if Shakespeare chose to begin
at the beginning – to have Lear as Everyman asking the basic human question: “Who is it
that can tell me who I am”. In other words, a universal, timeless struggle. Lear’s tragic flaw
is egotism. At the beginning of the play he cannot see the world through any eyes other than

25
his own. The play is a record of his journey towards self-knowledge – a tragic and painful
journey towards a recognition of his basic one-ness with all mankind. The central struggle in
the play (other than the main one going on in Lear's own mind) is between two groups of
people - those who are motivated principally by a traditional sense of love, respect and
allegiance, (Kent, Cordelia, the Fool, Edgar, Gloucester and eventually Albany) and those
who serve primarily themselves (Regan, Goneril, Cornwall, Edmund, Oswald.) There is in
both the main plot and secondary plot an investigation of the relationship between parents &
children and between siblings. Evil is shown as being an absence of love or respect for others
and not some external force. There is ambivalence about the nature of justice in the play: is
man, we are asked, at the mercy of spiteful, unpredictable gods or does he decide his own
fate? The only hint to be drawn from the action of the play is to observe that wrong-doing is
punished but goodness not necessarily rewarded. Much of the thinking and philosophy in the
play is focused on the role and position of the individual and less on systems of belief and
strict social order, which makes it especially relevant for modern man. During the 20th
century there was a growing climate of humanism. Man was charged with, indeed urged to,
determine his own fate and learn to live with it. This is what the characters in King Lear are
forced to do. They had not been provided with set answers to life’s problems. Their gods were
at the best unpredictable. The characters in King Lear are on their own. Free (or is it forced)
to make their own decisions. Today we call this individualism.

One thing you will have noticed about all three of our characters, Macbeth, Hamlet and King
Lear, is that they become progressively isolated as the action progresses. Even at the start, of
course, they are isolated from mankind in general by their eminence, but throughout the play
they are each projected into a private world – Macbeth finds that he can confide in no-one,
not even his wife, Lear “abdures all roofs” and moves to the stormy heath, and even at the
outset of the play Hamlet is estranged, and later his isolation is intensified by his
estrangement from Ophelia. Through this isolation each is thrown back upon himself. How
isolated is modern man?

Conclusion.
The above plays bring us to ask, along with his characters, such universal and eternal
questions as:
• What is man?
• Why am I here?
• How free am I to determine my own destiny?
• Does evil exist and if so where does it reside?
• What is the nature of justice?
• How do I cope with an ever-changing world?

Perhaps for us in the 21st century the last question is the most relevant of all.

26
PLOT SUMMARIES
brutality. When she realizes how the
situation had escalated and how far into
Macbeth.
iniquity her husband had sunk, she is
Macbeth, a brave soldier and highly-
consumed with guilt, goes mad and dies.
respected Scottish nobleman has just
Macbeth retreats to his castle,
defeated the traitor, the Duke of
Dunsinane, which is surrounded by the
Cawdor in battle. With his close friend
forest, Birnam Wood. It is here that
Banquo he is on his way to meet King
Macduff and the English forces find
Duncan when they meet three witches
him. The Witches’ prophecies are finally
who predict that Macbeth will be
fulfilled, but not in the way Macbeth
“Thane of Cawdor and King hereafter.”
had expected. Macbeth and Macduff
At first Macbeth dismisses what they
fight, Macbeth is killed and Malcolm,
say, but when he discovers that in fact
son of Duncan, takes the throne.
the King had bestowed the title on him
……………………………………………………………….
he begins to wonder if the rest of the
prophecy is destined to be fulfilled. He
The Witches’ Prophecies:
invites the King to his castle and with
the aid of his wife, Lady Macbeth,
Hail, Thane of Cawdor!
murders King Duncan. Macbeth is
declared King. However, he begins to
Thou shalt be King hereafter!
fear that Banquo knows too much and
.
has him assassinated. At a banquet
Be bloody, bold and resolute.
attended by the entire Court, Macbeth
Laugh to scorn
(and only Macbeth) sees the blood-
The pow’r of man, for none of woman
stained ghost of Banquo, and his
born
terrified and obviously guilty reaction
Shall harm Macbeth.
supports what have been growing
suspicion among the nobles, especially
Be lion mettl’d, proud and take no care
Macduff. Macbeth seeks out the
Who chafes, who frets, or where
Witches who provide him with
conspirers are:
prophecies which seem to indicate that
Macbeth shall never vanquish’ed be until
he is invincible. Meanwhile Macduff,
Great Birnam Wood to great Dunsinane
realizing that Macbeth is aware of
Hill
Macduff’s growing conviction that
Shall come against him.
Macbeth had murdered Duncan,, flees
……………………………………………..
south to England to enlist the aid of the Fair is foul and foul is fair.
English King in removing Macbeth from
the throne. Enraged by Macduff’s Nothing in his life
escape, Macbeth takes revenge by Became him like the leaving it.
ordering the slaughter of Macduff’s
innocent wife and infant son. Now the ….too full of the milk of human kindness
truth is obvious and Macbeth becomes
….screw your courage to the sticking place.
more and more brutal and isolated, even
from his wife. While Lady Macbeth had
….sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of
collaborated in Duncan’s murder, she
care.
had naively assumed that there the
matter would end, and she is initially
Now good digestion wait on appetite.
unaware of the subsequent murders and

27
Stand not upon the order of your coming. Gertrude when they are arguing about
her marriage to Claudius. Hamlet works
Cans’t thou not minister to a mind diseased? himself into a rage, detects Polonius
Out, out brief candle!
hiding behind a curtain and, assuming it
is Claudius, thrusts his sword through
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his life upon the stage the curtain. Exit Polonius – permanently.
And then is heard no more: it is a tale Hamlet inexplicably begins to treat
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Ophelia with contempt and this
Signifying nothing. injustice, combined with her father’s
death, sends her mad. Hamlet
Some literary titles taken from the procrastinates – he decides not to act
play until he is sure Claudius is guilty. He
The Sound and the Fury: Willam arranges for a band of players to
Faulkner present a play at Court using as the plot
The Ravelled Sleeve M.C. Munday the scenario the ghost had presented.
Told by an Idiot: R. Macaulay On observing the nervous reaction of
Vaulting Ambition: Ellis Middleton
Claudius, Hamlet decides he is indeed
Tomorrow and Tomorrow: Philip Barry
guilty. However, Hamlet has spent so
This Petty Place: B. Pinkerton
Brief Candle: Aldous Huxley much time being indecisive and made his
Toil and Trouble: T. Brooks suspicions so clear that Claudius decides
to take action of his own, He sends
Hamlet off on a sea journey as his
Hamlet.
representative at the English Court, and
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns
arranges to have him assassinated. Co-
home from university to find his father
incidence causes this plan to fail,
dead and his mother married to her late
Hamlet kills both assassins and returns
husband’s brother, Claudius, who is now
to Court, to find that the tragic Ophelia
King. His grief turns to desperation
has drowned herself. Her brother,
when he is approached by his father’s
blaming Hamlet for her death,
Ghost, who tells him that he had been
challenges him. to a duel. The wily
murdered by Claudius. The Ghost
Claudius manipulates the situation, has
demands instant revenge for his murder
the combatants fight in view of the
and tells Hamlet that it is his duty as a
Court and arranges to have the point of
son to carry it out. This creates a
Laertes’ sword poisoned. As extra
problem for the introspective Hamlet,
insurance he poisons Hamlet’s pre-duel
who is a thinker rather than a man of
cup of wine, but Hamlet’s distraught
action. He is torn between his duty to
mother, Queen Gertrude, drinks it in
revenge his father’s death, his
error and dies. Hamlet (finally) kills
uncertainty as to the guilt of Claudius
Claudius, fights Laertes, and both of
and the morality of pure, instinctive and
them die.
unthinking revenge, a concept foreign to …….frailty, thy name is woman,.
his nature. At the same time he is
revolted by what he sees as his mother’s Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
unseemly haste in marrying Claudius. It
ha been expected at Court that Hamlet Though this be madness, yet there is method
would marry the gentle Ophelia, in’t
daughter of Polonius, a politician.
I must be cruel, only to be kind.
Unfortunately for the bumbling Polonius
he is also a meddler who chooses to spy
There are more things in heaven and earth,
on Hamlet and his mother, Queen
Horatio,

28
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. the Court and demand that each publicly
proclaim the depth of her love for him.
Brevity is the soul of wit. Regan and Goneril participate readily –
and insincerely – bur Cordelia refuses to
To sleep, perchance to dream.
be part of the exercise, saying that she
The time is out of joint O cursed spite, does not see the need for such public
That ever I was born to set it right. display, as her father has ample
evidence of the strength of her love for
…………………….though I am native here him. Lear, unaccustomed to being
And to the manor born, it is a custom thwarted in any way, banishes Cordelia
More honour’d in the breach than in the from the kingdom in a fit of temper.
observance. She leaves with her suitor, The King of
France. When the Earl of Kent, one of
The apparel oft proclaims the man.
Lear’s closest advisors, attempts to
I shall not look upon his like again. intervene on Cordelai’s behalf, he too is
banished. Regan and Goneril, now in
To be or not to be, that is the question. possession of their father’s kingdom,
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer waste no time in revealing their true
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune natures. They obviously see their father
Or to take arms against sea of troubles as a doddering old fool, and treat him
And by opposing, end them. accordingly. When he attempts to retain
some of his kingly privileges they remind
Good night, sweet Prince
him that they are now in charge and
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
that he can’t expect to relinquish the
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance: burdens of kingship yet retain the
Remember: and there is pansies, that’s for rights and privileges that go with it.
thoughts. Lear is so distraught he loses his mind
and wanders off into the wilderness, his
Murder most foul. despair becoming all the more acute
when he finally realizes how unjust he
And above all else, to thine own self be true,
has been to Cordelia. Unbeknown to
And it must follow as the night the day
Lear, his old and loyal friend the Duke
Thou cans’t not then be false to any man.
of Kent stays close at hand to watch
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. over him.
Meanwhile:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Secondary plot.
The Earl of Gloucester has two sons;
The rest is silence. Edgar is legitimate, Edmund illegitimate
and bitterly resentful of what he
King Lear perceives as the injustice of his
situation. He is especially jealous of
There are two parallel plots.
Edgar, and sets out to discredit him in
Main plot:
their father’s eyes. He tricks
King Lear, a petulant and self-centred
Gloucester into believing that Edgar is
old man, decides he wants to shed the
plotting against his father. Gloucester is
burdens of kingship by dividing his
deceived and appoints Edmund his heir
kingdom between his three daughters,
in Edgar’s place. At the same time
Regan, Goneril and Cordelia (the
Edmund ostensibly helps Edgar escape
youngest and his favourite.) He “tests”
their father’s wrath while continuing to
them by bringing them together before
poison Gloucester’s mind against him,

29
and in addition conspires with Regan and supports what have been growing
Goneril in their pursuit of power. suspicion among the nobles, especially
Macduff. Macbeth seeks out the
Witches who provide him with
The two plots are resolved. prophecies which seem to indicate that
Cordelia, now Queen of France, hears of he is invincible. Meanwhile Macduff,
her father’s plight and returns to the realizing that Macbeth is aware of
kingdom to help him. Goneril’s husband Macduff’s growing conviction that
has both Lear and Goneril thrown into Macbeth had murdered Duncan,, flees
prison. Regan and Goneril are both south to England to enlist the aid of the
infatuated with Edmund. Goneril has her English King in removing Macbeth from
sister killed to eliminate her as a rival. the throne. Enraged by Macduff’s
Goneril herself dies. Edgar, learning of escape, Macbeth takes revenge by
his brother’s treachery, returns to ordering the slaughter of Macduff’s
Court and reveals the truth. He innocent wife and infant son. Now the
demands that Lear and Goneril, under truth is obvious and Macbeth becomes
sentence of death in prison, be freed. more and more brutal and isolated, even
The reprieve comes too late for from his wife. While Lady Macbeth had
Cordelia, who has already been hanged. collaborated in Duncan’s murder, she
Lear dies of grief. had naively assumed that there the
………………………………………………….. matter would end, and she is initially
unaware of the subsequent murders and
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is brutality. When she realizes how the
To have a thankless child. situation had escalated and how far into
iniquity her husband had sunk, she is
Macbeth. consumed with guilt, goes mad and dies.
Macbeth, a brave soldier and highly- Macbeth retreats to his castle,
respected Scottish nobleman has just Dunsinane, which is surrounded by the
defeated the traitor, the Duke of forest, Birnam Wood. It is here that
Cawdor in battle. With his close friend Macduff and the English forces find
Banquo he is on his way to meet King him. The Witches’ prophecies are finally
Duncan when they meet three witches fulfilled, but not in the way Macbeth
who predict that Macbeth will be had expected. Macbeth and Macduff
“Thane of Cawdor and King hereafter.” fight, Macbeth is killed and Malcolm,
At first Macbeth dismisses what they son of Duncan, takes the throne.
say, but when he discovers that in fact ……………………………………………………………….
the King had bestowed the title on him
he begins to wonder if the rest of the
prophecy is destined to be fulfilled. He
invites the King to his castle and with
the aid of his wife, Lady Macbeth,
murders King Duncan. Macbeth is The Witches’ Prophecies:
declared King. However, he begins to
fear that Banquo knows too much and Hail, Thane of Cawdor!
has him assassinated. At a banquet
attended by the entire Court, Macbeth Thou shalt be King hereafter!
(and only Macbeth) sees the blood- .
stained ghost of Banquo, and his Be bloody, bold and resolute.
terrified and obviously guilty reaction Laugh to scorn

30
The pow’r of man, for none of woman Tomorrow and Tomorrow: Philip
born Barry
Shall harm Macbeth. This Petty Place: B.
Pinkerton
Be lion mettl’d, proud and take no care Brief Candle: Aldous
Who chafes, who frets, or where Huxley
conspirers are: Toil and Trouble: T. Brooks
Macbeth shall never vanquish’ed be until Hamlet.
Great Birnam Wood to great Dunsinane
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns
Hill
home from university to find his father
Shall come against him.
dead and his mother married to her late
……………………………………………..
husband’s brother, Claudius, who is now
Fair is foul and foul is fair.
King. His grief turns to desperation
when he is approached by his father’s
Nothing in his life
Ghost, who tells him that he had been
Became him like the leaving it.
murdered by Claudius. The Ghost
demands instant revenge for his murder
….too full of the milk of human kindness
and tells Hamlet that it is his duty as a
son to carry it out. This creates a
….screw your courage to the sticking
problem for the introspective Hamlet,
place.
who is a thinker rather than a man of
action. He is torn between his duty to
….sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve
revenge his father’s death, his
of care.
uncertainty as to the guilt of Claudius
and the morality of pure, instinctive and
Now good digestion wait on appetite.
unthinking revenge, a concept foreign to
his nature. At the same time he is
Stand not upon the order of your
revolted by what he sees as his mother’s
coming.
unseemly haste in marrying Claudius. It
ha been expected at Court that Hamlet
Cans’t thou not minister to a mind
would marry the gentle Ophelia,
diseased?
daughter of Polonius, a politician.
Out, out brief candle!
Unfortunately for the bumbling Polonius
he is also a meddler who chooses to spy
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor
on Hamlet and his mother, Queen
player
Gertrude when they are arguing about
That struts and frets his life upon the
her marriage to Claudius. Hamlet works
stage
himself into a rage, detects Polonius
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
hiding behind a curtain and, assuming it
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
is Claudius, thrusts his sword through
Signifying nothing.
the curtain. Exit Polonius – permanently.
Hamlet inexplicably begins to treat
Some literary titles taken from the
Ophelia with contempt and this
play
injustice, combined with her father’s
The Sound and the Fury: Willam
death, sends her mad. Hamlet
Faulkner
procrastinates – he decides not to act
The Ravelled Sleeve M.C. Munday
until he is sure Claudius is guilty. He
Told by an Idiot: R. Macaulay
arranges for a band of players to
Vaulting Ambition: Ellis
present a play at Court using as the plot
Middleton

31
the scenario the ghost had presented.
On observing the nervous reaction of The apparel oft proclaims the man.
Claudius, Hamlet decides he is indeed
guilty. However, Hamlet has spent so I shall not look upon his like again.
much time being indecisive and made his
suspicions so clear that Claudius decides To be or not to be, that is the question.
to take action of his own, He sends Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to
Hamlet off on a sea journey as his suffer
representative at the English Court, and The slings and arrows of outrageous
arranges to have him assassinated. Co- fortune
incidence causes this plan to fail, Or to take arms against sea of troubles
Hamlet kills both assassins and returns And by opposing, end them.
to Court, to find that the tragic Ophelia
has drowned herself. Her brother, Good night, sweet Prince
blaming Hamlet for her death, And flights of angels sing thee to thy
challenges him. to a duel. The wily rest.
Claudius manipulates the situation, has
the combatants fight in view of the There’s rosemary, that’s for
Court and arranges to have the point of remembrance:
Laertes’ sword poisoned. As extra Remember: and there is pansies, that’s
insurance he poisons Hamlet’s pre-duel for thoughts.
cup of wine, but Hamlet’s distraught
mother, Queen Gertrude, drinks it in Murder most foul.
error and dies. Hamlet (finally) kills
Claudius, fights Laertes, and both of And above all else, to thine own self be
them die. true,
…….frailty, thy name is woman,. And it must follow as the night the day
Thou cans’t not then be false to any
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. man.

Though this be madness, yet there is When we have shuffled off this mortal
method in’t coil.

I must be cruel, only to be kind. Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

There are more things in heaven and The rest is silence.

earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
King Lear
Brevity is the soul of wit. There are two parallel plots.
Main plot:
To sleep, perchance to dream. King Lear, a petulant and self-centred
old man, decides he wants to shed the
The time is out of joint O cursed spite, burdens of kingship by dividing his
That ever I was born to set it right. kingdom between his three daughters,
Regan, Goneril and Cordelia (the
…………………….though I am native here youngest and his favourite.) He “tests”
And to the manor born, it is a custom them by bringing them together before
More honour’d in the breach than in the the Court and demand that each publicly
observance. proclaim the depth of her love for him.

32
Regan and Goneril participate readily –
and insincerely – bur Cordelia refuses to
be part of the exercise, saying that she The two plots are resolved.
does not see the need for such public Cordelia, now Queen of France, hears of
display, as her father has ample her father’s plight and returns to the
evidence of the strength of her love for kingdom to help him. Goneril’s husband
him. Lear, unaccustomed to being has both Lear and Goneril thrown into
thwarted in any way, banishes Cordelia prison. Regan and Goneril are both
from the kingdom in a fit of temper. infatuated with Edmund. Goneril has her
She leaves with her suitor, The King of sister killed to eliminate her as a rival.
France. When the Earl of Kent, one of Goneril herself dies. Edgar, learning of
Lear’s closest advisors, attempts to his brother’s treachery, returns to
intervene on Cordelai’s behalf, he too is Court and reveals the truth. He
banished. Regan and Goneril, now in demands that Lear and Goneril, under
possession of their father’s kingdom, sentence of death in prison, be freed.
waste no time in revealing their true The reprieve comes too late for
natures. They obviously see their father Cordelia, who has already been hanged.
as a doddering old fool, and treat him Lear dies of grief.
accordingly. When he attempts to retain …………………………………………………..
some of his kingly privileges they remind
him that they are now in charge and How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
that he can’t expect to relinquish the To have a thankless child.
burdens of kingship yet retain the
rights and privileges that go with it. I am a man
Lear is so distraught he loses his mind More sinn’d against than sinning.
and wanders off into the wilderness, his
despair becoming all the more acute The prince of darkness is a gentleman
when he finally realizes how unjust he
has been to Cordelia. Unbeknown to Fie, fo and fum.
Lear, his old and loyal friend the Duke I smell the blood of a British man.
of Kent stays close at hand to watch
over him. A flies to wanton boys are we to the
Meanwhile: gods,
Secondary plot. They kill us for our sport.
The Earl of Gloucester has two sons;
Edgar is legitimate, Edmund illegitimate The gods are just, and of our pleasant
and bitterly resentful of what he vices
perceives as the injustice of his Make instruments to plague us.
situation. He is especially jealous of
Edgar, and sets out to discredit him in Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem
their father’s eyes. He tricks vile.
Gloucester into believing that Edgar is
plotting against his father. Gloucester is
deceived and appoints Edmund his heir
in Edgar’s place. At the same time
Edmund ostensibly helps Edgar escape
their father’s wrath while continuing to
poison Gloucester’s mind against him,
and in addition conspires with Regan and
Goneril in their pursuit of power.

33