Name: ____________________________________________King Lear: Act 3 Skill-Based Quick Review

Welcome back from winter break! To ease our way back into school, we will complete a short series of skill-based activities meant to review Act 3 of Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Act 3, scene 1SKILL: Decoding an Unfamiliar Text

Kent talks with an unnamed gentleman. He delivers some important news about Cordelia, King Lear’s banished daughter, and a plan she seems to have devised to save her father and England.

Translate Kent’s message to the gentleman into modern English.

Original Text Your TranslationKENT: There is division,Although as yet the face of it be cover'dWith mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;Who have--as who have not, that their great starsThroned and set high?--servants, who seem no less,Which are to France the spies and speculationsIntelligent of our state; what hath been seen,Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,Or the hard rein which both of them have borneAgainst the old kind king; or something deeper,Whereof perchance these are but furnishings;But, true it is, from France there comes a powerInto this scatter'd kingdom; who already,Wise in our negligence, have secret feetIn some of our best ports, and are at pointTo show their open banner.

Act 3, scene 2SKILL: Decoding Allegorical Setting and Language

As King Lear realizes that his daughters have turned on him, all feels lost. As the Fool tells him:

He that has and a little tiny wit--With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--Must make content with his fortunes fit,For the rain it raineth every day.

(Act 3, scene 2)

King Lear, once the great ruler of England, who moved between great castles throughout London and other British cities, has lost everything. We find him yelling at the raging storm clouds while walking through a barren heath1 in the middle of the dark night.

What is the allegorical significance of this moment? What does it tell us about Lear? Britain’s situation? The potential future of a once great country?

1 An area of open uncultivated land, especially in Britain, with characteristic vegetation of heather, gorse, and coarse grasses.

Act 3, scene 3SKILL: Locating and Analyzing Patterns and Themes

1. What is happening in this moment?

The theme that best captures this moment is:

Power v. Obedience | Honesty v. Dishonesty | Respect v. Disrespect | Madness v. Manipulation

2. How does this moment connect to this theme?

3. Why does this moment matter? What are we learning about our characters? About life in England during this time period? About a proper king and loyal subject? Father and son?

Act 3, scene 4SKILL: Locating and Analyzing Evidence

Spark Notes SummaryKent leads Lear through the storm to the cave. He tries to get him to go inside, but Lear resists, saying that his own mental anguish makes him hardly feel the storm. He sends his Fool inside to take shelter and then kneels and prays. He reflects that, as king, he took too little care of the wretched and homeless, who have scant protection from storms such as this one.

The Fool runs out of the hovel, claiming that there is a spirit inside. The spirit turns out to be Edgar in his disguise as Tom O’Bedlam. Edgar plays the part of the madman by complaining that he is being chased by a devil. He adds that fiends possess and inhabit his body. Lear, whose grip on reality is loosening, sees nothing strange about these statements. He sympathizes with Edgar, asking him whether bad daughters have been the ruin of him as well.

Lear asks the disguised Edgar what he used to be before he went mad and became a beggar. Edgar replies that he was once a wealthy courtier who spent his days having sex with many women and drinking wine. Observing Edgar’s nakedness, Lear tears off his own clothes in sympathy.

Gloucester, carrying a torch, comes looking for the king. He is unimpressed by Lear’s companions and tries to bring Lear back inside the castle with him, despite the possibility of evoking Regan and Goneril’s anger. Kent and Gloucester finally convince Lear to go with Gloucester, but Lear insists on bringing the disguised Edgar, whom he has begun to like, with him.

Your AnalysisOf everything happening in this short scene, what fact or detail is most important in your opinion? Why?

Locate a line or short passage that supports your claim. Record it here.

Explain the significance of this line. What are we learning here? What does this line add to our understanding of the play? This particular character?

Act 3, scene 5SKILL: Locating and Analyzing Patterns and Themes

1. What is happening in this moment?

The theme that best captures this moment is:

Power v. Obedience | Honesty v. Dishonesty | Respect v. Disrespect | Madness v. Manipulation

2. How does this moment connect to this theme?

3. Why does this moment matter? What are we learning about our characters? About life in England during this time period? About a proper king and loyal subject? Father and son?

Act 3, scene 6SKILL: Creating Connections

Read the short news article and accompanying graphic about depression and poverty. After reading, write a short response about King Lear’s slip into depression (and possibly psychosis – a mental disorder where ones connection to reality becomes distorted).

__Poor People More Likely to Have Experienced DepressionBy CATHERINE RAMPELL | THE NEW YORK TIMES | OCT 26, 2009 About one in six Americans say they have at some point been diagnosed with depression, and the rate is nearly twice as high for lower-income people, according to new Gallup survey data.

Gallup found that Americans making less than $24,000 a year and people who are separated or divorced are most likely to report having been ever diagnosed with depression. Asians, men and people with annual incomes above $60,000 are least likely to report having been diagnosed with depression. The data are based on interviews of 258,141 adults from Jan. 2 to Sept. 20, 2009.

SEE CHART ON NEXT PAGE

It’s hard to know what to make of the relationship with income, especially since depression rates here were self-reported; people may not have answered this question honestly because psychological illness is still stigmatized. Even so, I’m not sure that richer people would be more likely to lie than poorer people. Besides, poorer people probably have less access to mental health care resources than their richer counterparts, which could mean that lower-income people’s rates of depression are under-reported.

What’s cause and what’s effect are also not clear. Perhaps clinically depressed people have more trouble holding down a job, causing them to slip into poverty.

Research on the flip side of this question — the connections between income and happiness — is also mixed.

Richer people do report being happier than poorer people, and when polled, people often say that they expect wealth to bring happiness. But studies by Alan B. Krueger and Daniel Kahneman, for example, have found that if you ask people how happy they are from moment to moment on any given day, richer people are not actually much happier than poor ones.__

1. Review Act 3, scene 62. Read Catherine Rampell’s “Poor People More Likely to Have Experienced Depression”

3. On a separate sheet of paper, compose a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) response to the following prompt: King Lear’s loss of wealth is / is not directly connected to his depression.

4. Support your answer with at least ONE quote from Act 3, scene 65. Staple your paragraph to this packet

Act 3, scene 7SKILL: Developing a Thesis Statement

The series of events which take place in Act 3, scene 7 shift the direction of the play. King Lear is brought to safety. Goneril and Regan reveal their intentions. And, after Gloucester reveals his intentions (see the short exchange below), he receives his famous and unimaginable punishment.

CORNWALL: Where hast thou sent the king?

GLOUCESTER: To Dover.

(…)

GLOUCESTER: Because I would not see thy cruel nailsPluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sisterIn his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.The sea, with such a storm as his bare headIn hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,And quench'd the stelled fires:Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key,'All cruels else subscribed: but I shall seeThe winged vengeance overtake such children.

CORNWALL: See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

Now that you have completed Act 3, please write a thesis paragraph arguing whether or not Goneril and Regan’s actions against Gloucester are justified. Are the two sisters within their right to protect their country from Gloucester and Cordelia’s plans? Or, are the sisters merely corrupt individuals who must defeated for England to find peace again?

A strong thesis paragraph includes:

A compelling opening sentence A sentences that establishes context (when/where/who) A debatable thesis A short explanation of what your paper will argue

Be supported with textual evidence and reasoning

Be substantialenough to require

argumentation

Be debatableenough to require

argumentation

Be precise enough that the reader

knows exactly what and why the

argument is required

Overall Assessment

☐ Developing☐ Emerging☐ Proficient☐ Expert

☐ Developing☐ Emerging☐ Proficient☐ Expert

☐ Developing☐ Emerging☐ Proficient☐ Expert

☐ Developing☐ Emerging☐ Proficient☐ Expert

☐ Developing☐ Emerging☐ Proficient☐ Expert