Introduction to Shakespeare’s World

and to King Lear

Secondary V

A. Krespil

• 4 Humours

• Great Chain of Being

Dominant World Views

4 Humours

Humour Substance Element Complexion/Body Type

Personality

Sanguine Blood

(liver)

Air Red-cheeked, corpulent

Amorous, happy, generous, optimistic, irresponsible

Choleric Yellow bile

(spleen)

Fire Red-haired, thin

Violent, vengeful, short-tempered, ambitious

Phlegmatic Phlegm

(lungs)

Water Corpulent Sluggish, pallid, cowardly

Melancholic Black bile

(gall bladder)

Earth Sallow, thin Introspective, sentimental, gluttonous

Great Chain of Being

• Belief structure from middle ages• Hierarchical system with God and

angels above, man in the middle, and animals, plants, minerals on the bottom.

• Within each species there is a similar hierarchy: King on the top, then nobles, moneyed middle-class, then peasants

God

Angels

Humanity

Animals

Vegetables

Minerals

Subgroups

• Each category on the chain was broken down into subgroups. Each subgroup had its own “primate” – the highest level of that category.

God

• At the top of the chain

• Like humans, God possessed the spiritual attributes of love, reason, and imagination

• Omnipotent and omniscient

Angels

• Made of pure spirit

• No physical body

• Share in the same spiritual attributes as God and humans, but are not omnipotent or omniscient

• Primate: Seraph

Humanity

Humans were considered to be the link between the spiritual world and the physical world.

Humanity

Spiritual Attributes:• Reason• Love• Imagination

Physical Attributes:• Vulnerable to passions• Mortal• Senses limited to the

physical (sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing)

Primate: King

Animals

• Lack spiritual attributes

• Purely physical

• Limited intelligence

• Sub divided into further categories, each with its own primate

Mammalian Primate

Or

Avian Primate

Piscine Primate

Or

Plant Primate

Mineral Primates

Literary RamificationsArtists and writers made full use of these symbols in their works. the hierarchies used in metaphoric language

• king associated with sun, lion, head, air• antagonist associated with moon, snake, feet, earth

•Ex 1: If Shakespeare compares a woman to a vine and her husband to an oak, he is emphasizing her subordination to him in the Chain of Being.

•Ex 2: If 2 characters are fighting for the throne, one compared to a lion and the other to a boar, this comparison implies something about which one has a legitimate claim.

Moral RamificationsIt is imperative for each creature on the chain to know his place and not attempt to rise above it or sink beneath it.

•Ex 1: a man who is as gluttonous as a pig has allowed to lower, bestial instincts in his nature to supersede his divine capability of reason.

•Ex 2: A peasant who attempts to rise above his status is guilty of defying his natural order in the Great Chain of Being.

Political Ramifications

• Believed that monarchy was ordained by God

• Rebellion was considered a sin not only against the state but against heaven

• The King has a moral responsibility toward God and towards his people

• Abusing this authority disrupts the divine order

So what does this mean?

• System of Order corresponds with the belief in predestination; God has a plan for world

• Order can be thrown into chaos if hierarchy not adhered to, if subjects rebel against monarch, sons against fathers

• Suggests everyone has purpose or role in life, should use reason and/or to find and fulfill purpose

King Lear

• Shakespeare’s 28th play!

• Tragedy

• Written in 1608

• Setting: Mythical England

Issues to look forward to…

• Love

• Betrayal

• Revenge

• Madness

• Loyalty

• Human Suffering

• Greed

PlotKing Lear of Britain has decided to divide his kingdom into three parts, and to hand over the responsibilities of ruling to his three daughters. The two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, flatter their father insincerely, and are rewarded. Cordelia, the youngest, sincerely loves her father, but she cannot match her sisters' skill at false adulation, so Lear takes away her portion of the kingdom, despite the pleadings of some of his most loyal nobles. It is not long before Goneril and Regan reveal their deep ingratitude, and soon the old king finds himself in a confusing and desperate position

Parallel Plots

• Each family centers on an aging father (patriarch)

Lear: imperious tyrant Gloucester: gullible

• Each sees his children through a distorted lens, turning against the child who truly loves him, unleashing in the other children greed, lust, ambition.

"Is man no more than this?" Man can be either a King, a Fool or a Madman... or all three at once. The figure is therefore shown as a single entity, identical in its division of these three aspects.

Can you measure love?