SINGLE TEXT: KING LEAR by William Shakespeare

“Tis the times’ plague when madmen lead the blind” – King Lear , Act 4, sci

• Section One of Paper Two is the Single Text section worth 60 marks.

• There are five texts prescribed here but most students answer on the play King Lear.

• You will have a choice of two King Lear questions. Answer the one you feel most confident about. Can you answer it well and do you fully understand the question?

• Consider what exactly you are being asked on this occasion. Ensure your points are relevant to the question asked.

• Sample exam question: “Throughout the course of the play, both Lear and Gloucester are tragic characters, but Lear develops into the more heroic figure.” To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support your answer with reference to the play, King Lear. (2016)

• In this exam question, your key task words are ‘Lear’ ‘Gloucester’, ‘tragic’ and ‘heroic’. In the marking scheme, examiners are instructed to mark each reference to the question with a code. In this case, the examiner was told to use:

Code: TC for Lear as a tragic character/Gloucester as a tragic character HF Lear or Gloucester develops/does not develop into the more heroic figure

• These references are worth 30% of the marks (P = 18) so ensure your points are relevant and are applied clearly to the exam question.

• Your answer should be about four pages in length with no subheadings or abbreviations.

• Aim to write six to eight paragraphs (including an introduction and a conclusion).

• Quotations are a very important component of your King Lear answer. You must use quotes as ‘textual evidence’ to prove your points. Aim to use 15 – 20 quotations in your essay (one to three per paragraph).

• Plan your answer before you begin. Do a brainstorm of specific scenes and speeches you intend to discuss for five minutes at the start.

• Plan a list of quotations you will use – jot down a few prompting words from each quote. This will act as a reminder/memory aid to help you remember to use the quotation. There is no point learning off quotations if you then forget to use them in the actual exam!

• From your brainstorm, do a paragraph plan (remember a brainstorm is NOT a structured plan). Slot points into paragraphs – decide the order of your points.

• Have an impressive introduction and conclusion that will leave an impact on the examiner.

• Link your paragraphs to each other as the essay needs to flow smoothly. Use linking phrases at the start of each paragraph: “On the other hand / Nevertheless / Once again / Further evidence of this / We see this again when….”, etc.

• Vary your vocabulary – don’t repeat the same word or point over and over. For example, ‘evil’: ‘wicked’, ‘vile’, ‘malevolent’, ‘foul’, ‘corrupt’, ‘villainous’, etc.

• Prepare for the common types of exam questions on King Lear. These are usually on CHARACTERS (Lear, Cordelia, Goneril, Regan, Gloucester, Edmund, Edgar, etc) and THEMES (betrayal, falsity, justice, good versus evil, nature, etc.).

Previous exam questions on King Lear

2010 - “In King Lear honour and loyalty triumph over brutality and viciousness.” Write your response to this statement supporting your answer with suitable reference to the text. OR “In King Lear the villainous characters hold more fascination for the audience than the virtuous ones.” Discuss this statement with reference to at least one villainous and one virtuous character. Support your answer with suitable reference to the text.

2006 - “In the play, King Lear, the stories of Lear and Gloucester mirror one another in interesting ways.” Write a response to this view of the play, supporting your answer by reference to the text. OR “Reading or seeing King Lear isa horrifying as well as an uplifting experience.” Write a response to this view, supporting the points you make by reference to the text.

King Lear sample answer

“Over the course of the play King Lear, Lear grows into a better and wiser man.” Write your response to this statement, referring to what you think are the most important changes that take place in the character of Lear during the play. (60 marks)

King Lear is generally regarded as the most tragic of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. The play chronicles the downfall of the title character King Lear and his intense suffering at the hands of his evil daughters. The story demonstrates what happens when a man acts out of foolish arrogance without any foresight or moral judgment. Over the course of the play, Lear moves from blind vanity to humble insight. He changes beyond recognition and certainly does end the play a better and wiser man.

When we first meet Lear in Act One, Scene One, we realise immediately that he is an arrogant, vain old king who is accustomed to being treated with respectful obedience at all times. However, Lear is also a good king as he has earned the respect and loyalty of his subjects, including Kent who proclaims: “Royal Lear, / Whom I have ever honour’d as my king, / Lov’d as my father, as my master follow’d”. However, the dramatic opening scene also highlights Lear’s flaws and weaknesses as a character. His pride and vain desire for flattery are shown in the absurd love test he sets for his daughters. He wants to retire and “shake all cares and business from our age” so he asks them: “Tell me my daughters….

Which of you shall we say doth love us most?”

Lear shows his selfishness when he declares that he intends to abdicate all responsibility of kingship yet continue to enjoy the benefits of power, saying he will “retain / The name and all th’addition to a king.” Lear’s love test is designed to massage his bloated ego as he wishes only to be flattered with the most extravagant declarations of love. He basks in his daughters’ declarations, which highlights his gullibility and moral blindness. Lear shows his rash nature and quick temper when he flies into a rage and banishes both Cordelia and Kent, simply because they dare to stand up to him. He blasts Cordelia furiously: - “as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee from this for ever…. my sometime daughter.” The Lear we meet at this early stage of the play is a harsh, foolish old tyrant for whom we have little sympathy.

It is clear throughout the love test scene, that Lear lacks self-knowledge. He ridiculously believes that he can measure

love with words. Goneril and Regan both exploit this foolish short-sightedness in their father. When his loyal follower Kent appeals to him to “check this hideous rashness”, Lear ignores his advice and warns him in outrage: “Come not between the dragon and his wrath.” Lear sees himself as some terrifyingly monstrous authority-figure, which shows his lack of awareness of himself.

Lear also fails to realise the risk he is taking in rewarding the two daughters who are already plotting against him, while impetuously banishing those who are truly loyal to him. Lear’s selfish pride plays a huge role in his downfall. He does not see that the power he is now giving away so flippantly will be used later to destroy him. As Regan points out, “he hath ever but / slenderly known himself ”. In a sense, Lear is his own worst enemy and the consequences of his love test will largely cause the vast transformation in his character.

It is not long until Lear begins to learn the error of his ways. Goneril and Regan do not hesitate to plot against their father, saying they must protect themselves against his “poor judgment” and “unruly waywardness”. Goneril is the first to mistreat Lear calling him an “Idle old man / That still would manage those authorities / That he hath given away!”She accuses him of being a nuisance and orders her servants to ignore his requests and to generally neglect him. Lear must take the painful first steps towards self-knowledge as he is faced with this “marble-hearted” ingratitude. Lear is shocked to his core at the way he is being treated and struggles to maintain his sense of identity: “Does any here know me? This is not Lear .... Who is it that can tell me who I am?” Without his identity as king, Lear has difficulty recognising himself. His sense of self has been badly shaken by Goneril’s disrespect. When Goneril refuses to allow Lear to keep his one hundred knights, he struggles to cope:

“Ingratitude, thou marble hearted fiend More hideous when thou show’st thee in a child Than the sea monster”

Soon, Regan joins with her sister in disrespecting their father. She places his messenger Kent in the stocks and deliberately refuses to greet Lear when he arrives. Lear struggles to comprehend what is happening to him. It is clear that Lear is suffering yet he refuses to cry in front of his heartless daughters: “this heart / Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws / Or ere I’ll weep.” Lear must now face the consequences of his earlier foolish pride. He describes the physical pain of filial ingratitude when he cries “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child”. His anguish is worsened by the knowledge that he brought this suffering on himself:

“O Lear, Lear, Lear! Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in. And thy dear judgment out!”

Gradually, Lear is beginning to learn that in his ‘love auction’, he invited lies and hypocrisy in indulging his own vanity. He is realising that he was too easily fooled by the “glib and oily art” of his evil daughters and that he had no idea of the true meaning of love. Through suffering, he is growing in selfknowledge and insight.

The next important change that takes place in the character of Lear is his admission of his own responsibility in his predicament. Lear takes a major step in his personal growth when he admits sadly to the Fool that he has made a terrible mistake in mistreating Cordelia: “I did her wrong”. There is a sad irony in the fact that, as Lear is gradually becoming a better, wiser person, he is simultaneously edging towards insanity. When Lear finds himself locked out in a raging storm, he senses he is losing control of himself. As he is pelted by the howling wind and rain, he struggles to endure this new suffering: “O! let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven”.

The storm scene highlights the intensity of Lear’s suffering as he finally loses his sanity. He wanders the storm-torn heath raving wildly, his hair tangled and adorned with wild flowers. However, Lear paradoxically gains some “Reason in madness”. In his pitiful anguished state, he can see himself clearly for the first time. He realises he is not a fearful, all-important “dragon” but rather “A poor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man.” When he tears off his clothes to be like everybody else: “A poor, / bare, forked animal.” The stripping off of his clothes is highly symbolic here, as we get the sense that the old Lear is leaving while the new improved Lear emerges.

Lear’s new-found wisdom and personal growth become clear in the latter half of the play. It is obvious to us now that, through his suffering, Lear has developed into a wiser and better man. During the storm, Lear shows empathy and compassion for the first time. The once proud and self-absorbed King begins to think of others. He shows sincere concern for his companion, the Fool, asking him: “How dost, my boy? Art cold? / I am cold myself.” He appeals to the Fool to take shelter from the storm, urging him “In boy, go first.” This is the first unselfish act Lear has performed throughout the play. It signals a monumental change in his character. Lear also develops a social conscience, expressing regret over how he neglected the needs of the poor during his time as king: “O! I have ta’en / Too little care of this.”

By the end of the play, Lear has changed beyond all recognition. Alone in the storm, Lear accepts his own responsibility for his fate and becomes a better person than he ever was before. He is filled with sorrow, regret and the terrible sense that he has gotten what he deserves:

“Judicious punishment! ‘twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters.”

Lear realises the truth that his two daughters lied to him for their own benefit: “they told me I was everything; tis a lie, / I am not ague-proof.” We admire Lear’s new humility and honesty. Yet the sad fact is that it has taken insanity for Lear to learn self-knowledge. He has certainly become a better person but at too high a price. In the final act, Lear endures terrible suffering. He cradles the dead body of his beautiful child Cordelia and howls in anguish: “Thou’lt come no more, / Never, never, never, never, never!” We cannot help but notice how different this man is, compared to the raging, impatient Lear of Act One. His pride, vanity, rashness and cruelty are a distant memory. Despite his earlier actions, we come to agree that, on the whole, he is “a man more sinn’d against than sinning”.

In conclusion, the enormous changes that take place in the character of Lear affect greatly our opinion of him. By the tragic end of the play, he has definitely grown into a better and wiser man. We are genuinely moved when he dies, clinging to the dead body of his beloved Cordelia. In many ways, I feel we, the audience, have grown and changed with the doomed king. We wonder if perhaps Lear was right when he said that we all face in this life the same suffering and misery: “When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of fools.”