Analyzing Passages from King Lear
Act I, Scene I
Quote: "Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty According to my bond; no more nor less.
Speaker: Cordelia is speaking to her father, King Lear.
Analysis: King Lear is demanding that Cordelia and the rest of his daughters to tell him how much they love him for him to split up the kingdom for them. The other two daughters, Goneril and Regan, reply to The King the way he wants them too. Cordelia decides to reply more honestly she tells him that she does love him, and that she loves him more than the other two daughters do. She tells him that her integrity doesn't allow her to say she loves him just for his wealth.
Act I, Scene II
Quote: Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
Speaker: Edmund is speaking to his father, Gloucester.
Analysis: Edmund tells this to his father, right before he tricks him to believe that Gloucester's real son, Edgar, is going against him. Edmund says "I grow; I prosper," which describes him a lot throughout the play. Edmund was bore as a bastard into a life which he received respect and rank. He
Quote: "Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty According to my bond; no more nor less.
Speaker: Cordelia is speaking to her father, King Lear.
Analysis: King Lear is demanding that Cordelia and the rest of his daughters to tell him how much they love him for him to split up the kingdom for them. The other two daughters, Goneril and Regan, reply to The King the way he wants them too. Cordelia decides to reply more honestly she tells him that she does love him, and that she loves him more than the other two daughters do. She tells him that her integrity doesn't allow her to say she loves him just for his wealth.
Act I, Scene II
Quote: Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
Speaker: Edmund is speaking to his father, Gloucester.
Analysis: Edmund tells this to his father, right before he tricks him to believe that Gloucester's real son, Edgar, is going against him. Edmund says "I grow; I prosper," which describes him a lot throughout the play. Edmund was bore as a bastard into a life which he received respect and rank. He