King Lear - Visual Quotation

Visual Quotations

Terms: Wheel of Fortune

Edmund. 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 moonshines 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 th' 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 th' legitimate. Fine word- 'legitimate'! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top th' legitimate. I grow; I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

This quotation (1.2.16-22) is that Edmund speak to himself. In this soliloquy, Edmund asks nature why the social customs deprive his rights simply because he is not his father’s legitimate children, like his brother Edgar, who stands to inherit their father’s estate. Edmund’s monologue reveals his plan to undermine his brother’s position by tricking his father with a forged letter, which he presents to Gloucester.

Edmund is a bastard, and is located at the bottom of the wheel of fortune. His legitimate brother, Edgar, is sitting on top of the wheel. With the forged letter and his plan, he will make the wheel turning and let him move up and bring Edgar down.

Plot development: This is the shift of the play’s focus to Gloucester and Edmund, which parallels between this subplot and Lear’s familial difficulties. Edmund will make Gloucester believe him that Edgar will murder his father and share half of his revenue with Edmund. This is the beginning of another tragedy. Gloucester will betray his older legitimate son and will be betrayed by his younger illegitimate son.

Character development: This soliloquy shows that Edmund is an intelligent opportunist with disloyalty to his father and brother.

Terms: Wheel of Fortune

Edmund. How malicious is my fortune that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! That this treason were not- or not I the detector!

This quotation (3.5.7-11) is that Edmund speaks to Cornwall. In this conversation, Edmund betrays his father and obtains Cornwall’s approval by releasing the letter from his father, which shows the details of France’s plan to aid the king Lear. Also this lets Cornwall see Gloucester’s action as treasonous.

After using the forged letter and other plans, Edmund promotes himself up from the bottom point of the wheel of fortune. By showing the letter to Cornwall and betraying his father, Edmund will mount himself on top of the wheel.

Plot development: Gloucester and Lear are both victims of two men – Edmund and Cornwall. Edmund makes excuses for betraying his father with the loyalty for his country. Cornwall appoints Edmund the Earl of Gloucester and asks him to find and arrest Edmund’s father. This is the development of Gloucester’s tragedy.

Character development: This soliloquy shows that Edmund is an intelligent opportunist with disloyalty to his father.

Terms: Pathetic Fallacy

Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world, Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once, That makes ingrateful man!

This quotation (3.2.1-9) is that Lear speaks to himself about the nature. In this quotation, a literary device, pathetic fallacy, is applied to assume the inanimate nature with human reactions, to amplify the tension of the characters’ struggles by elevating human forces to the level of natural forces. Lear associates himself with the storm and joints his cures with the noise of the thunder. Lear's emotions, feeling, intentions, and thoughts match the intensity of nature's turbulence as he is very angry with his daughters' abusive treatment. Lear wanders around in the wind, rain, and storm. As he calls upon the storm to free its anger on the world, he also cries out for the destruction of careless man.

Plot development: The chaos reflects the disorder in Lear’s increasingly crazed mind, and the language represents Lear’s angry and despair on the outside world. Also, this political chaos is mirrored in the natural world.

Character development: Lear is an angry man, with broken heart and crazy mind. Also it is the starting point of Lear’s madness.

Terms: Pathetic Fallacy

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin. So 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear; But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea, Thou'dst meet the bear i' th' mouth. When the mind's free, The body's delicate. The tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude! Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand For lifting food to't? But I will punish home! No, I will weep no more. In such a night 'To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure. In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril! Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all! O, that way madness lies; let me shun that! No more of that.

This is quotation (3.4.6-22) is that Lear speaks to Kent. In this quotation, a literary device, pathetic fallacy, is applied to assume the inanimate nature with human reactions, to amplify the tension of the characters’ struggles by elevating human forces to the level of natural forces. The storm powerfully symbolizes the chaos in Lear’s crazy mind and his suffering. Lear resists going inside the hovel, and says that his own mental anguish makes him hardly feel the storm. His speech demonstrates that part of his mind is still clear and that the symbolic connection between the storm outside and Lear’s own mental disturbance is significant.

Plot development: Lear is changing madness. The political chaos is aggravated.

Character development: Lear’s mental disintegration and madness.