KING LEAR: DRAMATIC POEM
King Lear is vast in magnitude, large in number of characters and various in interpretation. It is poetic,imaginative and at times very dramatic. If Gervinus, for example, calls it an epic tragedy and compares it to the classical and medieval tragic epics, Brineck declares it to be" the mightiest work that Shakespeare has created." Again, if Professor Dowden speaks of it "as the greatest single Teutonic or northern genius."Schlegal is of opinion that" the picture becomes gigantic.; We seem to be outlookers at a great commotion in the moral world." If Hazlitt calls it"the best of his plays," A.C. Bradley calls it " to be the Shakespeare's greatest achievement." Bradley groups it with works like Prometheus Victus and Divine Comedy. . ."
L.C. Knight observes:
"The essential structure of Shakespeare's plays is poetic ."Adding further, he says: "Lear. . .is a universal allegory and its dramatic technique is determined by the need to present certain permanent aspects of the human situation, with a maximum of imaginative realization and a minimum regard for the conventions of naturalism."
So, Charles Lamb declares that Lear is "essentially impossible to be represented on a stage."
Clearly, Lear is a vast and complex drama having a meaning at different levels__ poetic,symbolical,allegorical,moral and imaginative.
The vastness of canvass variety and complexity of interpretation is largely due to double-plot, meaning and symbols. 'King Lear' has two plots a main plot consisting of Lear,his three daughters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia his three sons-in-law,Duke of Albany, Duke of Cornwall and king of France, his associates like Earl of Kent and Fool,and a sub-plot or a secondary plot consisting of Earl of Gloucester, his two sons,Edgar and the bastard, Edmund. The two plots together make the whole drama.All dramatic actions,interactions, events, movements proceed from the characters of the two plots. Thus,there is a double-actions in the drama.
This double-action serves a great deal of dramatic purpose and implies a complex dramatic significance. The sub-plot or secondary plot-fills out a story that would have been otherwise slight, thin and less impressive. The main plot by itself is slight. And, what is slight is expanded and extended to a complete story by the sub-plot or under plot.The two plots together add to the tragic strength,depth,scale and grandeur of Lear's tragedy
It is true that the sub- plot simply repeats the theme of the main plot.For,what happens to Lear also happens to Gloucester.Like Gloucester, Lear is also affectionate, credulous, unauspicious and self-willed. He, too deeply wrongs a child who is loyal and sincere to him - Edgar to Gloucester and Cordelia to Lear. Both of them are betrayed by the child ( or children in Lear's case ) who are disloyal and in sincere to them.- Edmund to Gloucester and Goneril and Regan to Lear. They suffer from monstrous in gratitude betrayal, mistrust, misplaced confidence from the very child whom they favour ; and are tortured and tormented to misery and death. Thus the repetition of the theme of filial love, filial ingratitude, of betrayal, cruelty, lust, greed etc. in both plots reinforces a point - a point that ingratitude or more particularly, filial ingratitude is no mere accident or individual moral aberration but a universal phenomenon. As A.C. Bradley observes:
"This repetition does not simply double the pain with which the tragedy is witnessed; it startles and terrifies us by suggesting that the folly of Lear and ingratitude of his daughters are no accidents or merely individual aberrations, but that in the dark cold world some fateful malignant influence is abroad, turning the hearts of the fathers against their children smiting the earth with a curse, so that the brother gives the brother to death and father the son, blinding the eyes, maddening the brain, freezing the springs of pity, numbing all powers except the nerves of anguish and dull lust of life."
This is the effect of double action which Schlegal first point out in his criticism of 'King Lear.'
Similarly,L.C. knights says;
". . . the consciousness of Lear is part of the consciousness of human world. There is the same destiny of effect throughout. One character echoes another the blinding of Gloucester parallels the cruelty done to Lear; Gloucester loses his eyes, and Lear's mind is darkened; Gloucester learns to see better in his blindness, and Lear reaches his final insight . . . through madness '' Thus, Lear's characters is central and other characters are peripheral. They exist only in relation to him.Lear's tragic misery,suffering and death brought about by the ingratitude of his daughters is central, and those of others are only subservient to Lear's tragic pity, terror and appeal. It only adds to the epic dimension to the Lear-theme. As F.S. Boas says, ''It (King Lear) has a main plot of absorbing interest into which minor plot. . . dovetail with exquisite nicety. . ." or, as A.C. Bradley says, " While reading or watching' King Lear' we feel as though we were witnessing something universal of conflict not so much of particular persons as of the powers of good and evil in the world.''
Lear's tragic life and fate is symbolical of that of humanity,of universal human life.This epic treatment ,epic dimension given to Lear's tragedy is a masterstroke of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic genius. Lear's story is allegorical in this sense,in the sense that the particular represents the general,the personal,the universal. It is also unfair to think that it has no action.It has doubtless,action .but the action is more of mental,intellectual poetic,moral and psychological than physical. Action occurs more in the mind than physical and bodily.' King Lear 'has more of inward action and progressive movement than 'Macbeth' and 'Othello' .As A.C.Bradley observes:
" . . . that which makes the peculiar greatness of 'King Lear' -the immense-scope of the work, the mass and variety of intense experience which it contains . . . the vastness of the convulsion both of nature and of human passion ;the vagueness of the sense where the action takes place . . . the half-realized suggestions of vast universal fates and passions-all this interferes with dramatic clearness . . . This is not so with the other great tragedies."
This is why Charles Lamb holds the opinion that "theatrical representation of 'King Lear' gives only a part of what we imagine when we read them."
So, Charles Lamb declares that Lear is "essentially impossible to be represented on a stage."
Clearly, Lear is a vast and complex drama having a meaning at different levels__ poetic,symbolical,allegorical,moral and imaginative.
The vastness of canvass variety and complexity of interpretation is largely due to double-plot, meaning and symbols. 'King Lear' has two plots a main plot consisting of Lear,his three daughters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia his three sons-in-law,Duke of Albany, Duke of Cornwall and king of France, his associates like Earl of Kent and Fool,and a sub-plot or a secondary plot consisting of Earl of Gloucester, his two sons,Edgar and the bastard, Edmund. The two plots together make the whole drama.All dramatic actions,interactions, events, movements proceed from the characters of the two plots. Thus,there is a double-actions in the drama.
This double-action serves a great deal of dramatic purpose and implies a complex dramatic significance. The sub-plot or secondary plot-fills out a story that would have been otherwise slight, thin and less impressive. The main plot by itself is slight. And, what is slight is expanded and extended to a complete story by the sub-plot or under plot.The two plots together add to the tragic strength,depth,scale and grandeur of Lear's tragedy
It is true that the sub- plot simply repeats the theme of the main plot.For,what happens to Lear also happens to Gloucester.Like Gloucester, Lear is also affectionate, credulous, unauspicious and self-willed. He, too deeply wrongs a child who is loyal and sincere to him - Edgar to Gloucester and Cordelia to Lear. Both of them are betrayed by the child ( or children in Lear's case ) who are disloyal and in sincere to them.- Edmund to Gloucester and Goneril and Regan to Lear. They suffer from monstrous in gratitude betrayal, mistrust, misplaced confidence from the very child whom they favour ; and are tortured and tormented to misery and death. Thus the repetition of the theme of filial love, filial ingratitude, of betrayal, cruelty, lust, greed etc. in both plots reinforces a point - a point that ingratitude or more particularly, filial ingratitude is no mere accident or individual moral aberration but a universal phenomenon. As A.C. Bradley observes:
"This repetition does not simply double the pain with which the tragedy is witnessed; it startles and terrifies us by suggesting that the folly of Lear and ingratitude of his daughters are no accidents or merely individual aberrations, but that in the dark cold world some fateful malignant influence is abroad, turning the hearts of the fathers against their children smiting the earth with a curse, so that the brother gives the brother to death and father the son, blinding the eyes, maddening the brain, freezing the springs of pity, numbing all powers except the nerves of anguish and dull lust of life."
This is the effect of double action which Schlegal first point out in his criticism of 'King Lear.'
Similarly,L.C. knights says;
". . . the consciousness of Lear is part of the consciousness of human world. There is the same destiny of effect throughout. One character echoes another the blinding of Gloucester parallels the cruelty done to Lear; Gloucester loses his eyes, and Lear's mind is darkened; Gloucester learns to see better in his blindness, and Lear reaches his final insight . . . through madness '' Thus, Lear's characters is central and other characters are peripheral. They exist only in relation to him.Lear's tragic misery,suffering and death brought about by the ingratitude of his daughters is central, and those of others are only subservient to Lear's tragic pity, terror and appeal. It only adds to the epic dimension to the Lear-theme. As F.S. Boas says, ''It (King Lear) has a main plot of absorbing interest into which minor plot. . . dovetail with exquisite nicety. . ." or, as A.C. Bradley says, " While reading or watching' King Lear' we feel as though we were witnessing something universal of conflict not so much of particular persons as of the powers of good and evil in the world.''
Lear's tragic life and fate is symbolical of that of humanity,of universal human life.This epic treatment ,epic dimension given to Lear's tragedy is a masterstroke of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic genius. Lear's story is allegorical in this sense,in the sense that the particular represents the general,the personal,the universal. It is also unfair to think that it has no action.It has doubtless,action .but the action is more of mental,intellectual poetic,moral and psychological than physical. Action occurs more in the mind than physical and bodily.' King Lear 'has more of inward action and progressive movement than 'Macbeth' and 'Othello' .As A.C.Bradley observes:
" . . . that which makes the peculiar greatness of 'King Lear' -the immense-scope of the work, the mass and variety of intense experience which it contains . . . the vastness of the convulsion both of nature and of human passion ;the vagueness of the sense where the action takes place . . . the half-realized suggestions of vast universal fates and passions-all this interferes with dramatic clearness . . . This is not so with the other great tragedies."
This is why Charles Lamb holds the opinion that "theatrical representation of 'King Lear' gives only a part of what we imagine when we read them."
I am finding its very very helpful
ReplyDelete