Edmund warns Edgar in the production of King Lear. Edmund tells Edgar to flee in the production of King Lear. He has a younger half-brother called Edmund who is illegitimate. Edmund tricks their father into believing that Edgar is plotting against his life. He then meets his father when Gloucester is turned out of his own home, blinded.
While there, in order to try and give his father hope, Edgar tricks Gloucester into believing he has thrown himself from the top of a cliff. Gloucester later dies and Edgar challenges Edmund to a duel and he defeats Edmund. Edgar is trying to encourage his father to keep going but this also seems to suggest something about his beliefs — that we must be ready to deal with whatever life sends us and keep going.
Edmund regards his brother as honest, trustworthy and someone easy to fool because he believes that everyone else is as honest and trustworthy as him. Albany sensed that Edgar was a gentleman of royal blood by the way he walked and presented himself. The Fool in the production of King Lear. The Fool and Lear in the production of King Lear. In the six scenes in which he appears, the Fool uses his wit and his songs to help Lear realise what he has lost. The Fool is loyal to Lear and stays with him despite understanding that others are abandoning him because of his change in fortunes.
As the Fool sees Lear and Poor Tom behaving and speaking as though they have lost their minds, his own comments become more straightforward. Lear allows the Fool to get away with behaviour that other servants would not get away with. Kent in the production of King Lear. Lear, Kent and the Fool in the production of King Lear. The Earl of Kent is a rich and powerful man who is loyal to King Lear. When Lear disinherits Cordelia , Kent tries to step in and advise the King but Lear banishes him from the kingdom.
Kent stays loyal to Lear during the storm and helps Lear to escape to Dover. In Dover, Kent is reunited with Cordelia and they both continue to support the King. Kent is fiercely loyal to Lear and his loyalty includes speaking up when he feels the king needs advice. Kent seems to be regarded by other courtiers, such as Gloucester, as a good man who is loyal to the king. Because of his insults, attitude, and insistence on fighting , Oswald, Cornwall and Regan regard the disguised Kent as an old thug.
Cordelia is deeply grateful to Kent for looking out for her father at such risk to himself. Albany in the production of King Lear. Albany and Goneril receive news in the production of King Lear. When the kingdom is divided between Goneril and Regan , it is their husbands, the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall, who rule half the kingdom each. Throughout the play, rumours abound and grow about division between the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall.
Albany grows increasingly disgusted at the behaviour of his wife and her sister but fights with them against Cordelia and her invading French army. At the end of the play Albany is left to rule, along with Edgar. Albany believes he is right to feel loyalty to the king rather than siding with his wife, who seems vile and filthy to him. Albany seems happy that the French army has landed and unhappy that his wife has returned home.
Goneril regards her husband as a coward who does not know what he is doing. Lear feels Kent has betrayed him by challenging him in this way and banishes him. Kent remains loyal to the king to the very end of the play. When Albany asks him to help rule the war-torn kingdom, Kent refuses, suggesting he cannot live any longer now Lear is gone. Gloucester is a trusted courtier at the start of the play and remains loyal to Lear throughout.
Gloucester risks making Regan and Cornwall angry to protect the king and get him safely to Cordelia in Dover. As a result, Gloucester loses both his influence and his eyes. When he meets Lear again on the beach at Dover, he is still loyal. When the battle is over, he declares that he will give all his power back to Lear, but Lear dies a few lines later. Regan expresses jealousy of her sister and beseeches Edmund not to be familiar with her.
Abruptly, Goneril and Albany enter with their troops. Albany states that he has heard that the invading French army has been joined by Lear and unnamed others who may have legitimate grievances against the present government. Despite his sympathy toward Lear and these other dissidents, Albany declares that he intends to fight alongside Edmund, Regan, and Goneril to repel the foreign invasion.
Goneril and Regan jealously spar over Edmund, neither willing to leave the other alone with him. The three exit together. Just as Albany begins to leave, Edgar, now disguised as an ordinary peasant, catches up to him.
Edgar tells Albany to read the letter and says that if Albany wins the upcoming battle, he can sound a trumpet and Edgar will provide a champion to defend the claims made in the letter. Edgar vanishes and Edmund returns.
Meanwhile, in the Duchy of Cornwall: With the death of Cornwall, the situation changed dramatically. Cornwall was not a soldier but appeared to be a capable administrator. Undoubtedly, he would have brought the British defences to readiness against the French invasion, as was evident in the message he asked Edmund to deliver to Albany. Cornwall's death is a disaster for Regan.
The Duchy of Cornwall, of which she has become the sole ruler, urgently needs to prepare for the French invasion which is about to take place, but there is now nobody to organise the defences, nor the communication links with Albany.
Being thus completely disorganised, defeat and wholesale slaughter of the populace, including Regan, at the hands of the French is almost inevitable. Although she is allied with Albany her army needs a commander. The obvious person to conduct her powers, as Goneril has just advised, is Edmund, who has proven his loyalty by informing on Gloster.
Goneril would understand the implications of Cornwall's death and she immediately became concerned she might lose Edmund to the widow, Regan. Her mind, though, was quick to see advantageous possibilities in the changed circumstances. Simultaneously with the imminent French invasion, Cornwall's death has left Regan vulnerable from within her realm, assuming she and it survives the invasion.
Her subjects are unlikely to remain content to be ruled by a head of state so weak she might be overthrown by some opportunist.
They may be concerned she might be dethroned by Goneril! Regan's advisers would warn her of her dangerous situation, to say nothing of the dangerous situation they are in, and would recommend she remarry as soon as possible.
Regan would realise this as necessary to secure her position and immediately look around for a new husband. It seems obvious she would regard Edmund as a most suitable prospect. We know Edmund is self-seeking, but Regan doesn't.
In her eyes he is loyal and noble and worthy of the Earldom of Gloster to which he has just been raised. To raise him still further to be her consort would, surely, seem to her, and to her advisers, to be an extremely wise move. Also, he would be able to lead her army against the French.
This would be the situation prevailing when Edmund suddenly arrives to lead Regan's army. He would learn of the death of Cornwall and the predicament confronting the state. But this scene signals that Albany's loyalties will not be with his wife but with those who defend Lear. Goneril's role, here, is in contrast to that of most Elizabethan women. In this period, women were totally subordinate to their husband's desires. The chain of authority was from God to king, king to subject always male and male to women and children.
Elizabeth I refused to marry rather than be subject to any man's authority. Goneril, however, sees herself as the ultimate authority, and this contradicts the reality of this historical period. Previous Scene 1. Next Scene 3. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks?
0コメント