Nature & Order

• 'Thou all-shaking thunder' - Lear 3.2


  Intimate address term ‘thou’ personifies storm giving it godlike status over Lear which diminishes his power. Also shows Lear’s closeness to higher power’s due to his position on the Great Chain of Being. Intimate address term also shows Lear’s hubris as he is addressing nature/gods without necessary respect. The semantic field of unpastoral nature used here such as ‘hurricane’, ‘fires’ and ‘thunderbolts’ emphasizes power of nature. 
• ‘This contentious storm / invades us to the skin” act 3 scene 4 


  ‘Contentious’ personifies the storm, presenting it as controversial and able to bring about change in the most obstinate of men (lear). The storm is presented as infectious “invading’ people to the skin— forcing them to recognise their mistake  
• ‘Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!’ 


  The imperatives show Lear’s hubris through his attempt to order nature, possibly analeptic to him doing the same to Gonerill (‘into her womb convey.’) The apostrophe highlights his descent into madness, showing the consequences of his arrogance. The hyperbolic, elemental imagery and exclamative emphasize his rage and the disorder of the kingdom.  
• ‘loyal and natural boy’ 


  Gloucester joking with Edmund that he is ‘natural’ which has a double entendre to mean illegitimate 

  This dramatic irony of the adjective incites the audience to be hyper-aware of evil tricking good, and we feel helpless. 

  The address term of ‘boy’ is tragic as Gloucester has just recently disowned Edgar and elevated Edmund. 
• Edgar: O thou side-piercing sight! 

  Lear: Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your/ press-money. – That fellow handles his bow like a crow–


  This is an anachronism to Jesus dying on the crucifix/cross. 

  The prose Lear speaks in suggests he doesn’t have the control to speak in verse, a grotesque spectacle of kingship as the non-fluency features create incoherence and dis-jointed speech, like Lear is interacting with soldiers (horrible echo of his daughters preparing for battle)
• “Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality.” 


  Evokes a sense of bathos in the audience as the unmitigated declarative reinforces the idea that Lear is refusing the old order himself while Gloucester still respects Lear as a king. 
• “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, They kill us for their sport” Gloucester 4.1.40 


  There are connotations of futility and desperation in this quote, as Gloucester resorts to a cynicism as he walks the heath. The ambiguous pronoun ’they’ could be reference to the Gods, and the irony of killing for ‘sport’ creates a sense of symmetry with the opening scene.  
• “With base? With baseness? Bastardy? Base, Base?' - Edmund 


  The plosive alliteration converys Edmund’s irritation and hurt at his father’s neglect. Here he seems to almost internalise the negative identity of the bastard son and take on the role of machiavellian villain thats dictated by his bastard status. This social shame seems to function throughout the play as the primary driving force in his rage and societal rebellion 
• ‘struck me with her tongue most serpent like’ 2.4 


  Animalistic/predatory imagery- dehumanizes Regan and aligns her with sin (garden of Eden and the fall)  

  Violent verb ‘struck’ conveys how Lear sees her actions as a direct attack on him
• Cordelia: ‘As mad as the vexed sea, singing aloud, / Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds’ 4.4


  The natural imagery in Cordelia’s simile ‘as the vexed sea’ suggests a vast and powerful rage against a storm, heightening Lear’s almost cursed state and setting the natural world as a dangerous power. His costume in wearing a crown of weeds is significant as ‘weeds’ have connotations of that which is futile and not viable. They even suggest a corrupted natural world or order that has been destroyed. He is almost a parody of kingship and its decay.