Lear quotes

• Dearer than eyesight space and liberty.. Beyond what can be valued rich or rare' A1S1


  - puns associated with wealth, Lear understands this to be Goneril expressing emotional love, instead expressing his financial worth

  - his wealth and status worth more to her than her eyesight and freedom which suggests her shallow and self serving nature
• Nothing, my Lord' a1s1

  - she speaks honestly and challenges natural submission to her father that is expected, doesn't flatter but speaks from the heart and loves her father according to what she owes him
• See better Lear' a1s1

  - Lear inability to detect daughters falseness, undermines Lear original impression as wise ruler

  - Kent sees falseness of G+R and expects better of Lear, encourages him to see his folly
• I tell you all her wealth' - a1s1


  - tells Burgundy of her worthlessness both emotionally and financially, ironic as her character and morality superior to others in the play

  - 'wealth' her only value was ever her financial means
• With baseness, bastardy' - A1S2


  - his illegitimate status, questions why he is treated less due to his illegitimacy ,which is a lie

  - plosive alliteration heightens Edmund anger at social position he blames Gloucester for confining him to

  - internally now sees himself as unworthy and illegitimate
• Nature.. thy law my services are bound' - A1S2 - Edmund


  - he is bound to adhere to natural order by law but this is unfair, but nature has allowed him to be deceitful and evil, suggesting nature itself part of a malevolent force

  - if natural world against Edmund, would've made him significantly inferior
• Here I stand, your slave, a poor, infirm, weak and despised old man' - Lear a3s2


  - Lear wallows in self pity

  - he willingly submits to the strength of the storm rather than seek shelter or fight for his sanity

  - fallen so far from strong monarch position who began the play that his only strength is in wishing for destruction

  - his punishment exceeds his foolish errors and evokes sympathy from audience
• naked pitiless wretches.. I should have taken better care of this' - Lear a3s4

  - been stripped of all his status and now has insight into lives of others and proves himself as compassionate

  - thinks of the suffering of others before his own

  - link to sight and blindness- only able to see others suffering now and recognise his privilege
• as flies to wanton boys we are to the gods, they kill us for their sport' A4s1


  - Gloucester after being blinded, sense that gods in a pagan world are malevolent and want to see G suffer even though doesn't deserve such violence

  - likens Gods to immature, uncaring, unjust children whilst minimising man to insignificant flies, creatures subject to sportful cruelty

  - 'sport' suggests competition- gods compete with each other to create the most suffering for mortals
• Pluck out his eyes' - a3s7

  - G+ R revel in this torture+cruelty

  - destruction of customs and natural order

  - subverts metaphorical language of blindness brutally literal
• I am a fool, thou art nothing'


  - uses Lear words against him

  - often, foolish characters far wiser than perceived by others, particularly in regal positions

  - Lear made blind mistake of believing his daughters manipulative and empty words

  - echoes Lear and Cordelia, stressing Lear destroyed himself in process of dividing kingdom

  - theme of nothingness
• My old heart is cracked' Gloucester a2s1


  - division of kingdom and family

  - emotive verb, provokes sympathy and pathos
• I am a man more sinned against than sinning' -a3s2


  - convention of tragedy

  - polysemy (word/phrase has multiple meanings)through juxtaposing implications of the verb

  - ignorance to his sins through self pity

  - fatal flaw- lack of acknowledgment and accountability for consequences of his actions
• I disclaim all paternal care' - a1s1


  - Cordelia is one daughter that loves him

  - according to Greenblatt, Lears biggest 'folly
• Blow, wind and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow' singe my white head';


  - the storm is a physical manifestation, links Lear's emotions to rage he feels

  - disrupt of iambic pentameter, audience focus on aggressive tone and communicating disruption

  - calls for destruction of natural order and imperatives emphasise lack o power and fatal flaw

  - ironic as believes his power in to command gods, lack of awareness for his peripeteia

  - could evoke pity as stereotypes him as old
• Edgar I nothing am' - Edgar as poor tom- assumes 'basest and most poorest shape'


  - jarring syntax of proclamation emphasises his loss of identity and position in society

  - plosives 'b' and 'p ' sounds and superlatives, must become further alike Bedlam beggar