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SHUMEN UNIVERSITY EPISKOP KONSTANTIN PRESLAVSKI FACULTY OF HUMANITIES ENGLISH PHILOLOGY

LITERATURE COURSE: BRITISH LITERATURE RENAISSANCE

TOPIC: Write a critical analysis of King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2. How does this scene relate to the Elizabethan picture of the world? What is the significance of the storm in it?

Student: Nicolay Kulev No1002 Lecturer: Assoc. Prof. Lyudmila Kostova, Shumen, 2013

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A critical analysis of King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2 How does this scene relate to the Elizabethan picture of the world? What is the significance of the storm in it?

Shakespeares play King Lear is a tragedy probably based on well-known legends. It is about a king who, due to his old age, decides to part his kingdom between his three daughters. Because of the conflict with his younger daughter, in the beginning of the play, King Lear divides the kingdom between the other two. That leads to conflicts and it will transform the old and honorable king into a mad old man. This transformation happens in act III. Shakespeare uses the storm there as a symbol which is recognizable for his contemporaries. The storm in act III appears to mark the climax of the play and thus to become its turning point. It is pure Shakespeare (CN, 28) as it does not appear in any sources about King Lear. As strong as the other characters in the play are, the storm is there to have its influence upon the play and especially upon the king. That old man is cast in the heath to brave out the storms elements. After he has suffered the mental pains when he was driven out in the storm by his two daughters, King Lear faces the mighty physical power of the nature. His first words in the storm are said to the four elements Elizabethans believed the world is constituted of The constitution of [the] body duplicated the constitution of the earth. His vital heat corresponded to the subterranean fire; his veins to rivers; his sighs to winds; the outbursts of his passions to storms and earthquakes. (wvup.edu) Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
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You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! ... Crack natures molds, all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man! (3.2-1-10)

Elizabethans feared the chaos and they believed the king or the queen is the representative of God. They believed also the State should be united and if there was any break of it there would be some divine interference. But in the play, the old king not only divides his kingdom and expels his youngest daughter; he is cast away by his elder children too. In his fury, while on the heath, Lear compares the storm with his life. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters. I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. I never gave you kingdom, called you children. He talks to it as if it were his two treacherous daughters. But yet I call you servile ministers, That will with two pernicious daughters joined Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head So old and white as this. Oh, ho! 'Tis foul. (3.2-21-24) The storm here is a symbol of the devastating power of the greed with its mightiness within the human nature. And such a symbol would be recognized
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by the Elizabethans for it was the kingdom and the king most precious in their time. The storm brings chaos so one cannot find shelter and thus allows an audience to share the suffering not just of the fond and foolish king but of the houseless poverty he has (Scott, 1999). The storm mirrors the Lears internal confusion. The storm is to show the transition in the king and he reveals his madness: My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart Thats sorry yet for thee. (3.2 66-70) During the storm, King Lear realizes he is an ordinary man with his insignificance in the world Here I am, your slavea poor, sick, weak, hated old man. he says to the Fool. Such a pity change it is for the great king whom he was. Such a transformation is important for he could face the chaos, in the kingdom and in his soul, in a new, different way.

Paul Gleed, Blooms How to Write about Shakespeares Tragedies, 2011 Alexander Leggatt, Shakespeares Tragedies: Violation and Identity, 2005 David Scott Kastan, Shakespeare after theory, 2005
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