LIT 251
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  King Lear

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. What does Lear learn in the course of the play?  He began the play as an arrogant, foolish old man.  What does losing his kingdom, his entourage, his dignity, and his sanity teach him?  What does he learn about human nature? about poverty? about human dignity? about cruelty? about compassion? about the social order
2. Over the centuries, people have often been made upset by the ending of King Lear.  In the nineteenth century, a version of King Lear was circulated that ended happily – with Lear dying peacefully in a living Cordelia’s arms.  But that’s not the play Shakespeare wrote.  So, in Shakespeare’s play, why does Cordelia have to die?  In the course of the play, Lear has been stripped of his possessions, his dignity, and his sanity.  He seems to have learned his lesson.  Why does Shakespeare continue to punish Lear (and us) by having Cordelia, who seems so good and wholesome, die?  What is Shakespeare saying about the world?
3. What is Shakespeare saying about the nature of evil and the social order?  Goneril and Regan become truly horrific by the end of King Lear.  Did they start out that way?  If not, how did they become evil?  Why did they become evil?  What were the steps in their descent?  What is Shakespeare saying about women? about what happens when the social order isn’t upheld responsibly? about the thin veneer of civilization that keeps us from attacking and destroying one another?

Click here to go to the syllabus.