THE BASIC IDEAS OF LEAR

Life resolves itself into alternative.

1.  Nature:  Lear’s order

                   Edmund’s impulse and will

2.  Views of man:  a human being conforming to order

                   animal (Edmund’s view of nature

3.  Age

Possessor of certain prerogativs as established by nature

Obsolescence:  to be used for profit for the fittest

4.  Justice

Eternal (Nature as order)

Injustice inflicted by man as animal

And so:  Paradox

Beasts of prey may perish before their victims

Hidden justice may upset the inseparable temporary power

Naked may survive

Blind may come to sight

Imagination may be reduced to complete incompetence, even to mental incompetence.

Man stands on his own feet in “King Lear.”  There is no supernatural soliciting

No ghosts, witches, oracles.  Man takes his questioning directly to Nature.

READ:  Granville-Barker:  preface, King Lear

Heilman:  This Great Stage (Images and Structure in King Lear)

Danby:  Shakespeare’s Doctrine of Nature