king lear

[Engels Mwaniki]

King Lear is indeed one of Shakespeare's great works. Honestly 4 me this is a great gem of a play. Try it people. [/quote]

[Artdude]

King Lear is certainly one of Shakespeare's best. I mean it seriously is fantastic. I think there are three clear reasons why it is so fantastic:

1) The story line(s).
The main plot, with Lear's daughters rejecting him, and forging a corrupt and immoral state of affairs with his old land, and how they treat him, and manipulate, and reduce him to an animal, is truly brilliant. This is carefully weaved into the sub-plot, which is mirrored image of offspring rejection, only it results in physical mutilation, huge dramatic irony, and ultimately pathos, in terms of audience response. This is truly remarkable, how they so easily cross each other, and how they stand alone as a a great framework for the rest.

2) The language.

The inummerable amount of poignant, and emotionally challenging, and interesting lines which can be found in Lear are just amazing. "Like flies to Wanton boys are we to the God's, they kill us for their sport," "But I am bound upon a wheel of fire, That mine own tears do scald like molten lead," and "Strike flat the thick rotundity of the world," are but three examples of finely crafted speech. The extent to which Shakespeare manipulates words, and uses them as his most powerful weapon, is... well... it truly is the work of a genius.

3) The Themes examined

Arguably the most amazing part of Lear is the breadth, and depth of the themes which go under the microscope. Blindness, Madness, Father daughter and father-son relationships, folly, power, property, rejection, immorality.... I mean it is truly endless. There is always something new in that respect. 'Something for everyone' if you want to be twilight-fannish about it.

It is unavoidable, that Lear is one of the most challenging plays that Shakespeare wrote, but I feel that the dramatic world is better for it.

[Maud Fitch]

Beautifully expressed, Artdude, but don't you think modern literature can be just as magnificent without the veiled mystique, the allure of an era long gone? Or maybe everyone else copied Shakespeare?

[Artdude]

Beautifully expressed, Artdude, but don't you think modern literature can be just as magnificent without the veiled mystique, the allure of an era long gone? Or maybe everyone else copied Shakespeare?

First of all thankyou - I care deeply about Lear.

You raise an interesting point - and I think it can be. However, I think it's worth suggesting that because it's so much easier to be a published author in this century, and the previous, it seems like you have to wade through more mire to arrive at an oasis. It's much like music in that respect - it seems to me you can be a published author without any kind of reputation, which is an uncensored, uadulterated way of producing art. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it requires more work. That's how I see it anyway - of course Modern Literature can be magnificent, but it seems that with the benefit of hindisght, the world has chosen it's favourites, and I quite like adhering to those choices.

[Moore]

Yes, the book is too great and too profound and I know that people write scientific works on it. i have read it many times and I think that I will read as many as I can

[Fran]

I'm a great fan of Shakespeare but I'm of the opinion that, as with any drama written for the stage, watching a staging of Lear is a much more satisfying experience than reading the play.

[Engels Mwaniki]

I beg to differ with the opinion that Shakespeare's work should be either simplified or abridged so as to meet contemporary readership needs. The plays and indeed even the sonnets by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the Elizabethan age, to say the least, were excellent. The music in the writing would be lost if these writings were so much as altered.
Reading Shakespeare I must content is not easy business.,but look at it as you would say exercising or harvesting honey- hard tasks with rewarding outcomes.
Feel encouraged to read this play.
Indeed one says that watching the play on stage is best. True True. It is also exciting to watch especially if you have read so that you are able to follow and enjoy the more.