King Lear essay help (1 Viewer)

[ellie_bubs]

Hey everyone,
I need help with a practice essay question;

Your local library is running a series of lectures that explore how the nature of the audience affects the way texts are received and valued.
You have been asked to speak about different receptions of your prescribed text.
Compose your speech explaining how you have valued your prescribed text and evaluating a different way that it has been responded to and valued.
In your response you should consider the structure, staging, language and ideas of the text.

I know how to structure it like a speech and explain how the audience reflects the interpretation to an extent but what types of things would you say on how you have valued it, ive been spending so much time on how other people have valued it, i have no idea why someone our age would!
Any help would be appreciated

 

[lukebennett]

Hey everyone,
I need help with a practice essay question;

Your local library is running a series of lectures that explore how the nature of the audience affects the way texts are received and valued.
You have been asked to speak about different receptions of your prescribed text.
Compose your speech explaining how you have valued your prescribed text and evaluating a different way that it has been responded to and valued.
In your response you should consider the structure, staging, language and ideas of the text.

I know how to structure it like a speech and explain how the audience reflects the interpretation to an extent but what types of things would you say on how you have valued it, ive been spending so much time on how other people have valued it, i have no idea why someone our age would!
Any help would be appreciated

ok, to start with it is like one of the normal questions which explores the texts diverse qualities and how it can therefore be viewed differently by people of different context. so place emphasis on the composers context, who the productions are intended for (i think this question is suited best to critiques as there is the personal context of the writer which can be explored). you probably knew all that.

You need to have your own interpretation (our teacher has always stressed this). you could base it on a reading or at least use one or two for ideas or focuses from productions. think: what does my interpretation say about king lear?

Look at other productions or readings and compare these with yours (a huge comparison is prob not neccessary) and emphasise how these are different depending on the audience. with the "valued" bit you must look at what is valued and how it is focused on. what themes are focused on? what techniques of the play are focused on?

i have some good material on readings if you need it. (ill give it to u coz ur actually doing an essay and not just asking for peoples notes).
good luck

 

[lukebennett]

*this is a reading that you might find useful (you may not need it). it is part of an essay i wrote (Discuss the following question.
'Can anything of value be gained from an examination of the past?"
Support your answer with reference to your studies of King Lear) which has a similar topic of contexts and audiences and why so many productions are made over hundreds of years)*




Marianne Novy has found the comments that KL makes on how patriarchal structures deform relationships and mar the lives of both men and women are highly valuable. This feminist critique is not extreme but argues that the patriarchy has negative effects on both men and women. She argues that mutuality- the same relationship and dependence on each other- exists between Lear and his daughters but is flawed by his arrogance and supreme power. The arrogance in particular leads to his decline, while it severely strains his relationship with Cordelia. His need for flattery, which is a result of his arrogance and dependence on his daughters in the love test scene, reveals his need for true mutuality. However Gonerill and Regan take advantage of this and Lear’s belief that he has supreme power, when Lear divides his land

Gonerill: sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter
Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty

Lear’s arrogance – a result of patriarchy – leads to his decline, while disowning Cordelia who is true and does not flatter, damages their relationship. The effect of this is evident in the storm scene where chaos breaks out, which is symbolic of Lear’s madness. Novy argues that to mend this damage and to return to true mutuality, forgiveness is required. Lear grows from the experiences of the storm scene and realises human worth and non-material needs

O reason not the need!
Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous

Here in the storm scene, Lear’s awareness of the unimportance of material objects and that a persons needs extend beyond what is necessary for mere survival. Lear is now humbled enough to forgive Cordelia, but this acknowledged dependence on non-material things allows for Cordelia to find true mutuality and forgiveness with him. Thus, Novy finds an extremely valuable moral feminist message about male oppression within this most traditional Jacobean text which reinforces that things of value can be gained from an examination of the past.