King Lear Important Quotes and Summaries free essay sample

KING LEAR ACT I Act I, sc. i: quote: â€Å"Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised! † speaker: King of France to Cordelia analysis: King Lear has disowned his youngest daughter because she did not express in words how much she loved him. When Burgundy and the King of France come to claim her as their love, Lear tells the she is worthless, and ask if they still would want her, Burgundy doesnt but the King of France does. Act I, sc. ii: quote: â€Å"Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? †¦ Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund As to the legitimate. Fine word—â€Å"legitimate†! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards! † speaker: Edmund soliloquy nalysis: Edmund is devising a plan to make his father turn on the true heir of the land, Edgar. He wants the land to himself. Act I, sc. iv: quote: â€Å"I would learn that; for, by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded I had daughters. † speaker: King Lear to Goneril analysis: Lears daughters are turning against him. He was residing with his daughter Goneril doesnt like the fact the Lear has 100 knights parading around him, that Lear is acting like he is still in charge, though retired, and she makes her thoughts known to him. He cant believe that he thought he had daughters who loved him. ACT II Act II, sc. i: quote: â€Å"The duke be here to-night? The better! Best! This weaves itself perforce into my business. My father hath set guard to take my brother; And I have one thing, of a queasy question, Which I must act: briefness and fortune, work! Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say! † speaker: Edmund analysis: Edmund hears Regan and Cornwall will be coming, and is excited that he can add them to his plan to get rid of Edgar. Act II, sc. ii: uote: â€Å"Let me beseech your grace not to do so: His fault is much, and the good king his master Will cheque him for t: your purposed low correction Is such as basest and contemnedst wretches For pilferings and most common trespasses Are punishd with: the king must take it ill, That hes so slightly valued in his messenger, Should have him thus restraind. † speaker: Gloucester analysis: Kent is being punished for attacked Oswald. He is loyal to Lear , and to be put into one of Lears own humiliating devices seems fit for punishment. Gloucester does not think it is right to use this form of punishment, and here he is objecting to it, but the others agree it is fit. Act II, sc. iv: quote: â€Å"I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad: I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell: Well no more meet, no more see one another: But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter; Or rather a disease thats in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil, A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle, In my corrupted blood. But Ill not chide thee; Let shame come when it will, I do not call it: I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot, Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove: Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure: I can be patient; I can stay with Regan, I and my hundred knights. † speaker: King Lear to Goneril analysis: Lear is starting to see how his daughters have betrayed him, but doesnt want to believe it. He is in shock, and when Goneril denies him the right to stay with her, he believes Regan will allow him and his hundred knights to stay with her, though she refuses. He doesnt understand what is going on and why he deserves this. ACT III Act III, sc. ii: quote: â€Å"My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart Thats sorry yet for thee. † speaker: King Lear to Fool analysis: Lear, after starting to realize he is going mad, also starts to feel sympathy for others. This is a first for the King to feel sorry for others, and it surprises them. Act III, sc. iv: quote: â€Å"Poor naked wretches, wheresoer you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your loopd and windowd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have taen Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just. † speaker: King Lear, praying analysis: Lear is sitting outside of shelter in the storm, praying for those who are poor and are like him out in the horrible weather. He feels terrible for not having taken care of those people while in power, and hopes that by feeling the way they feel will help ease his soul. Act III, sc. vi: quote: â€Å"When we our betters see bearing our woes, We scarcely think our miseries our foes. Who alone suffers suffers most i the mind, Leaving free things and happy shows behind: But then the mind much sufferance doth oer skip, When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. How light and portable my pain seems now, When that which makes me bend makes the king bow, He childed as I fatherd! Tom, away! Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray, When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee. What will hap more to-night, safe scape the king! Lurk, lurk. † speaker: Edgar analysis: After pretending to be crazy and seeing that Lear was not faking it, he sees how worse off other are than he is. Act III, sc. vii: quote: â€Å"Out, treacherous villain! Thou callst on him that hates thee: it was he That made the overture of thy treasons to us; Who is too good to pity thee. † speaker: Regan to Gloucester analysis: As Gloucester is calling to his son Edmund for help, Regan reveals that it was Edmund who betrayed him. ACT IV Act IV, sc. i: quote: â€Å"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport. † speaker: Gloucester analysis: Gloucester is seeing for the first time that though a nobleman he was treated like a fly to a wanton boy. Beaten and blinded, the gods were not there to help him. Wishes to only be able to feel his true son Edgar. Act IV, sc. ii: quote: â€Å"See thyself, devil! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid as in woman. † speaker: Albany to Goneril analysis: Albany is seeing how horrid the two daughters are acting, wanting to kill Lear, attack the French and by blinding Gloucester. He is appalled by how evil they are. Act IV, sc. vi: quote: â€Å"A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch, Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter, Who redeems nature from the general curse Which twain have brought her to. † speaker: Gentleman to King Lear analysis: Lears daughter, Cordelia, is looking for her father. He is crazy, but her men will not stop till they get him. She wants to help him, and does not like how her sisters have treated him. He is embarrassed by the way he treated her, but the men try to tell him she only wants to help him. Act IV, sc. vii: quote: â€Å"O my dear father! Restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made! † speaker: Cordelia analysis: Though her father disowned her and considered her worthless to him, she still cares for him, and hopes that he can get better and heal from the wounds his other two sisters have left. ACT V Act V, sc. i: quote: â€Å"To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoyd, If both remain alive: to take the widow Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; And hardly shall I carry out my side, Her husband being alive. Now then well use His countenance for the battle; which being done, Let her who would be rid of him devise His speedy taking off. As for the mercy Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia, The battle done, and they within our power, Shall never see his pardon; for my state Stands on me to defend, not to debate. † speaker: Edmund analysis: Edmund has told both sisters he loves them. He cannot decide what to do, but if Albany survives, Goneril can kill him herself. He plans on winning and not giving Lear or Cordelia any mercy. Act V, sc. iii: quote: â€Å"Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone forever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; She’s dead as earth. † speaker: King Lear analysis: While everything seems to be ending with good fortune, Lear arrives with Cordelia dead in his arms. There is no justice as to why she died, and Lear is left begging for death. Source: Full Text Script of the Play King Lear by William Shakespeare. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Web. 31 July 2011.