King Lear Essay
...shment speech, which, once again, further portrays Lear’s power and authority, especially since the peasants foreheads are to the ground, as a sign of worship. Kozinstev’s interpretation of the first scene shows how a political reading has allowed him to explore the theme of ‘power and authority’ within his context. In the late 1990’s, Benjamin Winspear directed a new version of King Lear under the Sydney Theatre Company, which provided a different audience-experience using the timeless theme of power and authority. The theme of power, in Winspear’s production is explored by looking at how power is capable, how it operates and the processes involved, rather than simply power within a royal court. More relevant to contemporary society, is the fact that the behaviours of the characters are dealt with rather than honest absolutes. The stage is bare, except for a bed, because Winspear wished to show the audience that the stage is essentially about the actor. Lear’s bed is one of the few items on the stage, as it represents Lear’s authority and power. Both Kozinstev and Winspear’s productions portray the theme of power and authority, through the use of props and visual images, the only contrast being one being a film, the other a play. Kozinstev incorporated in his film actual landscapes and harsh weather conditions, aspects which are limited on stage performances. Jonathan Dollimore suggested that Lear’s identity is a social construction, and that the play is really about “power, authority, property and inheritance”. Dollimore linked King Lear with the society in which it was written, that is King Lear is a revolutionary, thorough tragedy which questions the Jacobean status quo. In modern society, there are links to particular societal or political circumstances, and due to contemporary wars and human tragedies, audiences are more able to understand the senseless violence and death in King Lear. A second theme explored in the play is that of familial relationships, particularly between parents and their children. In this interpretation, Lear is portrayed as a rash, overbearing parent, self-centered and flawed in the sense that he does not impart equal love to each of his daughters. The play is an image of a family in lively relations, an image strengthened and highlighted by being doubled into parallel plots between Lear and Gloucester. Lear reveals his favourtism for Cordelia, saving her the “third more opulent than your sisters”, of his land, in Act 1, scene 1, which causes feelings of neglect and resentment in the elder sisters. This is also seen again when Lear addresses Gonerill as ‘eldest born’, Regan as ‘our second daughter’ and Cordelia as ‘our joy’, when asking them “which of you….doth love us most?” this also revealing his need to be loved by his children, and his insecurity and lack of understanding of them. Eventually Lear realises his mistakes as a father towards Cordelia, “I did her wrong”, and “ She’s gone forever”, in Act 5, scene 3, and this scene is significant to the play as a whole, as it is where the final outcomes of Lear’s original actions are realised. A family interpretation of Lear is valued because of the insight it provides into the parent-child bond, for example Richard Eyre’s rendition of the last scene, produced in 1998, where he took a family reading to relate it to the perspective of modern day western civilization. “It presents a family that you could describe in contemporary terms as the archetypal dysfunctional family - a widowed father with three daughters” states Eyre. The final scene is one of the most important, as this is where Lear realises the outcomes of his decisions. In the final scenes, the dead bodies of Lear, Gonerill, Regan and Cordelia, are all placed on a cart, this image chosen to be the final shot in the film, suggestive of their familial ties as more powerful than death. Also contributing to the familial aspect of the performance, is the fight between Edmund and Edgar, the strong eye contact the two make after fighting, and Edmund seems full of repent, and comes to terms with the fact that he betrayed his family, saying to Edgar, “If thou’t noble, / I do forgive thee”. Edmund hears of his brother’s experiences as Poor Tom, and the death of their father, and the “note of forgiving chivalry” is struck again as he remarks, “This speech of yours hath moved me”. Providing an interesting audience-experience, Eyre’s rendition of the last scene conveys the issue of familial relationships, within the relevant context, and relevant to contemporary society, as Eyre states “you have to keep saying about the play - how far away from your own experience is it?... the subject matter of the play is stuff that we all know about, because it is about family, it's about fathers and children, and everybody has first hand experience of the tormented or the potential for tormented relationships between parent and children, from both sides”. Nahum Tate, a seventeenth century writer re-wrote the ending of the play to suit contemporary society social tastes. He felt the original ending was too gloomy, and violent, and the...