King Lear, No Idea

Question 1

Hobbes

Question 2

Aristotle

Question 3

Aristotelian- peripeteia

Answer 3

reversal of fortune of a tragic hero
(caused by himself)

Question 4

Aristotelian- hamartia

Answer 4

Aristotle- the chain of events set off by himself that will lead to his death
AC Bradley- ‘fatal flaw’

Question 5

Aristotelian- anagnorisis

Answer 5

moment of insight experienced by the tragic hero
gains a new perspective on the truths of human existence

Question 6

Catharsis

Answer 6

purging of emotions for the audience
AC Bradley- ‘full power and reach of the soul […] admiration, terror and awe’

Question 7

Betty Kantor Stuart on tragedy

Question 8

Schoff on tragedy

Question 9

Hegel

Question 10

Heidegger

Question 11

Manichaenism

Question 12

Catholic ideas

Question 13

positivism

Question 14

Heilman (in text)

Question 15

The mirror stage

Answer 15

recognising oneself as an object in the world means
recognising that one is not the world. The child suddenly discovers
that there is a reality beyond its control - a world that cannot simply
be commanded or shaped according to its desires.

Lear undergoes a similar moment oft of recognition when he
encounters Poor Tom on the heath. ​

Tom functions as Lear’s mirror image - the same human
being stripped of the illusion of kingship, power, and social identity.​

Tom is the “unaccommodated man” Lear has always been but has
never recognised.​

liberation from the blindness
of unconscious self-importance, but it also forces Lear to confront
his vulnerability, his dependence on others, and ultimately his
mortality.​

Question 16

The Real Lacan

Answer 16

idea that a baby has no conception of things that are symbolised outside of himself

“the real is that which resists symbolisation absolutely.”

Lear resemble this infant, and how does his court resemble the Real?​

Question 17

The symbolic

Answer 17

Symbolic is the stage in which the subject enters a world structured
by language, law, and relationships with others.​

After the storm and his encounter with Poor Tom, Lear begins to
recognise the humanity of others and his own place within the human
community.​

He acknowledges the suffering of the poor: “Expose thyself to feel what
wretches feel.”

Question 18

Tragedy is that Lear’s…

Answer 18

self knowledge (from Lacan and Freud) only comes after everything has been destroyed

Question 19

Freud explains

Answer 19

why the mind repeats
trauma.​