Act 1 Scene 3 Flashcards
(7 cards)
Exaggeration about Lear, he does what to Goneril?
AO1: Goneril presents herself as a victim of Lear’s behaviour, using this as justification to limit his power.
AO2: The temporal repetition “by day and night” exaggerates Lear’s wrongdoing, suggesting it’s constant and intolerable, creating a tone of moral urgency.
AO3: In a patriarchal world, Goneril’s resistance to Lear’s dominance would have seemed unsettling to a Jacobean audience, who expected daughters to be obedient.
AO4: Foreshadows the growing tension between Lear and his daughters and the play’s unraveling of family order.
AO5: Critics debate whether Goneril is power-hungry or simply asserting herself in response to Lear’s erratic behaviour.
His Knights…
AO1: Goneril claims that Lear’s retinue behaves badly to justify stripping him of power.
AO2: The verb “grow” evokes a creeping, contagious disorder, while “riotous” connotes chaos and disobedience, amplifying the threat.
AO3: The concern with household order reflects early modern anxieties about status, control, and decorum, especially in noble homes. Depends how the play directer presents them.
AO4: This quote feeds the larger theme of power shifting from old to young, father to daughter.
AO5: Some see Goneril’s complaints as political strategy, others view her as manipulating a false narrative to diminish Lear’s influence.
Goneril fakes a sicknes
“I will not speak with him; tell him I am sick” – Goneril
AO1: Goneril refuses to engage with her father, showing calculated defiance.
AO2: The imperative “tell him I am sick” is evasive and duplicitous, using illness as a pretext to assert dominance without direct confrontation.
AO3: Jacobean daughters were expected to serve and respect their fathers; Goneril’s behaviour reverses that expectation.
AO4: Builds toward Lear’s identity crisis and emotional collapse.
AO5: Some critics see this as cold manipulation; others might interpret it as a necessary boundary-setting with a volatile parent.
sisters minds are in sync
“Whose mind and mine I know are in one” – Goneril (about Regan)
AO1: Goneril states her and Regan’s unity of thought, forming a dangerous alliance.
AO2: The monosyllabic simplicity of “mind and mine…in one” conveys cold efficiency and calculated power.
AO3: In a patriarchal society, sisters uniting against the father would evoke strong discomfort in a Jacobean audience — power and kinship are being perverted.
AO4: Sets up their joint role as co-antagonists, mirroring later scenes of cruelty.
AO5: Could be interpreted as a feminist moment of female alliance — or a chilling move toward tyranny.
comparing him to a child babeeey
“Old fools are babes again” – Goneril
AO1: Goneril dismisses Lear as both childish and senile, reducing his authority to weakness.
AO2: The metaphor likens Lear to an infant, fusing images of decay and vulnerability with cruelty; “fools” also links him to the Fool character.
AO3: Reflects the early modern tension between ageing monarchs and the threat of political instability they posed.
AO4: Connects to the broader theme of natural order reversed — parents becoming like children.
AO5: Some may find her brutally pragmatic; others view this as shocking filial betrayal and dehumanisation.
Goneril instructs Oswald the sycophant to…
put on a weary negligence
How seriously should we take Goneril’s complaints about Lear and his knights?
Depends on how the director chooses to portray the nights in this scene or the next. It is possible to suggest they are rabble and that Goneril may be justified in her irritation.
Equally because we know G+R have been scheming, these complaints look suspiciously empty.
