Act 1 Scene 3 key quotes

Question 1

“by day and night he wrongs me. Every hour” - Goneril (1,3)

Answer 1

whilst Lear is probably not acting like an angel we can only imagine this to be hyperbolic and may echo her previous hyperbolic language in act1sc1.

Question 2

“Idle old man” Goneril TO Oswald

Answer 2

she is talking to a servant about her father now, which is worse than talking about lear to Regan in act1sc1 as their chat instigates sympathy for them both - it was a reasonable conversation that they had as sisters. Conversation is different here as it is not a conversation between goneril and her servant (not her sister) and Lear is still Oswalds king as is of a far far higher rank than him as a servant to Lear’s daughter. Shows a different level of disrespect than was shown to Lear by goneril in act1 sc 1.

Question 3

”His knights grow riotous” -Goneril (1,3)

Answer 3

• We see a directorial choice as there are no stage directions indicating that we see any knights at ll and in the majority of productions none of the knights say or do anything riotous at all, probably because if knights were seen to be acting riotous on stage it would increase sympathy for Goneril. Shakespeare allows this to be interpreted as the behaviour or even the presence of knights can change the way the audience feel about Goneril as a character.
• It is significant structurally that we hear of Goneril’s complaints and plans to treat Lear badly before we see aunty riotous behaviour, as it allows us to be more critical of Goneril due to her exaggeration and view Lear as the tragic protagonist.

Question 4

“i’d have it come to question” -Goneril

Answer 4

she is trying to provoke Lear to deliberately start conflict