Act 5 Sc 3 Flashcards
We are not the first who with best meaning have incurred the worst.” Cordelia (5,3)
She speaks of how they are not the only people who have suffered with little meaning, characterised as stoical, there is an acceptance and a resilience as opposed to breaking down. Stereotypically, stoicism may be seen as a masculine trait - her response fits in with her transcending of stereotypical gender norms.
“Oppressed king” Cordelia (5,3)
She addresses Lear as ‘King”, significant as she recognises that he is still king, the sense of hierarchy is still present here even if others do not see his as king. Also a recognition of the suffering he has undergone.
“Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?” cordelia (5,3)
CORDELIA LAST LINE IN PLAY. Her last line in the play is a question, which is met by a response of no by lear. She makes a suggestion and it is just dismissed by Lear, suggesting the power dynamic between the two is still there, she possibly comes across as subservient to Lear.
We two alone” Lear (5,3)
as if he’s got what he wanted finally, almost a sense of relief - act 1 scene 1 : ‘i loved her most and thought to set m rest on her kind nursery” - tragic as when he gets what he wants he is in prison, all of these tragic things have happened and it’s taken us here where he is now happy that he is merely with cordelia and he would’ve been made happy with a simple life whereby cordelia just told him she loved him.
-“Come, let’s away to prison” Lear (5,3)
two imperatives here ‘come’ ‘lets’, a sense that he’s taking charge and taking power, he’s giving the orders of them going to prison, hes not being dragged into prison he’s going off his own back (even though he is a prisoner and its not his choice)
“And pray and sing and tell old tales and laugh” Lear (5,3)
The connective “and” is a childish term that makes him seem like a child telling a story, a fairytale, a childlike simplicity in the language used. It’s all very monosyllabic and simple and naive and toned down - a possible naivety and blindness to the world as he created this fantasy whilst being a captured prisoner of one of the villains. They’ve lost yet he’s still hopeful. An overall feeling of childlike power.
In a walled prison packs and sects of great ones that ebb and flow by the moon” Lear (5,3)
Completely distancing himself from politics, he acknowledges that there are many people who think they’re powerful etc come and go, he talks of watching and hearing about politics and those who come and go out of power, links to time and the tides etc. Sees them as almost existing outside of time and sees himself as a mere outside observer of that world - bear in mind we see him as an old man on stage who will evidently not live on for years and years.
“You have the captives’ Albany (5,3)
Albany asking Edmund to hand over the prisoners (cordelia and lear) technically they are albans as he has more power than edmund who is just an earl because lear gave alban half of his kingdom and cornwall, who had the other half is now dead. Overall TRAGIC TIMING: if Albany had arrived seconds earlier he may have arrived before Edmund had sent Lear and Cordelia away.
Edmunds reason for sending them away so early?
Edmund gives a specific reason for sending them away so early: he says that those whom edmund and albany etc (british army) had forced to fight for them in the army might see Lear as an old and miserable king and pity him, therefore the had to send him away so that the unwilling recruited soldiers don’t pity lear and turn against the british army, Links to what Regan says about gloucester in act 4.5 (line 9) - they shouldn’t have let him live after removing his eyes because people would see him and pity him. The real reason Edmund had such a sense of urgency was because he knew Albany would come and ‘rescue’ them and he did not want them treated with aunty mercy.
hold you but a subject of this war not as a brother” Albany (5,3)
Idea of hierarchy: stay in your place - old world characteristic and old world values seen here.
[to edmund] General, take thou m soldiers, prisoners, patrimony; dispose of them, of me, the walls is thine, witness the world that i create here my lord and master’ Regan (5,3)
Regan giving herself to Edmund, she is announcing (not asking) that she will be his wife, a reversal of gender roles and societal norms here again. We can see this reversal in comparison to act1 sc 1 when we saw Lear deciding who would marry Cordelia, not only was it not usually the woman’s decision at all but the man would always have a say.
‘capital treason’ Albany (5,3)
-Albany arrests Edmund “on capital treason” (line 83) because he has not read the letter written by Goneril that Edgar had previously given to Albany after finding it earlier. Albany now knows that Goneril wanted Edmund to kill him so that Edmund and Goneril could be together
”Speak what we feel not what we ought to say” Edgar (5,3)
hope/ closure?
The gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us: the dark and vicious place where thee he got cost him his eyes’ Edgar (5,3)
He’s basically saying ‘I’ve killed you which is just and you blinded Gloucester which is just’ - ‘justice is served’. Justice : he’s saying that edmund is an instrument of justice, Edgar is here saying that Gloucesters adultery has meant that he has justly been blinded because he had an affair + had an illegitimate son, and with that, the son whom he gained through adultery is the instrument of his punishment and the justice of this crime. Edgar is one of the few characters we have left at the end of the play, with other things, this leaves us with a lack of hope for the future as this is edgars idea of justice??
“By nursing them” Edgar (5,3)
In response to Albany asking how he has known of the miseries of Gloucester. There’s a sense here that Edgar has been nursing gloucesters miseries, encouraging them if you will, not nursing Gloucester himself (use of the pronoun ‘them’ instead of ‘him’). SO grammatically speaking, he was helping the miseries proceed not gloucester himself + the fact that Edgar is the cause of gloucesters death, leaves us feeling overall uncomfortable.
