Is 'King Lear' Unendurable? A Discussion

Ms Hart's Year 13 class engage in an online discussion of whether 'King Lear' is the most unendurable of all of Shakespeare's plays.

‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods they kill us for their sport’.

Hart: Without a doubt, KL is the most unendurable of Shakespeare’s plays. By the end of Act 5.3 there is barely any space on stage for the living to walk through because of the pile of bodies. And this doesn’t include all those who have died off stage! 

Sacha: Ok. Yes, the statement could definitely be argued. The final image is a vivid presentation of why the play is so unendurable. Some critics argue that the reason that Goneril/ Regan’s dead bodies are brought out is so the final scene mirrors the opening scene. The play is brought full circle, arguably making the play as a whole unendurable for the audience.

Hart: which final image are you thinking of, Sacha? Do you mean the Edgar speech? OK.  Got it. 

Sacha: The pile of bodies at the end.

Hart: I agree with you, Sacha.  There is something very tidy about the way that Shakespeare reunites the three daughters and father at the end. However, this reunion is so bleak. What is he trying to convey, other than a sense of completion and catharsis (in a weird twisted way!), about the state of humanity and familial bonds?

Georgie: I think that he is trying to convey how the natural order of things in humanity has turned completely upside down and how familial bonds are broken. 

Hart: what other moments are there that are unendurable? Is it just this scene? If we remove Act 5 would this make the rest of the play endurable?

Sacha: I know others would probably disagree with me and say that acts like the blinding of Gloucester make the play unendurable, though it could be argued that this are just shocking. Act 5 makes the play unendurable because we previously had a sense of resolution, such as Act 4 Scene 7. The inversion of this resolution makes it unendurable.

Rory: I’m with Sacha on this one, pure violence isn’t unendurable, it was a brutal society, so simple violence is commonplace and although shocking, not unendurable.

Hart: Rory and Sachas - Yes, great point. I think the idea of the inverted universe makes it unendurable rather than the physical acts of violence. If we removed the physical acts of violence, would the play be the same? Or do we need both physical and psychological violence for it to be unendurable?

Naomi: Lear is an unendurable play as the tragedy is emphasised by the very fact that not only do the villainous characters die at the end such as Goneril, Regan and Edmund but also the ‘good’ suffer a defeat. This is even more unsatisfying by the fact that the audience seem to see Gloucester and Lear’s mental recovery yet they ultimately suffer the destruction at the end of the play. Perhaps, the fact that we see such characters being lifted from the bottom of the wheel is deeply unendurable when they are uncomfortably dragged back down at the end. For example, we see Lear acting coming to realisation and demonstrating wisdom ‘Pray you now, forget and forgive; I am old and foolish’ yet, ‘No, no, no life!’ is symbolic of he re-falling.

Hart: Naomi, does the death of the bad characters at the end actually rebalance things though?  Are we not relieved by the death of G, R, O, and E so therefore lifting the sense the it is unendurable? 

Sacha: Interestingly, characters such as Goneril, Regan and Cornwall die off stage. Meanwhile the central protagonist dies on stage in a long, unendurable scene full of broken syntax. Perhaps the fact that the characters we want to sympathise with are given stagetime outweighs the deaths of the ‘malcontents’, making it unendurable. However, it is important to note that Edmund dies on stage, so it could be argued either way.

Eleanor: it is unendurable throughout the play, ‘out vile jelly’ ‘let him smell his way to dover,’ the characters are cruel, a sense of pathos is created for lear as we empathise with Lear and feel bad for lear which makes the play unendurable as his decline seem to be unavoidable 

Knott ‘ this tragedy is above all others the shakespearean play of our time’

CJ Sisson ‘the play destabilises’

Hart: great quotation!  How would you say that this play, above all others, makes it the ‘play of our time’?

Eleanor: I think the fact that even though it was written so long ago, it is still very relevant to our time such as with the sisterly fighting which defies generations - more than Romeo and Juliet where marrying out of social groups is now acceptable to a 21st century audience. There are so many themes in Lear that we can relate to - devolution, mental health etc.

Hart: great link to modern audience, Eleanor.

Hart: Yes, and so unstoppable. I wonder at what point in the play we could stop the chain of events. 

Rory: I would say that once Kent has been banished, as the only source of reason in the court, coupled with the downfall of Edgar, at that point, the play is on an unstoppable downhill trajectory.

Hart: yes, that seems to be a clearly identifiable point in the play. If Kent had not been banished I wonder if Lear would have been convinced about his error of judgement. Is Lear beyond all help at the start?

Rory: I don’t think he is beyond help, but he pushes away all those who would help him, I think that had Kent been allowed to stay as a legitimate member of the court, then perhaps Lear would not have made such rash decisions later on, such as going to the heath. Although Kent is disguised and tries to help, he is a servant, and so therefore Lear is unlikely to willingly take his advice, due to the hierarchical nature of the society, and his enduring belief in his own kingly rights and privileges. Context here of divine right could be slipped in.

Eleanor: Yes, I think the unendurable nature of the play pervades it - it seems to be in every scene, not just the end. 

Eleanor: however, it could be argued that the play is not unendurable as the final scene we are left with the good characters and have been ‘purged’ of the bad such as regan edmund and goneril who have lied in the past, Goneril stating ‘i know his heart’ about lear which was for her own gain. Although the fact that Cordelia's life could have been saved is unendurable, the fact that Lear dies thinking she is alive (arguably) makes it less painful for the audience. And the last person to speak is Edgar 

Hart: I think there is something in your argument, Eleanor. Shakespeare is definitely resolving the play and reinstating the hierarchy. The negative characters bring the unendurability so the removal reinstates harmony? The point about G and L both thinking that their children are alive at their point of death is definitely something for us to hold on to. Still, it is pretty painful to watch.  

Rory: I would argue that the unendurability if the play begins when Lear renounces Cordelia, as the audience gets a huge sense of pathos, especially when he says the “crawled unburdened towards death”

Hart: so, Rory, do you mean at the very start? Is the banishment unendurable? Or do you think we tolerate it to a certain extent because we identify that Cordelia could have just flattered her dad and moved on. She allows her pride to dominate. 

Rory: Yeah at the start, I think it is unendurable because he is almost acting unnaturally by renouncing his favourite daughter, the unendurability comes in because we know how much he loves her and that he is making a huge mistake

Hart: that is a valid point, Rory. The fact that he plans to rely on her ‘kind nursery’ but so brutally rejects her makes his actions seem unendurable. 

Hart: what do you think about the fact that we don’t see Cordelia, the Fool or Gloucester die on stage? Why did Shakespeare keep these behind the curtain?!

Rory: Could that be a reference to the Ancient Greek concept of having off stage deaths in order to avoid comic dying and accidental humour. Certainly in the majority of Greek tragedies, we do not see the death, but perhaps the bodies later, eg: Medea by Euripides

Hart: good examples, Rory. Yes, I think he he dragged out all the dead bodies it would be quite ridiculous and perhaps take away from the fact that the play is about Lear and his relationship with his 3 daughters. Or maybe the relationship with them is a bigger message about the state of monarchical rule?

Sacha: I agree with what Rory is saying. Often these deaths, instead of being on stage, were made vivid to the audience through long descriptions by characters. This could certainly be the case with Edgar when he describes the act of revealing himself to Gloucester and Gloucesters heart bursting ‘smilingly’ between extremes of ‘passion, joy and grief’.

Hart: Yes, Edgar does give us quite a detailed review of Gloucester’s final moments. What would you say about the Fool. The quotation ‘my poor fool is hanged’ seems to lack detail. Do you think this is because of his status as a court jester?

Sacha: It’s a great line, one of Shakespeare’s greatest in the play. Who is he referring to? The fool? Cordelia? If the audience take it to mean the ‘Fool’, it could be argued as unendurable because the physical manifestation of Lear’s sanity has been destroyed, and now we see Lear die hideously in a prolonged death. Meanwhile, if Cordelia is being referred to, Lear’s inconsistency (arguably from a modern perspective due to some form of Dementia) makes it unendurable. One minute he says she is dead, then says she is alive, this striking line punches the audience through Lear’s grim realisation. HOWEVER, this is made even more unendurable because he changes his mind again when saying ‘Look her lips. Look there, look there!’ Critic Bradley argues that this proves (probably to C’s lips being associated with healing earlier in the play) that he thinks she is alive. The endless turbulence in his mind must be perceived surely as unendurable

Hart: Yes, her lips are associated with healing! You are so right. This, interestingly, is really maternal. Think about children when they fall over. As soon as the graze has been kissed better the tears completely disappear and off they go again. 

Rory: I always thought of that comment as rather flippant and throwaway, as if his mind is diverted elsewhere, namely Cordelia. I hadn’t thought of the connection, but it makes a lot of sense. I think the comment really emphasises his pain at the death of Cordelia because it is such a mild remark on the death of such a key character.

Hart: I know, it is one of my favourite lines of the play (however, I do tend to say this about most of the lines in this play).  Such ambiguity and I love to inadvertent reference to the reality of staging at this time - we are reminded that the Fool and Cordelia would have been played by the same young male actor. 

Naomi: Perhaps, the fact that we see such characters being lifted from the bottom of the wheel is deeply unendurable when they are uncomfortably dragged back down at the end. For example, we see Lear acting coming to realisation and demonstrating wisdom ‘Pray you now, forget and forgive; I am old and foolish’ yet, ‘No, no, no life!’ is symbolic of he re-falling.

Hart: they do seem to be dragged back down.  Is it therefore a necessary evil that they suffer so that the next generation learns from their mistakes?

Naomi: King Lear is more popular now than some of his other plays such as Hamlet which at Shakespeare’s time. This is because, at the time of Shakespeare’s writing the extreme violence and unendurable tragedy of Lear may have been too uncomfortable for an audience to watch. However, in a post war context where the audience is well aware and has been exposed to great violent acts such as terrorist attacks, holocaust etc. In an unusual way as the audience is more desensitized to Lear and perhaps only takes true tragedy from the extreme death at the end in the way that a tragedy such as Hamlet may not be so undurable to a modern audience.

Sacha: Indeed, the acts of violence could be perceived as more relatable to a 21st Century audience. We never use the Nahum Tate version any more for a reason. However, bringing it back to the question, is it the most unendurable? What about Titus Andronicus, where violence happens every act, and some are way more gruesome than Gloucesters fate. During that play, two brothers are killed, and then they are baked into pies and fed to their unknowing mother. Dramatic irony much! Also, what form of violence is the most psychologically unendurable?Lots of murder could be considered a spectacle, while suicide could be argued as built up to and more emotionally tense for the audience. What about Antony and Cleopatra or Julius Caesar: I have seen both plays live and suicides happen every five minutes toward the end. It was the definition of unendurable.

Hart: interesting. Do you think there are other endings that are worse than this one then?

Hart: modern audiences do seem to be more desensitized -I still feel that it the moment where Cordelia is carried out by Lear at the end that makes it unendurable. Think about it: the world was being ‘righted’ by her arrival and forgiveness of Lear. Then this is whipped away by Edmund’s cruel and power-crazed actions. The image of a FATHER carrying a dead DAUGHTER completely inverts the natural order of things. Parents should die before their off-spring, and Edmund has not only inverted social orders but natural ones too.  

Naomi: Yes, that is very true. The picture of Lear carrying Cordelia invokes great feelings of Pathos. Whilst this is unendurable, perhaps the audience craves an unendurable ending whilst a Jacobean audience may not have been able to cope. 

Hart: Why do you think this is the case? What is it about this play that transfers to well to modern audiences? Why does it resonate with us so much?

Rory: I think that the historical context of James attempting to unify the kingdoms, makes Lear a distinctly political cautionary tale, and Shakespeare inflicts so much suffering so that the audience will support the unity proposed by James. Worth noting that James was, i believe, a patron of Shakespeare.

Hart: love that phrase, ‘political cautionary tale’. Brilliant. I agree. James I financed the Kings Players.

Thanks for the lesson Miss :)

Thank you!! 

Hart: thanks all!  Great chat. Feeling like my mind has been reinvigorated! Thank you!