King Lear – William Shakespeare Evan’s ESS = 6 out of 10
Erin’s ESS = out of 10
Content = PG (Adult Content, Violence, Conspiring, Poor Decision Making, Madness)
“Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still 'Fie, foh, and fum
I smell the blood of a British man.”
His word was still 'Fie, foh, and fum
I smell the blood of a British man.”
Why: Okay, so before we get started we need to get something on the table all nice and pretty like. We’ll just say it. The male Bibliomaniac could be dealing with a touch of PTSS (Post Traumatic Shakespeare Syndrome). Six books in 25ish days is a lot for someone who made a specific pact not to touch Shakespeare with a 10 foot stick post college. Our opinions relating to King Lear may or may not be compromised due to our PTSS...
King Lear makes a bad decision when he decides to split up his inheritance based on the level of flattery expressed by each of his three daughters. To make matters even worse, he decides to cut off his youngest daughter when she decides not to take part in his foolish game. Pretty much everything goes down from there. Scheming and conniving transpires at every turn, primarily led by a guy named Edmund. Honestly, there’s not much reason for optimism when everything is all said and done...
We got lost in some bad stuff. No, like some really bad stuff. Even the cliff notes for this play made our eyes cross. There were so many people plotting and wearing disguises that it was impossible to keep up. Yet, of all the plays we experienced this month it felt like King Lear had the most to say. We just couldn’t figure out what it was.
Really, the most interesting thing we encountered in King Lear was the quote listed above. The first line gave us shivers and got us really, really excited to continue our journey through Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. It was also entertaining to watch King Lear slowly lose his mind and he had some pretty great lines the further down the rabbit hole he fell. Cordelia was a great character and should be acknowledged for her honesty and the perseverance that Edgar displayed through so many murder plots was impressive. Otherwise the play was very dark and depressing and not our favorite. Sorry.
Don’t forget to head on over to A Literary Odyssey for all your January Shakespeare needs!
Don’t forget to head on over to A Literary Odyssey for all your January Shakespeare needs!
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ReplyDeleteI feel like most of Shakespeare's stuff is better read in an English class; this setting makes you complete the analysis needed to gain maximum enjoyment from the play
ReplyDeleteI actually like the sound of this one even though it wasn't your favourite. I think six plays is good going. I am ending it on 5 and one biog. I don't want to sicken myself with them.
ReplyDeleteI would have geeked out over that quote too. Loved the Dark Tower series.