King Lear... Soo confused! (1 Viewer)

xXx..Becca..xXx

New Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2006
Messages
2
Location
the middle of no where
Gender
Female
HSC
2007
Ok so i have this assessment due in a week, and im supposed to analyse a particular scene from king lear and give 2 different readings of it.. i cant do it!! im so confused.. can anyone help?????
 

Shadowulf

Member
Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
45
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
youve watched at least 2 productions of the play havent you? and your teachers supposed to have given you sheets on readings of the play and stuff.. at least my teacher did... btw does the question say its your own reading of the play??

just look at the notes on each version of lear that you watched (assuming you DID take notes) and see what type of interpretation suits you most

for example, my assessment was asking for my own interpretation of the play. I talked about the Richard Eyre's version of Lear and how it influenced my interpretation, because i think the play can be interpreted as a family drama through a psychoanalytical reading. blah blah

hope that helped at least a little bit

oh yeah, and if its a particular scene, the love test scene, the storm, and the very last scene are really good for several different readings
 

Magicana

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
116
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
xXx..Becca..xXx said:
Ok so i have this assessment due in a week, and im supposed to analyse a particular scene from king lear and give 2 different readings of it.. i cant do it!! im so confused.. can anyone help?????
I assume you take a particular scene and take two different kinds of interpretation from it. For example, Scene One Scene One has a Marxist (Economic based) reading and a Nihlistic (Sorry for spelling (Destruction based)) reading.
 

Evercursed

Troubled Thinker
Joined
Aug 23, 2006
Messages
43
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
You can't just attach readings to each scene. You have to look at the scene in terms of technique and then draw out the readings from there. For example, the first scene, with the repetition of the word "nothing" is powerful in the sense it appeals to almost every interpretation. A christian redemptive reading suggests it symbolises the apocalpytic end, where "nothing" comes from "nothing" whereas a nihlist existentialist reading suggests the world is fundamentally nothing and human life is reduced to the worth of "nothing". A marxist meanwhile, would see "nothing" as an economical term of exchange, a form of currency which forms a motif throughout a play and a feminist could see the word as a devaluation and degradation of women in a patriarchal society.

Don't do what I just did in an exam. Actually draw out the meanings and argue. It's the best way to go since the Berlin Wall collapse in 1989.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top