marxism...ok i'll try and help, but i haven't studied my drama/extension history stuff on marxism yet so i hope i'm not way off!! cos i'm doing a marxist reading for king lear as well..~
um basically, marx wrote heapsa stuff concerning the suppression of the working class by the rich people (to put it in simple words). He believed that capitalist society was basically bad and that in order to change, the oppressed people must understand the situation they're in.
sorry..that's like the most simplified version i can get of marx to you!
so to apply it to Lear, basically a politcal + marxist reading would focus on the fact that Lear is a king despite all that family drama. With the film i'm doing, he's basically represented as if he was a tyrant and that all his decisions ultimately affect his kingdom, and its people. The civilians are affected, and they are presented as being really poor etc. See, you know how war breaks out at the end of king lear? That's the consequence from Lear's decision to divide the kingdom and his irresponsibility as a king. So Lear's kingship sort of runs parallel to capitalism (if you look at it in a political/marxist point of view) that this system is unjust and does not work because all the poor people/civilians suffer underneath the person at the very top.
(i know more, but it's all based on the film i'm doing so it's hard for me to explain it here!)
Ok i hope that helps
!! good luck tomorrow~
-marilia- xoxo
