Classic of the Week: King Lear

Ian McKellen as a slightly crazed Lear

Now, to continue my Wednesday Classic series, which for the past couple weeks has been exclusively Shakespeare, I bring you another tragedy. While Hamlet is a role for a young actor and Macbeth for one of almost any age, this role is one to crown the career of an old, established actor (such as Ian McKellen, who did a wonderful version just a couple years ago.) The play is:

King Lear By William Shakespeare

This play is one of Shakespeare’s longer and more complex works. There are actually several different versions of the text, so it can be hard to tell exactly what’s the ‘right’ version. The basic plot of King Lear revolves around two families, the Lear family and the Gloucester family. King Lear is growing old, and so he decides to divide his kingdom up between his three daughters, giving the biggest portion according to who loves him most. The oldest two daughters lavish false praises on their father, while the youngest, Cordelia, tells her father that she loves him as much as she owes him, and gets banished. Lear’s other daughters then take over the kingdom and cruelly throw Lear out into a storm.

Lear at the beginning of the play

Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester has two sons. The older, Edgar, is a legitimate son, while the younger, Edmund, is, as he repeats often, a ‘bastard’. Edgar, of course, is due to receive all the inheritance, but Edmund manages to trick Gloucester into believing that Edgar is planning to kill him, so Edgar gets thrown out. Then Edmund throws Gloucester out and takes over.

Edmund, Gloucester's evil,
bastard son

Because of this double plot, it can sometimes be a little difficult to understand King Lear. I personally found it much more difficult than either Macbeth or Othello. The plots do eventually merge and lead to the inevitable conclusion of almost everyone dying, but for awhile it can be difficult to figure out what’s happening to which family.

The most terrible thing about King Lear is that it’s set in a universe that is completely random and merciless. Instead of mentioning God and talking about heaven and hell like Shakespeare does frequently in his other plays, the characters all pray to ‘the gods’ who never intervene as the tragedy only worsens. In the middle of the play, Gloucester, blind and wandering about in the middle of a storm, speaks the lines: ‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.’ This idea of the senseless, unfeeling universe dominates King Lear, increasing the sense of tragedy and utter hopelessness.

Keira Knightly is rumored to play Cordelia in an upcoming
big screen version of King Lear.

In short, King Lear is not a play I’d recommend as readily as Macbeth or Othello. Though all three are dark, King Lear is perhaps the worst. Lear makes the smallest mistake of any of these characters, an error that in any other world could have not made any difference. He also repents of it by the end of the first act, but it’s no use. Macbeth and Othello could have stopped the tragedy by changing their minds early on in the play, but Lear is helpless. King Lear is a very good play, but filled with a sense of hopelessness. As my sister said after watching it, “Shakespeare must have been very depressed.”

Classic of the Week: Macbeth

Patrick Stewart as Macbeth

If you’ve been reading the blog over the past few days, you might have noticed me talking a fair bit about the summer course I’m taking at UPEI: Intro to Shakespeare. I read a couple of his plays while I was homeschooled (Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet) but now I’m learning five new ones for this course. This particular one is a fairly famous tragedy, with a scene that is so well known I was able to use it in my short story, ‘Because You Laughed’ without having ever read the play. This week’s classic is:

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

First off, I’ve got to say that this is not a nice play. It’s very good, but extremely disturbing. It chronicles the life of Macbeth, a Scottish thane who meets three witches and is told that he’ll be King someday. Hearing this, Macbeth decides to kill the King. He then becomes king, but he has to deal with several other predictions by the witches; that his friend’s son would become king (rather than Macbeth’s offspring; he has no children yet) and that he will be killed by one not of woman born. Macbeth’s obsession with stopping these other predictions leads him to murder his best friend and many other people. In the end, it’s Macbeth who ends up dead.

The Ian McKellen Macbeth

Since this is a play with so many deaths, it’s obviously going to be very bloody. Many of the murders actually happen offstage, but the characters still end up covered in blood. While this is all very symbolic, it means that this is not a play for children.

What hurts me the most about this story is Macbeth’s decent into darkness. At the beginning of the play he is a genuinely nice guy. He’s a war hero, fighting for his country against a traitor. Throughout the play, he grows worse and worse. He stops questioning the morality of his actions and instead plunges into them wholeheartedly. All he seems to be worried about is the possibility of getting caught. Shakespeare is an expert at crafting a drama that begins with a likeable protagonist, but then progresses until we have lost all sympathy for Macbeth.

Macbeth and his wife, deciding to kill the King

So far I’ve seen one film version of this play, the 2010 Patrick Stuart version. It’s set in modern day but the dialogue is unchanged (they did cut some lines, but every version does that.) I thought this version portrayed the feeling of the play extremely well. It was so intense that while I was watching it I had to stop myself every so often and go on Facebook or Twitter… anything to take my mind off the story. That’s one thing about Macbeth; it’s not very funny. Hamlet, for instance, is hilarious. There is virtually no ‘comic relief’ in Macbeth.

(Please note, there are bloody images in this trailer. Nothing too graphic, but not for younger viewers)

Would I recommend that you read this play? Yes, I most certainly would. If you don’t study this in school, then take the time to read it yourself. Immerse yourself in it. Perhaps read a synopsis first, so you have some idea of what’s going on, and then read the play. Make sure to watch a film version, as well. The Patrick Stuart version is excellent, and Ian McKellen (Gandalf from Lord of the Rings) also played Macbeth back in the 70s. Nothing by Shakespeare is an easy read, but he has invaluable insights into human nature. This is a chilling story, not just because of all the violence, but because it feels so true.