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This Moment – Eavan Boland

This Moment 1994

• Rhyme & Form: Free Verse
• Tone: Female point of view, Tender
• Imagery: Nature, Cosmos
• Themes: Life as a Woman, Relationships, Motherhood, Moment in Time
• Poetic Techniques: Repetition, Alliteration, Assonance, Sibilance1

Boland writes here about a specific ‘Moment’ – a brief history in life. Boland is the onlooker and studies the scene carefully and slowly; this shows in the short sentences that are chosen very carefully. The poem has twelve full-stops and ten individual lines of the poem end with a full-stop, most of the sentences are short – two or three words.

Boland chooses the setting carefully: ‘A neighbourhood’ – this could be any neighbourhood as Boland does not associate herself with the scene by saying ‘My’ or ‘Our’ or ‘Your’ – in this way the poet does not see the scene alone, she invites us to view it with her. We must take into consideration Boland’s home at the time – she is living in the suburbs of Dublin and thus would know the ins and outs of every household in her ‘neighbourhood’.

A neighbourhood.

At dusk.

Boland informs us of the time and place in two very short sentences. The disregard for conventional grammar is important here as it allows the reader to read in a calming manner thus reproducing the actual feeling of the moment in time. Dusk seems to be an important time for Boland (it occurs in Love and The Pomegranate also) – it represents a mode of quietness and symbolically it brings closure to the events of the day. Boland anticipates:

Things are getting ready

to happen
out of sight.

Boland observes that soon the stars will come out, bringing the moths and eventually new growth as the fruit expands:

Stars and moths.

And rinds slanting around fruit.

We move from looking at the night-sky to the fluttering of moths to the slanting rinds around fruit. Boland shows us the things are going to happen ‘out of sight’ and perhaps evoking some suspense in the reader Boland calls a halt to the flow of the poem by telling us that these things will happen ‘but not yet’. We are invited to pause and perhaps dwell on the setting and then the poet presents us with two images:

One tree is black.

One window is yellow as butter.

Boland gives strong, contrasting colours bringing to mind a silhouette painting – the simile ‘yellow as butter’ gives a homely presence to the rest of the poem. Boland now focuses more on the neighbourhood that was introduced in the first stanza and gives us an image of a mother and a child:

A woman leans down to catch a child

who has run into her arms

this moment.

This is the ‘moment’ that Boland has been building up to – note the contrast in language: prior to this scene we were building up to a moment, the language was slow-moving and relaxing and then suddenly there is movement in the child running to the mother but also note that this is the longest line in the poem. This is a loving moment between parent and child and it seems as though creation (the very things mentioned previously) is celebrating the moment:

Stars rise.

Moths flutter.

Apples sweeten in the dark.

The gentle mood of the poem is achieved in part by the ‘s’ sounds and repetition: dusk/sight/Stars/moths/rinds/slanting/leans/arms/rise/Apples/sweeten and then also by how both the lines and maybe more importantly the spaces are presented on the page.

There is something in this moment that has drawn Boland in, the moment is beautifully visualised as an embrace of sweetness, richness and love between a mother and a child. The poem builds quietly to this moment of crescendo before spilling over into a series of affirmations: stars do rise, moths do flutter, apples do sweeten and mothers do love their children.

The Shadow Doll – Eavan Boland

The Shadow Doll 1990

• Rhyme & Form: 3-line Stanza
• Tone: Contemplative, Anxious, Uncertain
• Imagery: World of Women, Past Traditions, The Locked Case
• Themes: Marriage, Time and Memory, Entrapment and Silence
• Poetic Techniques: Alliteration, Repetition

A Shadow Doll was sent to a bride-to-be in Victorian times by a dressmaker – it was a porcelain doll under a dome of glass modelling the dress.
This poem was published in the same year as The Black Lace Fan and there are some similarities between the two, mainly the technique of showing the past and present side by side (also see in The Famine Road). The story of this poem is that Boland is remembering the night before her wedding in the 70s and this prompts her to think about pre-wedding nights in the Victorian age (century previous). Boland describes how the dress was made:

They stitched blooms from ivory tulle

to hem the oyster gleam of the veil.

They made hoops for the crinoline.

The words Boland uses here to describe the dress are not meant for an ordinary wedding dress: ‘blooms’ – ‘oyster gleam’ – ‘crinoline’ suggests something much more elegant and special. Boland moves us into the present from the past as she now looking at the doll:

Now, in summary and neatly sewn -

a porcelain bride in an airless glamour – 

the shadow doll survives its occasion.

Boland uses the term ‘airless glamour’ to emphasise that the doll has no life (no air) – it is lifeless suggesting Boland’s feelings on what marriage (and the entrapment that goes with motherhood) can do to someone. The image of the doll in her ‘airless glamour’ also represents all the forbidden, unspoken things in the female experience, all the things that were kept ‘under wraps’, all the things that fill Boland’s poetry. But the doll survives – even though the dress and the tradition of the shadow doll belong to the past, there is a reason for the doll surviving into the present but Boland does not make this clear – perhaps it is that even though she must suffer for a short time, she will endure beyond it?
Under glass, under wraps, it stays

even now, after all, discreet about

visits, fevers, quickenings and lusts

Boland informs us that the shadow doll, while kept in her glass box was privy to a world of social interaction, illnesses and impulses. It was often kept by the married woman and stored in a place where it could witness the world around it. Boland feels that this doll was keeping quiet about many things, note the use of the word ‘discreet’ and the plurals following. She goes on to put herself into the shoes of the bride-to-be:

and just how, when she looked at

the shell-tone spray of seed pearls,

the bisque features, she could see herself

inside it all, holding less than real

stephanotis, rose petals, never feeling

satin rise and fall with the vows

We get the sense that the Victorian bride feels imprisoned in this dress (remember it is Boland who is imagining herself as the bride in the past) – Boland feels that the woman has become the shadow doll ‘never feeling the satin rise and fall’ as she speaks her vows – it is the ultimate image of entrapment or imprisonment as she cannot do anything to help her own situation. Boland switches us back to more recent past – the night before her own wedding in stanza six. The poem has moved from imagining what the Victorian bride felt to real feelings, that of the poet herself. Boland dwells on the doll, the Victorian lady and her vows, and Boland’s own vows:

I kept repeating on the night before -

astray among the cards and wedding gifts -

the coffee pots and the clocks and

Boland has moved into her own present as she repeats the vows that she will publicly announce in the morning. This is a typical scene as we see the bride in a room containing the wedding presents and cards – she contemplates the life that she will lead after tomorrow. Even though she is ‘astray’ the final stanza is quite decisive:

the battered tan case full of cotton

lace and tissue-paper, pressing down, then

pressing down again. And then, locks.

What ever is contained inside the case is irrelevant; the important image to take from the end of the poem is the gesture of locking. Boland presses down on the case, and presses down again as the movement is captured – even the phrasing of the final line is intentional here as the final verb locks the sentence into place, and also locks the case.

Eavan Boland was not sent a shadow doll, therefore she did not feel the trappings of marriage as she may have if she saw herself in the image of a shadow doll – symbolism is key here. She locks her case and symbolically locks away any notions of a married woman being trapped in her home as the housewife and mother – Boland emerges in control of her future; the ‘astray’ woman in the penultimate stanza is no longer wandering. Boland challenges society’s discriminatory standards that the true feelings and expressions of women must remain ‘under wraps’ like the porcelain doll; women are expected to conform to the norms of a male dominated world.

The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me – Eavan Boland

The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me 1990

• Rhyme & Form: End-Rhyme in the final stanza
• Tone: Factual, Remembering
• Imagery: Paris
• Themes: Relationship between genders, Suffering, Time and Memory
• Poetic Techniques: Alliteration, Repetition

The title of this poem is important – it refers to an object or a gift but also to a relationship between mother and daughter. There are many underlying features here, especially when considering the fan – it can suggest a woman, elegance, beauty, the past but it can also symbolise something romantic and quite erotic. Boland may also be contemplating the relationship between man and woman and in particular how society places women ‘Outside History’. Does the man, by giving the woman an object purely for women, try to control the woman and make her his subordinate? Is he turning her into an object of sexual desire?

The story behind the poem goes like this: her father gave the fan to Boland’s mother during a heatwave in Paris in the 1930s. Her mother passed down the black lace fan to her daughter as a symbol of love but would Boland completely accept the fan if she suspected that it was given to her mother for any of the reasons mentioned above? Nevertheless, throughout the poem we can see that Boland views the fan as a reminder of the passing of time and the complex relationship between genders.

It was the first gift he ever gave her

We can see from line 1 that this gift was an important and special gift as it was the first one her father ever gave her mother – an expression of love, but also practical in the heat. It would have been very easy for her father to find a newspaper to act as a fan and perhaps, that was what he was looking for but on the way his eye may have caught the sight of this graceful object of desire. Obviously since Boland was not yet born, she was not a spectator to this story and what she recalls here in The Black Lace Fan is a story that was passed on. Boland uses poetic licence to reinvent the story:

buying it for five francs in the Galleries

in pre-war Paris. It was stifling.

A starless drought made the nights stormy.

When re-telling a story it is almost impossible to recount it word for word but the phrase, ‘It was stifling.’ may well have been verbatim simply for due to the sentence being so short: imagine a scenario where you are in a foreign country experiencing a heatwave – the less words you speak, the less energy is used up – it is almost as if the heat is preventing elaboration. Boland goes on to re-tell a story that took place fifty years prior to composing the poem. In the second stanza Boland imagines parts of the story but also gives us the facts:

They stayed in the city for the summer.

They met in cafes. She was always early.

He was late. That evening he was later.

They wrapped the fan. He looked at his watch.

We are given the facts in the first four lines of this stanza but Boland imagines her father waiting impatiently for the fan to be wrapped, knowing that ‘He was late.’ We are given some insight into their characters in this stanza also:

She was always early.

He was late.

Boland employs some good techniques in stanza three as she describes her mother waiting:

She looked down the Boulevard des Cappucines.

She ordered more coffee. She stood up.

The streets were emptying. The heat was killing.

She thought the distance smelled of rain and lightning.

Tension and suspense are built up here – the sentences are kept to a minimum and we are constantly wondering, much like Boland’s mother, what is keeping him so long? Unfortunately we are kept in the dark, Boland does not continue the story but it is safe to assume that her father got there at some stage. Instead Boland focuses on the fan itself:

These are wild roses, appliquéd on silk by hand,

darkly picked, stitched boldly, quickly.

The rest is tortoiseshell and has the reticent,

clear patience of its element. It is

Note that Boland uses the word ‘These’ implying that the fan is now before her, it not imagined as the Paris scene was:

a worn-out, underwater bullion and it keeps,

Even now, an inference of its violation.

The lace is overcast as if the weather

it opened for and offset had entered it.

Boland dwells on the fan that her mother gave her and gives us a detailed description of it. She contemplates how the fan was made (she had no way of knowing how it was made) and the line length is now much longer than before, mirroring her mind at work. Boland describes the floral design – note the use of verbs and adverbs1. There is a contrast in the fabric and the hard tortoiseshell, which is associated with concealment but Boland also mentions that the shell may have been violated (hinting at how the tortoise would have to have been removed from its home – colonisation?) Boland now dwells on how the fan’s origins, which would have to have involved some sort of destruction – the shell had to have been broken and carved, Boland calls it ‘worn-out’ and it is almost as if the it is aware of its former glory and knows that it has been abused or violated. This is a direct contrast to the romantic natures of the fan alluded to earlier. In Object Lessons Boland says that she sees the fan, a traditional erotic object, not as a sign of triumph and acquisition, but as a sign of suffering. Boland does not see the fan as an emblem of power, control or possession but as the passing of time. In her own words, ‘ordinary objects seemed to warn me that the body might share the world but could not own it.’

Once again Boland is not giving in to her sentimental side – the emotions associated with fan are in the past. In fact Boland calls this poem a ‘back-to-front love poem’. Line 24 is critical here as Boland states that the only way of reconstructing the past is through improvisation. Boland gives us a scene filled with drama in stanza six – a man rushing to meet his love in Paris, bringing with him his first gift:

The past is an empty café terrace.

An airless dusk before thunder. A man running.

And no way now to know what happened then – 
none at all – unless, of course, you improvise:

Boland was not part of this exchange, there is ‘no way now to know’ so she must imagine or invent the scene. In line 23, ‘now’ and ‘then’ are key (re-read emphasising these words) – Boland knows that the past is the past and there is no way to change it or to re-live it if you were not part of the moment, therefore she must recreate the scene, the feelings, the emotions. Boland mentioned that the fan is ‘worn-out’ and ‘faded’ and this could symbolise how her parent’s relationship has grown old but Boland concludes the poem with a fresh outlook:

The blackbird on this first sultry morning,

in summer, finding buds, worms, fruit,

feels the heat. Suddenly she puts out her wing -

the whole, full flirtatious span of it.

Boland connects her scene in Ireland with the snippet from Paris in the 30s as when her mother gave her the fan it was a symbol of love and continuity, Boland wants this same continuity between the fan, her parents, Ireland and Paris. Boland was unable to fully experience the emotions that her mother felt when she first received the gift but the poet does catch a glimpse of something similar in the blackbird’s wing. Boland is concentrating on the passing of time here – the fan is old, altered by time and growing old as the lovers grew old. But the poet is able to see the fan in a different light by examining the blackbird’s wing, which to Boland is an equivalent to the black lace fan. The bird’s fan is full, unlike the broken shell and is natural and in its element, once again in contrast to the shell. The ‘full, flirtatious span of it.’ is a description of the bird’s wing but it could also be describing the very moment when her mother first opened the fan – ‘Suddenly’ implies surprise, which may also have been felt by her mother.

Boland is asking us to examine the relationship between men and women but to also dwell on time and memory – we are to imagine an emotion or a scene that we were absent from and try to connect ourselves to the tale. It is then possible to find a moment, an image or an object that allows us to experience the feelings of those that were actually present to the story.

Outside History – Eavan Boland

Outside History 1990

• Rhyme & Form: 3-line Stanza, Free Verse
• Tone: Ponderous, Decisive, Regretful
• Imagery: World of Women, Irish History
• Themes: Entrapment and Silence
• Poetic Techniques: Repetition

The phrase ‘outside history’ is often associated with Eavan Boland believed that women were kept outside the history books and that in fact they were the reason for much of the success of the Irish. Boland responds to those women who never had a voice, who were kept quiet. Boland’s work shows how women have been marginalised throughout history, and in particular this poem highlights the discrimination of Irish women.

There are outsiders, always.

Boland begins with an obvious truth and sees the stars as an example to back up her statement:

These stars -

these iron inklings of an Irish January.

whose light appeared

thousands of years before

our pain did: they are, they have always been

outside history.

Boland calls attention to the universe here and we are made to dwell on the idea that this planet on which we live pales in comparison to the rest of Creation. The stars are natural history, untouched by human hands. Boland mentions that these stars appeared thousands of years before our pain – is this pain in general on a global scale or more local as in the Irish? Boland may be saying that our (the Irish) suffering in the past is really not all that important on the grand scheme of things.

It is important to note Boland’s collective voice: yes, she is stating that women are outside history and being a woman herself she is outside history but the ‘our’ stated here paints Boland with the same brush and she becomes a part of history, not an outsider. Rather it is the stars that are ‘outside’ – they do not get involved as:

They keep their distance. Under them remains

a place where you found

you were human, and

a landscape in which you know you are mortal.

Boland has distanced herself from the rest of us as she states the ‘you’ – is she referring to everyone under the stars or just the Irish (remember she began the poem with an ‘Irish January’). This person she is addressing has found that he/she was human and in a certain landscape knows that he/she is mortal – perhaps dwelling on the past events of Ireland ignites a kinship within the addressee with the suffering and pain of the Irish in the past?

And a time to choose between them.

I have chosen

Boland now makes a choice – is she choosing between the stars and the human story or is she choosing between the place where ‘you’ found ‘you’ were human and the ‘landscape in which you know you are mortal’? Nevertheless there is a decision to be made and Boland does so and marks a turning point from pondering what to do to taking the reins, Boland tells us what she plans to do:

out of myth into history I move to be

part of that ordeal

whose darkness is

only now reaching me from those fields,

those rivers, those roads clotted as

firmaments with the dead.

Boland is moving from a world where women are victimised, discriminated or made the object into a world where the woman is the subject, the history-maker. Boland strikes a relationship with these women who were outside history, she becomes part of the ‘ordeal’, the painful past and is able to persevere and find a voice that offers homage to the silent women of Ireland’s past.

Darkness has spread through Boland’s poem – the stars are no longer visible in the night-sky and this reminds Boland again of the pain and suffering of the Irish, during times when her ancestors felt that there was no light at the end of the tunnel, just eternal darkness. Boland may be feeling the same asphyxiation she experienced during The Shadow Doll – she has made her choice but now is she fearing that she has made the wrong one? Boland takes us on a trip of the countryside as we go past fields, rivers and roads – but these roads are clotted with the dead and this is reminiscent of the Irish famine. Boland takes the language associated with the stars in the first stanza and makes a new image that is of greater interest – it is no longer natural history but human history.

How slowly they die

as we kneel beside them, whisper in their ear.

And we are too late. We are always too late.

Boland includes us all in the final stanza as she uses the ‘we’ collective term. She may have felt that she was outside history in the past but by making her choice in stanza four and five she is now a part of history. Even though Boland feels that many Irish women were outside history and that she may also have been an outsider in the past, Boland makes a choice to enter into history.

Outside History focuses on Irish History, the need to know and remember it and in the final lines there is a tone of regret and helplessness. The ‘ordeal’ that Boland alludes to is the Great Famine and as in The Famine Road, she recounts the trauma of the Irish men and women dying on the roads. All we can do is to kneel beside and whisper in their ears a word of comfort. Boland repeats the final line to highlight what is hinted at in the title: that as women have been outside history, it is too late to do anything about them – all we can do is act now for the future. Boland may be hinting also that she has missed her chance to help those who actually belong to history and the fact that she has not commemorated them in poetry before now means that she feels deep regret. Those who are outside history should never be forgotten.

The Yearbook Awards

It’s that time of the year again…the grass seems greener, the suns shines brighter – school is coming to an end for many people and it’s difficult to determine who’s happier – the students or the teachers! Here are some hints and tips from the Yearbook Awards – Click the picture for more…

Comparative – Vision & Viewpoint: Lies of Silence/Dancing at Lughnasa/Il Postino

General Vision and Viewpoint

Lies of Silence, Dancing at Lughnasa & Il Postino

The general vision or viewpoint relates to the authors or directors outlook on life. This outlook affects our own perspective on the text and the world of the text. The author shows us his own outlook through the plot, characters, relationships, the society in the text and also through language – the main viewpoint can be seen in one key single moment.

Lies of Silence is set in Northern Ireland in a society bitterly divided thanks to some ancient political/religious conflict. There are some moments of light – even happiness (almost) but mainly it is a gloomy, dark novel – the viewpoint is grim. Even the way the book opens is pessimistic and it sets the tone for the rest of the story. At the beginning of the novel, Michael Dillon is depressed at the familiar sight of armed policemen in armoured cars. Michael feels that there is a certain lawlessness in the current society and this is shown in the image of their guns ‘cowboy-low on their thighs’ suggesting something belonging to the Wild West. Michael feels completely dejected at this point – ‘Why should he stay here, why should anyone in their senses stay here?’

The relationships in the text vary – Michael and Andrea are briefly happy but the outcome of this affair only adds to the gloomy nature of the story. When the novel begins it is clear that Michael’s and Moira’s marriage is over – Michael is already in an affair with a Canadian journalist named Andrea. Michael is planning on leaving his wife but he has yet to tell her: ‘He we married and hiding their affair from his wife.’ He married Moira for the wrong reasons – he liked the idea of other men envying his woman: ‘She was tall, beautiful and very flirtatious.’ Even Moira knows that Michael no longer loves her and attributes this to her having lost her looks, telling us that Michael’s love was purely superficial. Moira’s defiance of the IRA (when she publicly denounces the terrorists on television) is one of the few positive aspects of the story but unfortunately is puts her in danger. She lets slip to a journalist that Michael had seen one of the gunmen and this ultimately leads to his death.

Society is portrayed in a dark light in Lies of Silence: dominated by the deep-rooted and violent sectarian conflict. This sectarianism is found on both sides of the conflict – the novel ensures that there is no ‘good’ side. Michael speaks of the ‘priests whose sectarian views perfectly propagated the divisive bitterness’ and describes the Orange Order as ‘that fount of Protestant prejudice against the third of Ulster’s people who are Catholics.’ What is even more depressing is that the two religious figures that are mentioned are deeply involved in sectarian politics – the Reverend Pottinger is a leader of the Orange Order and delivers ‘sermons of religious hatred’ while Father Connolly is linked directly to the IRA and is portrayed as an apologist for their actions.

Poverty is also present in the society of the text – high levels of unemployment are evident in the story. The working classes on both sides of the religious divide are portrayed as being the most sectarian. We are met with images of ‘graffiti-fouled barricaded slums where the city’s Protestant and Catholic poor confronted each other, year in and year out, in a stasis of hatred, fear and mistrust.’ Brian Moore may be speaking through Michael when talks angrily of the ‘lies told to poor Protestant working people about the Catholics, lies told to poor Catholic working people about the Protestants, lies from parliaments and pulpits, lies at rallies and funeral orations, and, above all, lies of silence from those in Westminster, who did not want to face the injustices of Ulster’s status quo.’ This statement in itself is one of the most depressing and disturbing images in the text.

When Michael and Andrea escape to London we think that maybe the story will conclude in a bright and positive manner. Michael experiences a new lease on life and at the end of one particular day he ‘wanted to say to her that he had never been so happy…’ Professionally Michael was looking forward to managing the Wellington Hotel in London – his enthusiasm for the only business he truly knew had been rekindled (which doesn’t say a lot for his job in Belfast). Furthermore this positive mood continues when Michael and Moira talk to each other in a caring manner, leading to Michael’s internal debate over whether or not to testify against the IRA – he decides not to and almost immediately the happy ending beings to disintegrate as his change of heart was too late and could not save him from the assassins that were sent to silence him. At the end of the novel, any light present is clouded over in darkness, gloom and hopelessness.

• Lies of Silence – life that is dark and gloomy
• Relationships in the novel add to the pessimism and depression
• Vision of Society is grim
• Ending is depressing but realistic

Dancing at Lughnasa also presents the reader with a dark and depressing view but thankfully this text has some moments of laughter and happiness that lift our spirits. The Michael in this text opens the story, as narrator and character, on a nostalgic note recalling the summer of 1936. Michael mentions a number of events that add to the promise of a happy ending:

• the Mundy family got their first wireless set (Macaroni) and this provided the family with music, ‘it obsessed us’
• Father Jack returned from Africa where he worked in Uganda for 25 years in a leper colony
• Michael’s father appeared twice during the summer

These events all took place during that summer of 1936 and in the background was the Festival of Lughnasa – a pagan celebration of harvest encouraging drinking and wild dancing in the hills.

Family Life is portrayed in both negative and positive ways. The Mundy family have to deal with a variety of problems all associated with poverty. The furniture is ‘austere’ and their clothing ‘reflect[s] their lean circumstances’. The girls also have to deal with the embarrassment of Father Jack who has ‘gone native’ during his stay in Africa. It is Father Jack’s mad behaviour that causes the parish priest to sack Kate from her teaching post leaving the Mundy family with no steady source of income. Gerry, Michael’s father, visits Chris but selfishly contributes nothing to the family. These aspects of life in the Mundy home all convey an image of gloom, even though the family do try to counter this gloom to some extent.

The main relationships in the play are within the family with the exception being Chris and Gerry. The Mundy family is a very close-knit one in contrast to the same relationship type in Lies of Silence – the love and closeness of the Mundy family is one of the most positive aspects of the text. Poverty does not break their spirits – this is seen in Maggie’s wit; her response to preparing a meal for the family with only three eggs displays her uplifting sense of humour ‘Eggs Ballybeg’.

The issue of Michael’s illegitimacy would have been a source of humiliation in a small town in Ireland at that time but he is loved by all the sisters regardless, in actual fact he has five mothers. Michael describes Rose as ‘simple’ and yet is not treated any differently – she is loved and shares a special bond with Agnes. Father Jack, even though he was the main reason for Kate losing her job, is still treated with care and respect. Jacks stories of dancing at the pagan rituals in Africa, while embarrassing for Kate, it lifts the spirits of the family as they see the happiness that the memories bring Jack.

Gerry’s arrival also lifts the spirits of the household – Chris is aware of how he has failed her but still she is delighted to see him. Maggie says that Chris ‘laughs all the time with him’ and even Kate remarks that ‘her whole face alters when she’s happy’. Gerry is a colourful character in the play with his walking stick, straw hat and notions of foreign lands and all of the sisters are transfixed by the sight of Gerry and Chris dancing.

However, the darkest aspect of the play’s vision of society is the repression of women. The Mundy girls have no social outlet (in contrast to the freedom expressed by the women in Lies of Silence) and Kate reminds them that they are too old to be going out to dances. This is a realistic portrayed of Irish life during a time when the Catholic Church dictated a conservative and restrictive morality especially in matters concerning the sexes. The desire for emotional fulfilment during a time when the Mundy girls are too old for love and romance can be seen in their fascination with watching Gerry and Chris dance. It is apparent that Agnes may even be in love with Gerry. She is also prepared to spend her entire life savings on going to one of the Lughnasa dances ‘I don’t care how young they are, how drunk and dirty and sweaty they are. I want to dance Kate. It’s the Festival of Lughnasa. I’m only thirty-five. I want to dance.’ Rose is infatuated with Danny Bradley, his wife has left him but there may be some degree of power/control present on Danny’s side. Maggie talks about a young man she ‘was keen on’ when she was younger and even Kate harbours an interest in Austen Morgan the local shopkeeper (he marries ‘a young thing from Carrickfad.’). Unfortunately Kate becomes aware of the image of the family and prohibits them from going to the dance: ‘Do you want the whole countryside to be laughing at us? – mature women, dancing?’.

The Mundy sisters’ frustrations with the restrictions of society can be seen in the uplifting dance they perform in and outside their home. It is Maggie who starts the dance off as the wireless plays some traditional Irish music (getting louder and louder), Kate initially protests but she soon joins her sisters and is described as being ‘out of character and at the same time ominous of some deep and true emotion.’ Their dancing is seen as a protest – ‘a sense of order being deliberately subverted.’ At the end of their dance they look ‘slightly ashamed’ yet they are also said to look ‘slightly defiant’ – this scene is the most joyous in the entire play and shows the family’s resilience in an oppressive world.

Society, as in Lies of Silence, is portrayed in a negative manner. Poverty is a feature of the worlds of both texts but it is much more severe in Dancing at Lughnasa. Financial hardship affects the Mundys in the same way that violence affects the Dillons. The church is painted in an unsympathetic light in both texts (the parish Priest could well be the Reverend or the Priest in Lies of Silence).

Dancing at Lughnasa does not end well, much like Lies of Silence it ends with a negative outlook. After the factory arrives in Ballybeg, Agnes and Rose lose their source of income (knitting) and shortly after they leave for England and are never seen again despite the family’s efforts at finding them. We learn that when Michael finally tracked them down twenty-five years later, he finds out that the sisters had worked as cleaners and eventually ended up on the streets and both died. Father Jack died within a year of coming home leaving Kate inconsolable. Gerry left for the civil war in Spain and his visits eventually stopped – some years later Michael received a letter from a young man of his own age in Wales who had found his address in his father’s belongings. Turns out that Gerry had been leading a double life – this adds to the gloom of the text when considering his many marriage proposals to Chris – in short he was shallow and selfish (mirrored somewhat with Michael Dillon). On the bright side, the ending is not as bleak as in Lies of Silence – Michael still remembers his family dancing around the house: ‘Dancing as if the very heart of life and all its hopes might be found in those assuaging notes and hushed rhythms and in those silent and hypnotic movements. Dancing as if language no longer exited because words were no longer necessary…’

• Both Dancing at Lughnasa and Lies of Silence are bleak and dark
• Family life is much more positive in Lughnasa
• Relationships are more optimistic in Lughnasa
• Society is grim in both, religion is very negative and controlling
• Violence affects Lies of Silence the same as Poverty affects Dancing at Lughnasa
• Both end in a depressing viewpoint but it is not as pessimistic in Lughnasa (Michael’s memory of dancing).

Il Postino stands out in contrast to both the previous texts as its vision is quite optimistic. Mario is able to rise above the limitations of his world to realise his potential and become happy. The film does begin in a gloomy manner as Mario struggles to communicate with his withdrawn father – their relationship is strained. When Mario shows his father a postcard from America, his father tells him to get a job – he is ‘not a child anymore.’ Mario’s father earns a meagre living as a fisherman, similar to the Mundy’s house, his home is sparsely furnished and they have just run out of water. Family life here resembles Lughnasa more than Lies of Silence. The relationship between the two men is problematic while Mario is living at home but it noticeably improves when the son marries the love of his life, Beatrice. We are presented with an uplifting image of joy when she becomes pregnant and Mario listens to the sound of his baby’s beating heart.

Contrasting sharply to Lies of Silence, the relationships in Il Postino are very positive – the most important being between mario and Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and communist living in exile in Capri. They grow closer when Mario asks the poet to help him win the heart of Beatrice (Neruda had a reputation as a ladies’ man). Mario wins Beatrice’s love by reciting lines from Pablo’s poems. Mario remarks that ‘poetry doesn’t belong to those who write it, but to those who need it’ revealing a deep understanding of poetry. This sparks his interest in poetry and Mario discusses this art with his new friend in Neruda’s home and on the beach, beginning with a discussion on metaphors (being able to relate to ‘I am tired of being a man’). Mario expresses gratitude to Neruda by asking him to be his best man but he is also interested in Neruda’s communist philosophy (aware of social injustice). Mario grows in confidence through this relationship: the new, assertive Mario takes issue with members of a local politician’s posse who are trying to buy fish at a knock-down price (unfortunately the fishermen become visibly angry at his intervention). Mario also challenges the cynical politician Di Cosimo when he announced that the water works (before the elections he had promised would be built) would not be built. Mario is sad when Neruda leaves the island and is dejected when Pablo fails to keep in contact with him but we can see the impact that the poet left on him as Mario begins to write his own poetry. He is invited to read a poem that he dedicated to Neruda at a communist rally on the mainland and we can see the personal development and change he has gone through as he addresses such a large crowd.

Mario’s other relationships are also positive: he achieves happiness when he marries Beatrice, who loves him deeply and is impressed with his poetic achievements. Both his father and Rosa (Beatrice’s aunt) come to respect him as a man. The relationship between Mario and Giorgio the Postmaster is also uplifting. These friendships help Mario following Neruda’s failure to stay in touch – this support network is similar to the family unit in Dancing at Lughnasa.

The Society of the text is similar to the other two texts – depressing. It is a world of poverty and hopelessness, the differences in wealth is obvious; seen in the sophisticated Pablo and the cynical Di Cosimo. Once again we are met with a patriarchal society – authority figures are male.

Mario’s death may suggest that the film ends on a gloomy note – it is tragic and random but it does not take away from the optimism that his life created. Il Postino differs from the other two texts (where the harsh circumstances crushed the main characters) as Mario was able to rise above the problems of his world to realise his own potential and be truly happy with his love. The painful reality of life reverberates in the ending but we can also see a sense of realism as Neruda fails to keep in touch with Mario and the fact that Mario never saw his son (Pablito – named after his friend). Naturally Beatrice is angry at her circumstances when Neruda and his wife return after a five-year absence. One of the final images of the film is of Neruda alone on the beach evoking a sense of loss for an inspiring life that fills one with hope.

• Il Postino’s viewpoint is much more optimistic
• Lies of Silence & Il Postino open in a gloomy manner – Lughnasa begins in nostalgia
• Lughnasa & Il Postino portrays a positive family life
• Relationships are also positive in Lughnasa & Il Postino

King Lear Summary

Act 1 Scene 1

Most of the main characters are introduced here in the first scene – the characters of the main plot and two of the three characters of the sub-plot, however Edgar is absent. Some of the characters traits are subtly shown also, for example Gloucester betrays the fact that his illegitimate son was born after his legitimate song – showing his defective sense of responsibility.
The play begins with two noblemen, Gloucester and Kent, discussing the fact that King Lear is about to divide his kingdom (we know at this point that Lear has decided how he is dividing his kingdom). Their conversation quickly changes, however, when Kent asks Gloucester to introduce his son. Gloucester introduces Edmund, explaining that Edmund is a bastard being raised away from home, but that he loves his son anyway. Lear enters and reveals his plan – he intends to give up the responsibilities of government and spend his old age visiting his children. Albany, through his wife Goneril will get the same share as Cornwall, through his wife Regan but it is Cordelia who will get the most, provided she is prepared to go through the ordeal of flattering her father in public.
Lear’s older daughters tell him in overblown terms that they love him more than anything but Cordelia, the youngest, refuses to speak as she cannot ‘heave/ My heart into my mouth.’ – she says that she loves Lear as much as a daughter should love a father and if her sisters loved Lear as much as they say they do then they would have no room for husbands (1,1 90-91). Naturally Lear flies into a rage, banishes his younger daughter and divides his kingdom between General and Regan.
The Earl of Kent disagrees with Lear’s actions and informs the king that he is a little crazy in disowning his youngest daughter and giving his other daughters a share of the kingdom. This obviously annoys Lear and he turns his anger on again and banishes Kent.
The king of France and duke of Burgundy arrive at Lear’s court, awaiting his decision as to which of them will marry Cordelia. Lear informs them that Cordelia no longer has any title or land. Burgundy withdraws his offer of marriage, but France is impressed by Cordelia’s honesty and decides to make her his queen. Lear sends her away without his blessing.
Meanwhile Goneril and Regan are in scheming mode once more – they know that they have complete rule over the kingdom but that they must reduce their father’s remaining authority.

Act 1 Scene 2

Edmund delivers his soliloquy concerning his dissatisfaction with society’s attitude towards bastards:
Thou, nature art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
…
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
He hates his legitimate half-brother and the fact that he stands to inherit his father’s estate. He vows to do away with Edgar and seize that which society has stolen from him. Edmund forges a letter in which it looks like Edgar is plotting against his father’s life. Edmund makes a show of hiding the letter and obviously Gloucester demands to see it – Edmund plants careful lies to ensure that Gloucester is fooled into believing that Edgar is trying to kill him so that he can gain his inheritance sooner rather than later. Edmund then tells Edgar that his father is angry with Edgar and that he should avoid him and carry a sword at all times – Edmund makes it look like Edgar is actually plotting against his father.

Act 1 Scene 3

Lear is ‘retired’ and is spending the first part of his retirement at Goneril’s castle. Goneril begins to stir up some trouble by complaining about Lear’s knights to Oswald; they are ‘riotous’ and Lear is a bit of an obnoxious guest (1,3 6). She orders her servants to behave rudely towards Lear in order to provoke a response.

Act 1 Scene 4

The first official mask is found in scene 4 as Kent appears in Goneril’s castle as Caius, Lear accepts him as a servant after Caius speaks about his honesty. Lear and his posse begin to see that Goneril’s people no longer obey their commands – Oswald leaves the room without replying to Lear’s questions over where Goneril is. When Oswald returns, his disrespect towards Lear enrages the former king so much that he striker him, Kent rushes to Lear’s aid and in the process trips Oswald.
The Fool enters and, employing puns and double entendres, he informs Lear that he has made a big mistake in handing his power over to his two daughters. Goneril enters and tells Lear that his servants have been so troublesome that he will have to send some of them away. This shocks Lear and words such as betrayal and treason enter his already frazzled mind. Lear, enraged again, admits that handing over his power was a mistake, he curses his daughter and calls on Nature to make her childless. Lear declares that he will go to Regan’s house and stay there – he believes Regan to be a true daughter and one that will give him the respect he deserves. Albany argues with Goneril over her handling of Lear but it is apparent who wears the trousers in this relationship. Goneril tells her husband that she has sent a letter to Regan, who is also not going to house Lear’s knights.

Act 1 Scene 5

Kent is sent with a letter to Gloucester, while the Fool goads Lear once more about his bad decisions, he says that Regan will treat Lear no better. Lear calls on heaven to keep him from going insane.

Act 2 Scene 1

Gloucester’s servant Curan tells Edmund that he has informed Gloucester that the duke of Cornwall and his wife, Regan, are coming to the Gloucester’s castle that night. Curan also mentions rumours about trouble brewing between the duke of Cornwall and the duke of Albany. Edmund is happy to hear that Cornwall is coming, realising that he can make use of him in his scheme to get rid of Edgar. Edmund calls Edgar out of his hiding place and tells him that Cornwall is angry with him for being on Albany’s side of their disagreement but Edgar has no idea what Edmund is on about. Edmund tells Edgar that Gloucester has discovered his hiding place and that he should flee the house under cover of night. When he hears Gloucester coming, Edmund draws his sword and pretends to fight with Edgar, while Edgar runs away. Edmund cuts his arm with his sword and lies to Gloucester, telling him that Edgar wanted him to join in a plot against Gloucester’s life and that Edgar tried to kill him for refusing. Gloucester praises Edmund and vows to find Edgar, sending men out to search for him.
Cornwall and Regan arrive at Gloucester’s house, believing the lies about Edgar and Regan asks if Edgar is one of Lear’s disorderly knights. Edmund says that he is and Regan speculates that these knights put Edgar up to the idea of treason, thus tarnishing Lear in the process. Regan then asks Gloucester for advice in answer Lear’s and Goneril’s letters.

Act 2 Scene 2

Outside Gloucester’s castle Kent (in disguise) meets Oswald (Goneril’s chief steward), who doesn’t recognise him. Kent proceeds to insult Oswald calling him vain, cowardly, boastful and grovelling. Oswald still does not recognise Kent and Kent draws his sword to attack Oswald who cries out for help – Cornwall, Regan and Gloucester come to his aid. Kent replies rudely to their calls for an explanation and ends up in the stocks. However, Gloucester objects that this humiliation of Lear’s messenger will be seen as a show of disrespect towards Lear but Cornwall and Regan maintain that the punishment fits the crime. After everyone leaves, Kent reads a letter from Cordelia in which she promises to find a way to improve conditions in Britain.

Act 2 Scene 3

Edgar enters scene 2 as Kent is asleep in the stocks. So far he has escaped the manhunt but he is also afraid of being caught. He strips off his finery and covers himself in dirt and thus ‘poor Tom’ is born (2,3 20). He states that he will pose as a beggar released from an insane asylum wandering the countryside looking for food and shelter.

Act 2 Scene 4

Lear along with the Fool and a knight arrive at Gloucester’s castle and Lear is shocked to see Kent in the stocks, more so that anyone would treat his servant in such a manner. Lear is shocked even more when he finds out that it was Regan and Cornwall who put him there! Lear demands to speak with them but of course he is rejected on the grounds that they are both sick and tired from traveling. When they eventually appear Lear tells them about Goneril’s ‘sharp-toothed unkindness’ towards him (2,4 128). However Regan suggests that Goneril may have been justified in her actions – Lear is growing old and unreasonable and the he should beg Goneril’s forgiveness. Lear then asks Regan to let him stay but she refuses – Lear then complains some more about Goneril and curses her. Much to his dismay, his daughter Goneril arrives at Gloucester’s castle. Regan (knew that her sister was coming from her letters) takes Goneril’s hand in a show of alliance against her father. They both say that he is getting old and weak and that he must give up half of his men if he is to stay with either of them. Lear is getting very confused here and says that he and his hundred men will stay with Regan but Regan states that she will allow twenty-five men only. Lear tries to bargain with Goneril saying he will reduce his number to fifty if he can stay with her (Goneril’s initial request) but she is no longer willing to accept that number. And then things go from bad to worse as both daughters say that they will allow no men to accompany Lear.
Lear is outraged and curses his daughters before heading outside where a storm is brewing. Gloucester, again the advocate for Lear, begs Goneril and Regan to bring Lear back but they both state that he is better off outside and order the doors to be locked.

Act 3 Scene 1

As a storm rages on Kent goes looking for Lear and runs into one of his knights and finds out that Lear is somewhere nearby with by his Fool. Kent feeds some info to the knight: there is some unrest between Albany and Cornwall and there are French spies everywhere. Kent sends the knight to Dover to seek out help for Lear, he gives him a ring that Cordelia will recognise.

Act 3 Scene 2

Lear is wandering around in the storm, cursing the weather and defying nature to do its worst. He appears irrational and cannot concentrate on one single thought but he always comes back to the cruelty of his daughters. The Fool begs Lear to go back to his daughters with his tail between his legs and seek some shelter but Lear ignores him. Kent finds them and asks them to take shelter inside a hovel, Lear agrees but the Fool makes a strange and confusing prophecy.

Act 3 Scene 3

Gloucester has a word with Edmund inside his castle about how he wasn’t down with what happened with Lear. When he urged Regan and Goneril to give him permission to help Lear they became angry, took his castle and ordered him never to speak to Lear again. Gloucester tells Edmund that he has heard rumours of a conflict between Cornwall and Albany and that a French army are invading Britain. Gloucester feels that he should take Lear’s side and plans to search for him. He tells Edmund of a letter concerning news of the French army locked in his room and asks his son to distract Cornwall while he goes to seek out Lear, saying that it is important that Cornwall does not find out where Gloucester is going or he might die for treason.
Obviously this is a fantastic opportunity for the villain of the play and Edmund decides to betray his father immediately and plans to go to Cornwall to inform him of Gloucester’s treachery and the letter. Edmund expects to inherit all his father’s wealth as soon as he dies.

Act 3 Scene 4

Kent leads Lear through the storm to the hovel. He tries to get him to go inside, but Lear refuses -  saying that because of his mental state he cannot feel the effects of the storm. He sends his Fool inside and kneels to pray. He states that he took too little care of the wretched and homeless, who have the same protection he now has from storms, like the one he is in the middle of.
The Fool runs out of the hovel, shouting that there is a spirit inside – turns out to be Edgar disguised as Tom O’Bedlam. Edgar pretends to be a madman by complaining that he is being chased by a devil. He adds that demons possess his body. Lear sees nothing strange about these statements (shows that his grip on reality is fading). He sympathises with Edgar, asking him if he has had some bother with bad daughters too.
Lear asks Edgar what he used to be before he went mad and became a beggar. Edgar replies that he was once a wealthy courtier who spent his days getting it on with many women and boozing. Observing Edgar’s nakedness, Lear tears off his own clothes in sympathy.
Gloucester comes looking for the king and is unimpressed by Lear’s companions and tries to bring Lear back inside the castle with him, even though doing so will anger Regan and Goneril. Lear is convinced enough to go with Gloucester, but insists on bringing the Edgar.

Act 3 Scene 5

Inside Gloucester’s castle, Cornwall vows revenge on Gloucester (Edmund showed Cornwall a letter that proves Gloucester’s secret support of a French invasion). Edmund pretends to be shocked at the discovery of his father’s ‘treason’ but he is actually delighted – Cornwall gives the title of Earl of Gloucester (3,5 10). Cornwall sends Edmund to find Gloucester, and Edmund reckons that if he can catch his father in the act of helping Lear then Cornwall will believe all of his lies about Gloucester.

Act 3 Scene 6

Gloucester, Kent, Lear, and the Fool take shelter in a small building on Gloucester’s property. Gloucester leaves to find supplies and Lear, growing more and more insane, holds a mock trial of his wicked daughters, with Edgar, Kent, and the Fool presiding. Both Edgar and the Fool speak like madmen, and the trial is an example of the hallucination and eccentricity present in the minds of the various madmen.
Gloucester hurries back to tell Kent that he has overheard a plot to kill Lear. Gloucester begs Kent to quickly transport Lear toward Dover where allies will be waiting for him. Gloucester, Kent, and the Fool leave but Edgar remains behind for a moment and speaks in his own, undisguised voice about how much less important his own suffering feels now that he has seen Lear’s far worse suffering.

Act 3 Scene 7

Back in Gloucester’s castle, Cornwall gives Goneril the treasonous letter concerning the French army at Dover and tells her to take it and show it to her husband, Albany. He then sends his servants to get a hold of Gloucester so that he can be punished. He orders Edmund to go with Goneril to Albany’s palace to save Edmund from seeing the violent punishment of his father.
Oswald brings word that Gloucester has helped Lear escape to Dover. Gloucester is brought before Regan and Cornwall and is treated cruelly, tied up like a thief, insulted, and has his beard plucked. Cornwall remarks to himself that he cannot put Gloucester to death without holding a formal trial but that he can still punish him brutally and get away with it.
Gloucester swears that he will see Lear’s wrongs avenged but Cornwall replies, “See ’t shalt thou never,” and proceeds to dig out one of Gloucester’s eyes, throw it on the floor, and step on it (3,7 68). Gloucester screams, and Regan demands that Cornwall put out the other eye too.
One of Gloucester’s servants suddenly steps in, saying that he cannot stand by and let this outrage take place. Cornwall draws his sword and they fight. The servant wounds Cornwall, but Regan grabs a sword from another servant and kills the first servant before he can injure Cornwall further. The wounded Cornwall tears out Gloucester’s remaining eye.
Gloucester calls out for his son Edmund to help him, but Regan tells him that it was actually Edmund who betrayed him. Gloucester, realises that Edgar was the son who really loved him, laments his folly and prays to the gods to help Edgar. Regan and Cornwall order that Gloucester be thrown out of the house to “smell / His way to Dover” (3, 7 96–97). Cornwall,  badly hurt, exits with Regan’s aid.
Left alone with Gloucester, Cornwall’s and Regan’s servants express their shock and horror at what has just happened. They decide to treat Gloucester’s bleeding face and hand him over to the mad beggar to lead Gloucester where he will.

Act 4 Scene 1

Edgar talks to himself on the heath, reflecting that his situation is not as bad as it could be. He is met with the horrifying sight of his blinded father. Gloucester is led by an old man who has been a tenant of both Gloucester and Gloucester’s father for eighty years. Edgar hears Gloucester tell the old man that if he could only touch his son Edgar again, it would be worth more to him than his lost eyesight. But Edgar chooses to remain disguised as Poor Tom rather than reveal himself to his father. Gloucester asks the old man to bring some clothing to cover Tom, and he asks Tom to lead him to Dover. Specifically, Gloucester asks to be led to the top of the highest cliff.

Act 4 Scene 2

Goneril and Edmund arrive outside her palace, and Goneril is surprised that Albany did not meet them on the way. Oswald tells her that Albany is displeased with Goneril’s and Regan’s carrying-on with Edmund, glad to hear that the French army had landed, and sorry to hear that Goneril is returning home.
Goneril realises that Albany is no longer her ally, calls him a coward and resolves to assert greater control over her husband’s military forces. She directs Edmund to return to Cornwall’s house and raise Cornwall’s troops for the fight against the French. She informs him that she will take control of her husband’s power. She promises to send Oswald with messages. She bids Edmund goodbye with a kiss, hinting that she wants to become his mistress.
As Edmund leaves, Albany enters. He criticises Goneril (he has not yet learned about Gloucester’s blinding) but he is outraged at the news that Lear has been driven mad by Goneril and Regan’s abuse. Goneril insults Albany, accusing him of being a coward. She tells him that he should be preparing to fight against the French invaders. Albany calls her monstrous and condemns the evil that she has done to Lear.
A messenger arrives and tells everyone that Cornwall has died from the wound he received while putting out Gloucester’s eyes. Albany reacts with horror to the report of Gloucester’s blinding and interprets Cornwall’s death as divine retribution. Meanwhile, Goneril displays mixed feelings about Cornwall’s death: on the one hand, it makes her sister Regan less powerful; on the other hand, it leaves Regan free to pursue Edmund herself. Goneril leaves to answer her sister’s letters.
Albany demands to know where Edmund was when his father was being blinded. When he hears that it was Edmund who betrayed Gloucester and that Edmund left the house specifically so that Cornwall could punish Gloucester, Albany vows to take revenge on Edmund and help Gloucester.

Act 4 Scene 3

Kent, still disguised as an ordinary serving man, speaks with a gentleman in the French camp near Dover. The gentleman tells Kent that the king of France landed with his troops but left to sort out a problem at home. Kent’s letters have been brought to Cordelia, who is now the queen of France and has been left in charge of the army. Kent questions the gentleman about Cordelia’s reaction to the letters, and the gentleman gives a moving account of Cordelia’s sorrow upon reading about her father’s mistreatment.
Kent tells the gentleman that Lear has also arrived safely in Dover. Lear, however, refuses to see Cordelia because he is ashamed of the way he treated her. The gentleman informs Kent that the armies of both Albany and the late Cornwall are on the march to fight against the French troops.

Act 4 Scene 4

Cordelia enters with her soldiers. Lear has hidden from her in the cornfields, covering himself in weeds and flowers and singing madly to himself. Cordelia sends one hundred of her soldiers to find Lear and bring him back. She consults with a doctor about Lear’s chances for recovering his sanity. The doctor tells her that what Lear needs is sleep and that there are drugs that can make him sleep. A messenger brings Cordelia the news that the British armies of Cornwall and Albany are marching toward them. Cordelia expected this news, and her army stands ready to fight.

Act 4 Scene 5

Back at Gloucester’s castle, Oswald tells Regan that Albany’s army has set out, although Albany has been dragging his feet about the expedition. It seems that Goneril is a “better soldier” than Albany (4,5 4). Regan is extremely curious about the letter that Oswald carries from Goneril to Edmund, but Oswald refuses to show it to her. Regan guesses that the letter is about Goneril’s love affair with Edmund, and she tells Oswald plainly that she wants Edmund for herself. Regan reveals that she has already spoken with Edmund about this possibility; it would be more appropriate for Edmund to get involved with her, now a widow, than with Goneril, because that would be adultery. She gives Oswald a token or a letter (the text doesn’t specify which) to deliver to Edmund. Finally, she promises Oswald a reward if he can find and kill Gloucester.

Act 4 Scene 6

Edgar leads Gloucester toward Dover and pretends to take him to the cliff, saying that they are going up steep ground and that they can hear the sea. Finally, he tells Gloucester that they are at the top of the cliff and that looking down gives him vertigo. He waits nearby as Gloucester prays to the gods to forgive him. Gloucester can no longer bear his suffering and intends to commit suicide. He falls to the ground, fainting.
Edgar wakes Gloucester up no longer pretending to be Poor Tom but now acts like an ordinary gentleman, although he still doesn’t tell Gloucester that he is his son. Edgar says that he saw him fall all the way from the cliffs of Dover and that it is a miracle that he is still alive. Clearly, Edgar states, the gods do not want Gloucester to die just yet. Edgar also informs Gloucester that he saw the creature who had been with him at the top of the cliff and that this creature was not a human being but a devil. Gloucester accepts Edgar’s explanation that the gods have preserved him and resolves to endure his sufferings patiently.
Lear, wandering across the plain, stumbles upon Edgar and Gloucester. Crowned with wild flowers, he is clearly mad. He babbles to Edgar and Gloucester, speaking both irrationally and with a strange perceptiveness. He recognises Gloucester, alluding to Gloucester’s sin and source of shame – his adultery. Lear pardons Gloucester for this crime, but his thoughts then follow a chain of associations from adultery to copulation to womankind, culminating in a tirade against women and sexuality in general. Lear’s disgust carries him to the point of incoherence, as he deserts iambic pentameter (the verse form in which his speeches are written) and spits out the words “Fie, fie, fie! pah! pah!” (4,6 126).
Cordelia’s people enter seeking King Lear. Relieved to find him at last, they try to take him into custody to bring him to Cordelia. When Lear runs away, Cordelia’s men follow him.
Oswald comes across Edgar and Gloucester on the plain. He does not recognise Edgar, but he plans to kill Gloucester and collect the reward from Regan. Edgar adopts yet another persona, imitating the dialect of a peasant from the west of England. He defends Gloucester and kills Oswald with a cudgel. As he dies, Oswald entrusts Edgar with his letters.
Gloucester is disappointed not to have been killed. Edgar reads the letter that Oswald carries to Edmund. In the letter, Goneril urges Edmund to kill Albany if he gets the opportunity, so that Edmund and Goneril can be together. Edgar is outraged; he decides to keep the letter and show it to Albany when the time is right. Meanwhile, he buries Oswald nearby and leads Gloucester off to temporary safety.

Act 4 Scene 7

In the French camp, Cordelia speaks with Kent. She knows who he is, but he wishes it to remain a secret to everyone else. Lear, who has been sleeping, is brought in to Cordelia. He only partially recognises her. He says that he knows he is senile and not in his right mind, and he assumes that Cordelia hates him and wants to kill him, just as her sisters do. Cordelia tells him that she forgives him for banishing her.
Meanwhile, the news of Cornwall’s death is repeated in the camp, and Edmund is now leading Cornwall’s troops. The battle between France and England rapidly approaches.

Act 5 Scene 1

In the British camp near Dover, Regan asks Edmund if he loves Goneril and if he has found his way into her bed. Edmund says no on both accounts. Regan is jealous of her sister and begs Edmund not to get it on with her.
Goneril and Albany enter with their troops. Albany states that he has heard that the invading French army has been joined by Lear and others who may have legitimate grievances against the present government. Despite his sympathy toward Lear and these other dissidents, Albany declares that he intends to fight alongside Edmund, Regan, and Goneril to repel the foreign invasion on the grounds that it is an invasion on Britain, it doesn’t matter who is on the opposing side. Goneril and Regan jealously fight over Edmund, neither willing to leave the other alone with him. The three exit together.
Just as Albany begins to leave, Edgar, now disguised as an ordinary peasant, catches up to him. He gives Albany the letter that he took from Oswald’s body – the letter in which Goneril’s involvement with Edmund is revealed and in which Goneril asks Edmund to kill Albany. Edgar tells Albany to read the letter and says that if Albany wins the upcoming battle, he can sound a trumpet and Edgar will provide a champion to defend the claims made in the letter. Edgar vanishes and Edmund returns. Edmund tells Albany that the battle is almost upon them, and Albany leaves. Alone, Edmund addresses the audience, stating that he has sworn his love to both Regan and Goneril. He debates what he should do, reflecting that choosing either one would anger the other. He decides to put off the decision until after the battle, observing that if Albany survives it, Goneril can take care of killing him herself. He asserts menacingly that if the British win the battle and he captures Lear and Cordelia, he will show them no mercy.

Act 5 Scene 2

The battle begins. Edgar, in peasant’s clothing, leads Gloucester to the shelter of a tree and goes into battle to fight on Lear’s side. He soon returns, shouting that Lear’s side has lost and that Lear and Cordelia have been captured. Gloucester states that he will stay where he is and wait to be captured or killed, but Edgar says that death only occurs at a predestined time. Persuaded, Gloucester goes with Edgar.

Act 5 Scene 3

Edmund brings in Lear and Cordelia as his prisoners. Cordelia expects to confront Regan and Goneril, but Lear refuses to do so. He describes a vividly imagined fantasy, in which he and Cordelia live alone together like birds in a cage, hearing about the outside world but observed by no one. Edmund sends them away, giving the captain who guards them a note with instructions as to what to do with them. He doesn’t make the note’s contents clear to the audience, but he talks like a baddie. The captain agrees to follow Edmund’s orders.
Albany enters accompanied by Goneril and Regan. He praises Edmund for his brave fighting on the British side and orders that he shows them Lear and Cordelia. Edmund lies to Albany, claiming that he sent Lear and Cordelia far away because he feared that they would excite the sympathy of the British forces and create a mutiny. Albany yells at him for putting himself above his place, but Regan breaks in to declare that she plans to make Edmund her husband. Goneril tells Regan that Edmund will not marry her but still Regan (feeling a little sick) claims Edmund as her husband and lord.
Albany intervenes, arresting Edmund on a charge of treason. Albany challenges Edmund to defend himself against the charge in a trial by combat, and he sounds the trumpet to summon his champion. While Regan (getting sicker) is helped to Albany’s tent, Edgar appears in full armour to accuse Edmund of treason and face him in a fight. Edgar defeats Edmund, and Albany cries out to Edgar to leave Edmund alive for questioning. Goneril tries to help the wounded Edmund, but Albany brings out the treacherous letter to show that he knows of her conspiracy against him. Goneril runs off in desperation.
Edgar takes off his helmet and reveals his identity. He reconciles with Albany and tells the company how he disguised himself as a mad beggar and led Gloucester through the countryside. He adds that he revealed himself to his father only as he was preparing to fight Edmund and that Gloucester, torn between joy and grief, died.
A gentleman rushes in carrying a bloody knife. He announces that Goneril has committed suicide and that she fatally poisoned Regan before she died. The two bodies are carried in and laid out.
Kent enters and asks where Lear is. Albany recalls with horror that Lear and Cordelia are still imprisoned and demands from Edmund their whereabouts. Edmund repents his crimes and determines to do good before his death. He tells the others that he had ordered that Cordelia be hanged and sends a messenger to try to intervene.
Lear enters, carrying the dead Cordelia in his arms: the messenger arrived too late. Slipping in and out of sanity, Lear grieves over Cordelia’s body. Kent speaks to Lear, but Lear barely recognises him. A messenger enters and reveals that Edmund has also died. Lear asks Edgar to loosen Cordelia’s button; then, just as Lear thinks that he sees her beginning to breathe again, he dies.
Albany gives Edgar and Kent their power and titles back, inviting them to rule with him. Kent, feeling himself near death, refuses, but Edgar seems to accept. The few remaining survivors exit sadly as a funeral march plays.

King Lear – Motifs & Symbols

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Insanity

Insanity is central to the play and is associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. The Fool, who offers Lear insight early on in the play, offers his counsel in what seems to be mad ramblings. When Lear eventually goes mad the turmoil in his mind mirrors the chaos in his kingdom. At the same time it provides him with important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity, stripped of all royal masks. Lear learns humility. He is joined in his real madness by Edgar’s fake insanity, which also contains little nuggets of wisdom. Edgar’s time as an insane beggar hardens him and enables him to defeat Edmund at the end of the play.

Betrayal

Betrayals play a critical role in the play and show the workings of wickedness in family and politics here: brothers betray brothers and children betray fathers. Goneril and Regan’s betrayal of Lear elevates them to power in Britain, where Edmund (who betrayed his father and brother) joins them. The play suggests that betrayers turn on each other – Goneril and Regan fall out when they both become attracted to Edmund leading to mutual destruction. It is important to remember that the entire play is set in motion by Lear’s blind, foolish betrayal of Cordelia’s love for him, which reinforces that at the heart of every betrayal lies a twisted set of values.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Storm

As Lear wanders about a desolate heath in Act 3, a terrible symbolic storm rages overhead. The storm echoes Lear’s inner turmoil and growing madness: it is a physical and natural reflection of Lear’s internal confusion. At the same time, the storm embodies the awesome power of nature, which forces the powerless king to recognise his own mortality and human frailty and to embrace humility for the first time. The storm could also symbolise divine justice – as if nature itself is angry about the events in the play. Finally, the natural chaos symbolises the political disarray that has engulfed Britain.

Blindness

Gloucester’s physical blindness symbolises the metaphorical blindness that grips both Gloucester and the play’s other father figure, Lear. The similarities between the two men are clear: both have loyal children and disloyal children, both are blind to the truth, and both end up banishing the loyal children and making the wicked ones their heirs. Only when Gloucester has lost the use of his eyes and Lear has gone mad does each realise his error. It is appropriate that the play brings them together near Dover in Act 4 to commiserate about how their blindness to the truth about their children has cost them dearly.

King Lear Themes

Themes are the fundamental and universal ideas explored in a text.

Nature

The events of the play underline Shakespeare’s obsession with the theme of nature in this play. Lear disowns one loving and loyal daughter in favour of two who will turn savagely on him. Gloucester calls Edmund a ‘loyal and natural boy’ and disowns Edmund as an unnatural monster. Lear says that Cordelia is a wretch that nature is ashamed whilst Gloucester states that Edgar is ‘an unnatural, detested, brutish villain! Worse than brutish’. 
Lear and Gloucester commit mortal sins against the laws of nature and it would seem that the rest of the play is about the revenge that nature takes on the two fathers. Each offender will be cut off from the kindness, generosity and protections that human beings naturally give one another. Gloucester is blinded in order to see while Lear is driven mad to understand himself and his acts.
There are contrasting characters in the play who hold different positions on the meaning of nature. One group sees nature as a force keeping all things in harmony – Cordelia, Kent and Edgar are faithful to this view as are Gloucester and Lear even though at the start of the play the two fathers show an obstructed awareness of natural obligation. Lear’s love-test is an example of this – Cordelia says that the law of nature imposes other obligations ‘Why have my sisters husbands, if they say / They love you at all?’. Gloucester’s affair (resulting in Edmund) shows his defective view of the loyalty required on entering into the most basic of all natural relationships.
For the likes of Edmund, Goneril, Regan and Cornwall, nature has a different meaning. It doesn’t involve any duty, kinship or filial obligation. Strangely Goneril, Regan and Edmund place a huge emphasis on filial love when they were trying to impress their fathers – their actions are a complete contradiction to this as they reject the obligation of natural affection. Edmund’s first soliloquy addresses nature as a goddess but this nature encourages disregarding any obligation to others, concentrating on the pursuit of your own interests – in Edmund’s case this means ignoring the rights of others and evens sacrificing others for his own benefit. His unnatural treatment of his father is mirrored by Goneril and Regan’s treatment of Lear. Lear’s daughters are willing to let him lose his mind and risk his life in order to avoid housing and providing for him. Goneril takes it a step farther by signing the order of execution (provided by Edmund) for Lear and Cordelia, she even poisons Regan because she wanted Edmund for herself – the nature of these three villains (Goneril, Regan and Edmund) involves heartless individualism.

‘Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man’s life is cheap as beast’s’ (2,4)
Nature here means the primitive condition of mankind before human society began to decline.

‘Thou hast one daughter

Who redeems nature from the general curse

Which twain have brought her to’ (4,6)
The general curse here is sin (either the Fall in the Bible or the adulterous nature of Gloucester). The idea here is the originally innocent nature before sin corrupted.

‘Some good I mean to do

Despite of mine own nature.’ (5,3)
Edmund echoes what France hinted at in Act 1, Scene 1 – there is a natural personality/character.

Filial Ingratitude

Lear’s sense of ingratitude is focuses on all three daughters, on Cordelia at the beginning, and  later on Goneril and Regan. His notion that Cordelia should be tainted with this filial ingratitude causes him to banish her and deprive her of her inheritance, but it also causes Lear to humiliate her publicly just as he feels that she has embarrassed him in public. When Goneril and Regan display their false gratitude, he rewards them by giving them his kingdom in return for the right to stay at their homes for the remainder of his days. However, almost as soon as they get the keys to the kingdom both daughters show no gratitude for Lear’s favour. Goneril finds excuses to make him leave her home – his followers are riotous, disrespectful and immoral – she states that Lear must reduce his numbers or leave. Lear flies into a rage:
‘In gratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous when thou shows’t thee in a child
Than the sea-monster’ (1,4 248-50)
Lear is so angry at Goneril’s ingratitude that he calls curses upon her, he demands that nature give her no children but if she does happen to have children, she may feel:
‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is

To have a thankless child!’ (1,4, 277-8)

Lear expects Regan to house him – he thinks he knows her better than Goneril

‘The offices of nature, bond of childhood,

Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude.

Thy half o’ the kingdom has thou not forget

Wherein I thee endow’d.’ (2,4 177-80)

Lear knows something is up and even before he goes to Regan’s house he is questioning his insanity as he pleads to the heavens. Regan’s dismissal of his claims on her gratitude and hospitality breaks his sanity. He actually prefers the storm to his daughters:
‘I tax you not, you elements, with unkindness;

I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children…’ (3,2 15-16)

Lear is now obsessed with this filial ingratitude and the storm comes as a respite from the madness in his mind:
‘This tempest in my mind

Doth from my senses take all feeling else

Save what beats there – filial ingratitude!’ (3,4 12-14)

When Lear sees Edgar wearing only a blanket, we see the full extent of his obsession with this theme as his only answer for Edgar’s unfortunate state is that he had some bad daughters:
‘Has his daughters brought him to this pass?

Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst thou give ‘em all?’

When Kent informs Lear that Edgar has no children, Lear bursts:
‘Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature

To such a lowness but his unkind daughters’ (3,4 67-8)

The similarities between Lear and Gloucester further enhance this theme: an amoral son (Edmund) destroys his father while the supposed ingratitude of a loving son (Edgar) evokes this moving statement from Gloucester:
‘I had a son

Now outlawed from my blood; he sought my life

But lately, very late. I loved him, friend,

No father his son dearer.’ (3,4 157=60)

Justice

King Lear is a shocking play, full of cruelty and awful, meaningless disasters. The terrible events that take place ask the question whether there is any justice in the world, or whether the world is simply indifferent or even hostile to humankind. Various characters offer their opinions: ‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport.’ Gloucester says, meaning that it’s daft for humans to assume that the natural world works in parallel with socially or morally convenient notions of justice (4,1 37–38). Throughout King Lear, characters constantly appeal to the gods for aid but are rarely answered. The play suggests that, either the gods do not exist, or they are unimaginably cruel.
Edgar insists that ‘the gods are just,’ believing that people eventually get what’s coming to them (5,3 169). But, in the end, we are left with uncertainty – although the wicked die, the good die along with them, culminating in the awful image of Lear cradling Cordelia’s body in his arms. There is goodness in the world of the play, but there is also madness and death, and it is difficult to tell which triumphs in the end.

Order vs Anarchy

King Lear is a play about political authority but it is also about family relationships, mainly between father and children (characters who are mothers are absent in King Lear but there’s plenty of talk about mothers in this play.) Lear is not only a father but also a king, and when he gives away his authority to the unworthy and evil Goneril and Regan, he pits himself, his family and all of Britain into chaos. As the two wicked sisters consume more and more power and Edmund begins his evil path to the top, the kingdom descends into civil strife, and we realise that Lear has destroyed not only his own authority but all authority in Britain. The stable, hierarchal order that Lear initially represents falls apart and disorder remains.
The failure of authority repeats itself in Lear’s wanderings on the heath during the storm. Witnessing the powerful forces of the natural world, Lear comes to understand that he, like the rest of humankind, is insignificant. This realisation proves much more important than the realisation of his loss of political control, as it compels him to re-prioritise his values and become humble and caring. With this new understanding of himself, Lear hopes to be able to confront the chaos in the political realm as well.
But it’s not all about Lear – note the mirror image of Gloucester – the drama between Gloucester and his sons heightens the sense that King Lear is a decidedly domestic tragedy.

Reconciliation

Darkness and unhappiness pervade King Lear, and the devastating Act 5 represents one of the most tragic endings in all of literature. Nevertheless, the play presents the central relationship (between Lear and Cordelia) as a dramatic symbol of true, self-sacrificing love. Rather than despising Lear for banishing her, Cordelia remains devoted, even from afar, and eventually brings an army from a foreign country to rescue him. Lear learns a hard lesson in humility and eventually reaches the point where he can reunite joyfully with Cordelia and experience her forgiving love. Lear’s recognition of the error of his ways is vital to this reconciliation, not because Cordelia feels wronged by him but because he has understood the sincerity and depth of her love for him. This enables him to bring Cordelia back into his good graces amid the horror and chaos that engulf the rest of the play.