Night and King Lear Essays

Night and King Lear Essays Night and King Lear Essay Night and King Lear Essay Essay Topic: King Lear Twelfth Night We can tell that they are rude, impatient and demanding. They are also discriminating against the boatswain and the sailors We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards which means that they take a fairly discriminative look on sailors as alcoholics. To the Boatswain Antonio points this abuse this wide-chappd rascal, would thou mightst lie drowning, the washing of ten tides.. The washing of ten tides refers to a punishment for pirates, which involved the eventual, slow but inevitable drowning as the sea rose to high tide. They resist the call to work. We see from their actions later on in the scene that they are also very treacherous:  Antonio: Lets all sink withking,  Sebastian: Lets take leave of him. This could be interpreted as only a very typically human action however, an action of self-preservation.  I found that Gonzalo doesnt really fulfil his role of the kings councillor, as he is actually quite an old foolish man who still tries to uphold a gentlemanly manner. This first scene shows how impotent Gonzalo is in a matter like this as he simply stands to the side and coarsely jokes to himself:  Though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench.  An unstanched wench is meant as a sick pun on women and menstruation. The Boatswain himself explains to Gonzalo how useless he is in the face of a natural disaster: You are a councillor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work a peace of the present, we will not hand a rope no more- use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks that you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if so hap  Alonso tries to maintain an air of authority by trying to give the boatswain imposing advice such as Good boatswain, have care. Wheres the master? Play the men.  This scene carries a lot of symbolism and themes that are carried on through the rest of the play, for example the inversion of the social hierarchy as the boatswain says about the king. This is the first power struggle of the play. The boatswain makes the point that although the king has divine right, he has absolutely no power over nature, and therefore he is futile in a circumstance like this. We also see that nature or situations like the storm should and could only be resolved by those who are able to. In turn Prospero manipulates the situation, almost with a divine control, he is the only one who can put an end to the story. This is a reflection of Prosperos control over the royal party. Although they think that they have eradicated him, and are in control, like nature, Prospero has in fact got a firm grip on their lives. We can also see how helpless humans are in the face of nature. Although we like to think that we have control over it we are in fact at its mercy and in a very vulnerable position. This theme of usurpation carries on throughout the play as we see Antonio and Sebastians attempted regicide and fratricide of Alonso and Caliban, Trinculo and Stephanos parody of an assassination Prospero. In comparison to other storms in Shakespeares plays I think that The Tempest has the most dramatic impact. Superstition was a common form of belief in Shakespeares time as we can see from the witch-hunts. People would often look to the heavens to find signs, hence astrology or horoscopes and whenever a storm comes up in Shakespeare it is because there is trouble brewing or the protagonists are fighting with storm of their conscience. I looked at the storm scenes of three other plays: Macbeth, Twelfth Night and King Lear. Whenever the three witches appear on stage in Macbeth there is thunder. The three witches always cause trouble for Macbeth with their prophecies leading him to be thirstier for power. I think that the storm is installed to give an effect if mystery and menace.  In Twelfth Night we dont actually see the storm but we see that this time the storm has caused trouble. We see that emotionally the storm has initiated Violas lament for her dead brother.  The storm in King Lear makes him see what is really going on and to actually realise what the true natures of his daughters Goneril and Regan were. Thus this storm reflects his anger and realisation, his emotional struggle. However The Tempest, in my view is not used for the expression of emotion as it had been for Twelfth Night or King Lear, or to highlight bad tidings. I believe that it is an introduction, which is not to say that it means little. In fact in my view without the storm in this scene there would be little dramatic impact at all. The storm is a clever preview of what to expect from the rest of the play and it really grips your attention. I think that the storms in the other plays dont actually need to be there. The Tempest needed a natural disaster in order to reveal genuine characters and regular themes throughout the play. Without one Shakespeare would have found it difficult to stage such a dynamic introduction to his characters. The dialogue of the scene controls the tempo at which it goes. At the start of the first scene of The Tempest the pace is fast and continues to speed up until the climax at the end of the scene were we are left to wonder whether the crew and the royal party had survived or not. The immediate tone is one of urgency as the scene starts off with an imperative-Boatswain!. More commands follow as the urgency increases. However soon afterwards comes the first power struggle of the play as we see the clash between Alonso and the Boatswain. This heats up the intensity of the storm as the Boatswain, first tries to politely tell the king to keep below the deck, then loses his patience and almost commands the king to return to his cabin. You can see how exasperated the Boatswain becomes though the three responses he gives.