Lear, King | Robert H. West (essay date 1960)
Robert H. West (essay date 1960)
SOURCE: "Sex and Pessimism in King Lear," in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. XI, No. 1, Winter, 1960, pp. 55-60.
[In the essay that follows, West explores the complex way that the negative attitudes toward sexuality expressed in the play support a sense of awe and mystery necessary to true dramatic tragedy.]
Critics of King Lear are rather generally agreed that in some sense or other it is a pessimistic play. Johnson, Swinburne, Bradley, Spencer, Chambers, Knight, and many others notice that Shakespeare is here picturing a very dark world, which Cordelia's goodness and Lear's redemption by no means lighten entirely. Grant that some of the characters are good and that some become good, still the best die and in circumstances which suggest that the gods do indeed "kill us for their sport." The suspicion that this is so, Gloucester found in his suffering, and if he abandoned it later, that is no...
[The entire page is 3395 words long]
Navigate
