Lear, King | Stanley Cavell (essay date 1966-67)
Stanley Cavell (essay date 1966-67)
SOURCE: "The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear," in Must We Mean What We Say?: A Book of Essays, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969, pp. 267-353.
[In the following excerpt, written in two parts during 1966 and 1967, Cavell explores the motivations behind Cordelia's silence and Lear's demands during the opening "'love-test. ."]
We … begin an analysis of the most controversial of the Lear problems, the nature of Lear's motivation in his opening (abdication) scene. The usual interpretations follow one of three main lines: Lear is senile; Lear is puerile; Lear is not to be understood in natural terms, for the whole scene has a fairy tale or ritualistic character which simply must be accepted as the premise from which the tragedy is derived. Arguments ensue, in each case, about whether Shakespeare is justified in what he is asking his audience to accept. My hypothesis will be that Lear's...
[The entire page is 6728 words long]
Navigate
