CRITICISM

Adelman, Janet. “Suffocating Mothers in King Lear.” In Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare's Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest, pp. 103-29. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Illustrates the theme of maternal sexuality and its resulting conflict in King Lear.

Battenhouse, Roy, ed. Shakespeare's Christian Dimension: An Anthology of Commentary, pp. 462-69. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Reprints two essays on the religious aspects of King Lear.

Cox, Catherine S. “‘An excellent thing in woman’: Virgo and Viragos in King Lear.” Modern Philology (November 1998): 143-57.

Contends that Shakespeare's representation of females reflected both the Christian and secular assumptions of his time.

Gardner, Helen. “King Lear (1967).” In King Lear: Critical Essays, edited by Kenneth Muir, pp. 251-74. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1984.

Outlines the distinctive characteristics of King Lear in relation to Shakespeare's other works.

Hawkes, Terence. “Reason and Madness: Male and Female.” In William Shakespeare: King Lear, pp. 32-40. Plymouth, United Kingdom: Northcote House Publishers, 1995.

Compares rationality and insanity with gender, stressing that concepts of gender play an essential role in King Lear.

Holahan, Michael. “‘Look, her lips’: Softness of Voice, Construction of Character in King Lear.” Shakespeare Quarterly 48, No. 4 (Winter 1997): 406-31.

Evaluates the construction and evolution of character, particularly Cordelia's.

Kallendorf, Craig. “King Lear and the Figures of Speech.” In Landmark Essays on Rhetoric and Literature, edited by Craig Kallendorf, pp. 101-16. Mahwah, N.J.: Hermagoras Press, 1999.

Maintains that Shakespeare's formal and conscious use of rhetoric in King Lear has not been studied adequately.

Margolies, David. “King Lear.” In Monsters of the Deep: Social Dissolution in Shakespeare’s Tragedies, pp. 14-42. New York: Manchester University Press, 1992.

Examines Shakespeare’s depiction of society in King Lear and its significance to the play’s central thesis.

Martin, William F. “Irony in King Lear.” In The Indissoluble Knot: King Lear as Ironic Drama, pp. 55-68. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1987.

Argues that irony plays a persistent and paramount role in King Lear.

Rudnytsky, Peter L. “‘The Darke and Vicious Place’: The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear.” Modern Philology 96, No. 3 (February 1999): 291-311.

Reconsiders King Lear from a feminist perspective.

Thompson, Ann. “Part One: Survey.” In King Lear, pp. 11-58. London: Macmillan, 1988.

Surveys sources of King Lear as well as twentieth-century criticism of the play.

Weiss, Theodore. “As the Wind Sits: The Poetics of King Lear.” In On King Lear, edited by Lawrence Danson, pp. 61-90. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Theorizes on the extravagant nature of King Lear.