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On the Influence of Power in King Lear

On the Influence of Power in King Lear. By: Jennifer, Anyta , Robert, Manjot , Mayuri. “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” - John Keats, 1818.

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On the Influence of Power in King Lear

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  1. On the Influence of Power in King Lear By: Jennifer, Anyta, Robert, Manjot, Mayuri

  2. “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” - John Keats, 1818 O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!    Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away!    Leave melodizing on this wintry day,Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute: Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute,    Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay    Must I burn through; once more humbly assayThe bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,    Begetters of our deep eternal theme,When through the old oak forest I am gone,    Let me not wander in a barren dream, But when I am consumed in the fire,Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.

  3. John Keats • October 31, 1795 - February 23, 1821 • lived for only 25.5 years. • Was regarded as one of the 5 most important second-generation romantic poets • These were: • Lord Byron • Percy Bysshe Shelley • William Wordsworth • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  4. Early Life • Born in Moorgate, London, England on October 31, 1795 • Unable to afford Eton or Harrow, he was sent in 1803 to John Clarke's school in Enfield • The school had a liberal and progressive curriculum, which probably affected his way of thinking

  5. Career • Had money problems, and his mother’s inheritance was not given to him • She died of tuberculosis • Worked as an assistant surgeon in Guy’s Hospital • During his spare time, he tried to master the art of poetry • Keats actually wanted to be a poet, not a surgeon • He fell into financial crisis • After getting an apothecary’s license, he resolved to be a full-time poet

  6. Career Cont’d • Had his works published many times in magazines • The Examiner, Poems, etc. • Met Leigh Hunt, who went on to become his biggest benefactor • Called Keats’s style “a new school of poetry” • He was both attacked and praised by his contemporaries

  7. Career Cont’d • He went on to become slightly more influential, joining Hunt’s circle of poets • His brother, Tom, died of TB in 1818, when he wrote the Lear poem • He moved several times, and was involved with 2 women, Isabella Jones and Fanny Brawne. The latter of whom he wrote a love sonnet for

  8. Death • Symptoms of tuberculosis began in 1820 • Lung hemorrhaging, vomiting blood • His doctors recommended he move to Rome, which has a warmer climate. • He got worse day by day and in February of 1821 he died.

  9. Keats’s Grave • Written on it is: • “Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water”

  10. The Point • “The pursuit of power is multifaceted. Keats’s verse, his personal allegory, and his references to King Lear’s experiences all illustrate the effects of man’s thirst for power.” • Illusion vs. reality • The power of wisdom • “Give me Phoenix wings” – psychological rebirth • Immortality through legacy

  11. Poem Illusion Vs. Reality • Flattery sounds sweet to the ear • Keats is referring to Goneril and Regan's false proclamations of love towards Lear • Goneril and Regan are like siren • Siren are mythological beasts that enchant sailors with their songs and try to crash their ships • Do not detract from todays problems • Glossing over the facts does not help • An ego maniac rarely wishes to hear advice • Lear foolishly banishes Kent • “O golden tongued Romance with serene lute! • Fair plumed siren! Queen of far away! • Leave melodizing on this wintry day, • Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:”

  12. Quotes • “To your professed bosoms I commit him. But yet, alas, I would prefer him to a better place” (I. i. 274-275) • “Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.” (I. i. 295-296) • “which we durst never yet, and with strained pride/ To come betwixt our sentence and our power/… turn thy hated back/upon our kingdom” (I. i. 171-177)

  13. Poem Illusion Vs. Reality • Is referring to the dispute between good and evil • In the play the evil people are winning as Lear was fooled by Regan and Goneril • Keats is trying become consumed with this tragedy to distract himself from his own mortality • Lear goes mad as he cannot grasp what has happened to his fictional world • Adieu! For once again the fierce dispute • Betwixt damnation and impassioned clay • Must I burn through; once more humbly assay • The bitter sweet of this Shakespearean fruit

  14. Power • When one has a warped sense of reality others will take advantage of this to gain power • Goneril and Regan’s clear grasp on reality allowed them to acquire their father's power • If one has a warped sense of reality it is hard to keep a firm hold on one’s power and allies • Lear loses his power over his kingdom, power over his daughters, and power over his own mind • Lear banishes Kent and Cordelia as he is living in an illusion

  15. Power • When there are changes in power, people change

  16. Wisdom “Shut up thine olden pages and be mute” Fool: “He that keeps nor crust nor crumb, / Weary of all, shall want some.” (I.iv.203)

  17. Wisdom “Shut up thine olden pages and be mute” “To sum up, the Fool can be regarded as the consciousness of a split society. Like man, its creator, the society is a twin-headed monster at strife with itself.” (Danby)

  18. Wisdom “Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.” Lear: Poor naked wretches, where soe’er you are,That bide the pelting of this pitiful stormHow shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,Your looped and windowed ragedness defend you From season such as these? O, I have ta’enToo little care of this. (III.iv.32)

  19. Wisdom “Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.” Keats’s View: “‘Must’ gives his reading a seriousness, purpose and necessity; the image of burning through suggests both how thoroughly and how passionately he will read the text; and ‘humbly assay’ suggests an exploration for the purposes of learning.” (Paterson)

  20. Wisdom “When through the old oak forest I am gone,Let me not wander in a barren dream,” Lear: You do me wrong to take me out o’ th’ graveThou art a soul in bliss, but I am boundUpon a wheel of fire, that mine own tearsDo scald like molten lead. (IV.vii.51)

  21. Wisdom “When through the old oak forest I am gone,Let me not wander in a barren dream,” Lear: Thou’lt come no more,Never, never, never, never, never,Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,Look there, look there! (V.iii.371)

  22. Rebirth To be born again

  23. Rebirth: Baptism • Lear

  24. LEAR Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!/ You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout/ Till you have drenched our steeples (III.ii.1-3)

  25. LEAR Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee? He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes. (V.iii.21-24)

  26. Rebirth: Trauma • Gloucester

  27. GLOUCESTER All dark and comfortless. Where’s my son Edmund? Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature To quit this horrid act. REGAN Out, treacherous villain! Thou call’st on him that hates thee. It was he That made the overture of thy treasons to us, Who is too good to pity thee GLOUCESTER O my follies! Then Edgar was abused. Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him! (III.vii.89-98)

  28. Rebirth: Identity Change • Kent • Edgar

  29. KENT If but as well I other accents borrow, That can my speech diffuse, my good intent May carry through itself to that full issue For which I razed my likeness. (I.iv.1-4)

  30. EDGAR Whiles I may ’scape, I will preserve myself, and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape That ever penury in contempt of man Brought near to beast…. Edgar I nothing am. (II.iii.5-9, 21)

  31. Rebirth: Revelations • Edmund

  32. EDMUND I pant for life. Some good I mean to do Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send— Be brief in it—to th' castle, for my writ Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia. Nay, send in time! (V.iii.257-260)

  33. But, when I am consumed in the fire / Give me new phoenix wings to fly at my desire. (13-14)

  34. Legacy is Power • What you leave behind -physically -memoriesOnly impact on world after death, only source of powerKeats and King Lear concerned with legacyThwarted efforts (lack of power) are depressive

  35. Keats and King Lear are concerned with their legacies

  36. John Keats Chief Poet! And ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream Chief Poet! And ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream Chief Poet! And ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream Chief Poet! And ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream

  37. King Lear Into her [Goneril] womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her. If she must teem,Create her child of spleen, that it may liveAnd be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,Turn all her mother's pains and benefitsTo laughter and contempt, that she may feelHow sharper than a serpent's tooth it isTo have a thankless child! Into her [Goneril] womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her. If she must teem,Create her child of spleen, that it may liveAnd be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,Turn all her mother's pains and benefitsTo laughter and contempt, that she may feelHow sharper than a serpent's tooth it isTo have a thankless child! Into her [Goneril] womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her. If she must teem,Create her child of spleen, that it may liveAnd be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,Turn all her mother's pains and benefitsTo laughter and contempt, that she may feelHow sharper than a serpent's tooth it isTo have a thankless child! Into her [Goneril] womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her. If she must teem,Create her child of spleen, that it may liveAnd be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,Turn all her mother's pains and benefitsTo laughter and contempt, that she may feelHow sharper than a serpent's tooth it isTo have a thankless child! (I.iv.281)

  38. Keats and King Lear’s fruitless attempts to define their legacy cause depression

  39. John Keats They stayed in rooms on the Piazza Navona near the Spanish Steps, and enjoyed the lively sights and sounds of the people and culture, but Keats soon fell into a deep depression. (Merriman 2007)

  40. King Lear Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! ‘Twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters. Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! ‘Twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters. Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! ‘Twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters. (III.iv.65)

  41. Legacy is Power • Larger connection between Keats and legacy in King Lear Chief Poet! And ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, Chief Poet! And ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, But when I am consumed in the fire, Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire. But when I am consumed in the fire, Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.

  42. Conclusion • The effects of power include: • People going after power • Keats, Goneril/Regan • People’s reaction to losing power • Keats, Lear • People’s failure to obtain power • Keats, Lear

  43. Conclusion • These are demonstrated by: • Contrast between illusion and reality • People who do not grasp their surroundings firmly also do not grasp power firmly • Power of wisdom • Wisdom and knowledge allow people to obtain power • Psychological rebirth • New insights are gained upon personal epiphany • Immortality through legacy • When one dies, leaving their teachings or works behind is a form of immortality

  44. Bibliography Danby, John F. "The Fool and Handy-Dandy." Dean, Leonard F. Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford Univesity Press, 1967. 377-388. Paterson, Alexandra. Keats as a Reader. Masters Thesis. Wellington , 2010. Document. Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.

  45. Bibliography Ashbery, John. "John Keats : The Poetry Foundation." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-keats>. "John Keats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats>.

  46. Bibliography Merriman CD, 2007. John Keats- Biography and Works. [online]. Available at <http://www.online-literature.com/keats/>

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