The Heart of It All

Of all the major characters in King Lear Cordelia has the fewest lines (116 lines, barely edging out Cornwall and less than her two sisters).  Yet, her actions are central to the play: her refusal to flatter her father leads to her banishment, her rescue of Lear restores his sanity, her senseless death leads to Lear's own death. The history of this play is also full of questions and controversies about her character.  Is her refusal to flatter Lear an act of honesty or defiance?  Is her portrayal in the Folio significantly different from the Quarto?  Is there a connection between the Fool and Cordelia (the two never appear on stage together)?  Why did Nahum Tate's adaptation of the play, in which Cordelia survives and marries Edgar, essentially replace Shakespeare's original from 1681 to 1838? FOCUS on a speech, a scene or a controversy and explain Cordelia's importance to the play.

Much Madness Is Divinest Sense

Emily Dickinson, writing around 1862  in America (approximately 250 years after the death of Shakespeare), composed this poem that reflects some of her views about the relationship between insanity and wisdom:

Much Madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning Eye-
'Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail-
Assent- and your are sane-
Demur- you're staightway dangerous-
And handled with a Chain-

What is Dickinson saying in this poem?  How is it related to observations in King Lear, made by Lear or the Fool or others, about the connection between foolishness and wisdom, madness and insight?  Would various characters share Dickinson's view -- or disagree -- or nuance these observations?  Does the play as a whole endorse or reject the ideas in this poem?

"Fortune . . . Turn Thy Wheel"

King Lear is a play in which many of the major characters undergo suffering -- everything from exile, imprisonment, madness, filial ingratitude, madness, mutilation, despair, to extreme physical deprivation. Yet , at the same time, many of these same characters have ideas about the purpose and limits of suffering.  What are some of the those ideas?  How are they related to the idea of a cosmic moral order, that idea that the world is just if we could only discover its deeper meaning?  How is it related to the ideas about moral order expressed in other plays, such as Richard III or the Merchant of Venice? Do the events of the play endorse or undermine these ideas?  What is this play telling us about suffering?