Effective Foreshadowing in King Lear :: King Lear essays

Effective Foreshadowing in King Lear The first scene of a encounter usually sets up the prefatory themes and situations that the remainder will work with. In Shakespeares play King Lear, the very first scene presents many of the plays basic themes and images. The recurrent imaging of human senses and of nothing, the distortion of familial and social ties, the gradual dissolution of Lears kingship, all make their first appearances in the first lines of Shakespeares play. Much of the imagery in King Lears first scene presages what is to come in the play. Often characters refer to senses, particularly sight, whether as a comment on the necessity of spotting consequences before acting (as Lear does not), or as yet some other of Shakespeares comments (most apparent in Hamlet) on counting. The destruction of Gloucesters look and his subsequent musings (I stumbled when I aphorism (IV.i.19) etc.) are a more graphical presentation of this basic theme which originally appears in Lear s first scene. Goneril declares Lear is dearer than eyesight (I.i.56) to her (though she is the one who later suggests putting Gloucesters eyes out for his treachery). Regan goes further, proclaiming I profess / Myself an enemy to all other joys / Which the most precious square of sense possesses (I.i. 72-74). Crossed in his wrath by Kent, Lear cries Out of my sight (I.i.157), only to be reproved with Kents See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye. (I.i.158-9). Lears dialogue with Cordelia on nothing introduces yet another theme in the plays imagery, echoing, among other scenes, some of his later conversations with the Fool (I.iv.130 Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?) and others. Indeed, King Lear is, in many ways, about nothing. Regan and Goneril seem to offer much in the beginning, but after whittling down the number of Lears knights, they leave him with nothing, and in the end their natural affection comes to nothing as well. Lear is increas ingly brought to nothing, stripped of everything -- kingdom, knights, dignity, sanity, clothes, his last loving daughter, and finally life itself. One of the main signals of the growing chaos of Lears world is the distortion of familial and social ties. King Lear exiles his favorite daughter, Cordelia, for a trifling offense, and those daughters he does favor soon turn against him.