King Lear - "Beautiful Quote"

“I am made of that self mettle as my sister/ And prize me at her worth. In my true heart/ I find she names my very deed of love;/ Only she comes too short, that I profess/ Myself an enemy to all other joys/ Which the most precious square of sense…/ And find I am alone felicitate/ In your dear Highness’ love” (1.1.77-84).

I love this quote because the language is so flowery that if it were a tangible thing, it’d be incredibly, well, gaudy. Regan’s flatteries to me comes across as ugly despite how prettily she says them which makes me appreciate how Shakespeare can portray a character’s true heart no matter what they’re saying.

King Lear - "Beautiful Quote"

 “But where the greater malady is fixed,/ The lesser is scarce felt. Thou’dst shun a bear,/ But if <thy> flight lay toward the roaring sea,/ Tou’dst meet the bear I’ th’ mouth” (3.4.10-13).

This quote is beautiful to me because the message is a tidbit of wisdom. Lear is saying that one will suffer one thing so as not to feel another, greater pain. Shakespeare’s example (through Lear) of facing a bear verses a roaring sea is also an example of his great skill with well worded analogies.

King Lear - Discussion Question 3

Throughout the text, how do characters’ views of nature guide them and what does this say about nature as a whole?

King Lear - Discussion Question 2

Only when mad is Lear able to finally see Regan and Goneril for what they really are. Analyze how and why it is that when different characters experience such tragedies that they are finally able to see the truth.

King Lear - Discussion Question

What is Shakespeare's commentary on what role family has in causing madness? Does it change or progress throughout the book? If so, how?

King Lear - Passage for Analysis

Act 2 Scene 4 (215 - 328)
KING LEAR
    Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope
    Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,
                                                                                                  Enter GONERIL
    If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
    Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
    Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
                                                                                                  To GONERIL
    Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
    O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?

GONERIL
    Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
    All's not offence that indiscretion finds
    And dotage terms so.

KING LEAR
    O sides, you are too tough;
    Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?

CORNWALL
    I set him there, sir: but his own disorders
    Deserved much less advancement.

KING LEAR
    You! did you?

REGAN
    I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
    If, till the expiration of your month,
    You will return and sojourn with my sister,
    Dismissing half your train, come then to me:
    I am now from home, and out of that provision
    Which shall be needful for your entertainment.

KING LEAR
    Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
    No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
    To wage against the enmity o' the air;
    To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--
    Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?
    Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
    Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
    To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg
    To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
    Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
    To this detested groom.
                                                                                         Pointing at OSWALD

GONERIL
    At your choice, sir.

KING LEAR
    I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
    I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
    We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
    But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
    Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
    Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
    A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
    In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
    Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
    I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
    Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
    Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
    I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
    I and my hundred knights.

REGAN
    Not altogether so:
    I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
    For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
    For those that mingle reason with your passion
    Must be content to think you old, and so--
    But she knows what she does.

KING LEAR
    Is this well spoken?

REGAN
    I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?
    Is it not well? What should you need of more?
    Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
    Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
    Should many people, under two commands,
    Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

GONERIL
    Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
    From those that she calls servants or from mine?

REGAN
    Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,
    We could control them. If you will come to me,--
    For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you
    To bring but five and twenty: to no more
    Will I give place or notice.

KING LEAR
    I gave you all--

REGAN
    And in good time you gave it.

KING LEAR
    Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
    But kept a reservation to be follow'd
    With such a number. What, must I come to you
    With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?

REGAN
    And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.

KING LEAR
    Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
    When others are more wicked: not being the worst
    Stands in some rank of praise.
                                                                                              To GONERIL
    I'll go with thee:
    Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
    And thou art twice her love.

GONERIL
    Hear me, my lord;
    What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
    To follow in a house where twice so many
    Have a command to tend you?

REGAN
    What need one?

KING LEAR
    O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
    Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
    Allow not nature more than nature needs,
    Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
    If only to go warm were gorgeous,
    Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
    Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
    You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
    You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
    As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
    If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
    Against their father, fool me not so much
    To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
    And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
    Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
    I will have such revenges on you both,
    That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
    What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
    The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
    No, I'll not weep:
    I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
    Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
    Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad! 


I think this passage is really important because it kind of shows how Regan and Goneril are manipulative and greedy. Neither one thinks about their father in an endearing way, and in fact find him to be a large burden. I know that this passage was long, but I thought it was really important to the progression of the plot, and Lear's madness. It also includes many allusions to nature and what it means throughout the play.

King Lear - "Beautiful Quote"

Act 3 Scene 7 (69- 80)

GLOUCESTER:
Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head   
In hell-black night endured, would have buoyed up,
And quenched the stelled fires.
Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howled that stern time,
Thou shouldst have said “Good porter, turn the key,   
All cruels else subscribe.” But I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.

This quote is really cool because of the cacophony. Gloucester really stands his ground here and the quote is so beautifully constructed with vivid imagery.

King Lear - "Beautiful Quote"

Act 5 Scene 3 (9 - 20)

Lear: No, no, no, no. Come, let's away to prison.
         We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage.
         When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down
         And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
         And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
         At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
         Talk of court news, and we'll talk with them too--
         Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out--
         And take upon 's the mystery of things,
         As if we were God's spies. And we'll wear out,
         In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones
         That ebb and flow by th' moon.

I felt like that quote from King Lear after he is reunited with Cordelia and they are sent to jail is really interesting. He seems so happy and free by what he says which is ironic because he is going to jail. I also think that this quote brings in a lot of nature which is an important aspect to Shakespeare's style. I think that there is a ton to discuss about this quote in terms of how Lear has changed and whether or not he is still mad.

If—

 

By  Rudyard Kipling

 

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

HT: Language

Beautiful Symbolism Quote

“He was touched in the cavity where his heart should have been – in that nest of addled eggs, where the birds of Heaven would have lived if they had not been whistled away – by the fervour of this reproach,” (Dickens 225-6).

I thought that this quote was really meaningful because of the symbolism that it presents. The fact that the heart is being symbolized by the "birds of Heaven" is really cool because it makes the heart sound like a gorgeous place "to live". I think thats really important since the whole book is about living through both your heart and your mind.

HT: Language

Interesting Voice:

“Dear reader! It rests with you and me, whether, in our two fields of action, similar things shall be or not. Let them be! We shall sit with lighter bosoms on the hearth, to see the ashes of our fires turn grey and cold,” (Dickens 288).

I believe that this quote is really awesome because the narrator ends the book by directly referring to the reader. It also kind of sums up the message of the whole book by comparing the light and fire to grey and cold. Everything in this last quote brings together a lot of the metaphors that have been consistently represented throughout the book, and I think that is really cool.

HT: Language

Quote With An Awesome Characterization of Louisa

“Upon a nature long accustomed to self-suppression, thus torn and divided, the Harthouse philosophy came as a relief and justification. Everything being hollow and worthless, she had missed nothing and sacrificed nothing. What did it matter, she had said to her father, when he proposed her husband. What did it matter, she said still. With a scornful self-reliance, she asked herself, What did anything matter - and went on,” (Dickens 163)

I thought this quote really represented Louisa's attitude as she grew up in the Gradgrind household. After the circus incident she seemed to take on this attitude of "what did it matter" anymore. It also shows that because nothing matters in life, she hasn't really done anything of importance with her life. I think that the words that describe Louisa in this quote - "self-suppression", "torn", "divided", "hollow", "worthless", and "sacrifice" - really capture the inability for the Gradgrindian system to provide happiness.

HT: Language

“A blur of soot and smoke, now confusedly tending this way, now that way, now aspiring to the vault of Heaven, now murkily creeping along the earth, as the wind rose and fell, or changed its quarter: a dense formless jumble, with sheets of light in it, that showed nothing but masses of darkness: - Coketown in the distance was suggestive of itself, though not a brick of it could be seen,” (Dickens 111)

HT: Language

“It seemed as if, first in her own fire within the house, and then in the fiery haze without, she tried to discover what kind of woof Old Time, that greatest and longest established Spinner of all, would weave from the threads he had already spun into a woman,” (Dickens 95).

HT: Perspectives

Hard Times Connection to Aladdin

I think the movie Aladdin can be connected to Hard Times for a few reasons. First of all, we see socioeconomic divisions between Aladdin and Jasmine. However, in the movie, the two end up falling in love and we see a cross between people of different class. This is different than Hard Times because everyone stays within their own class, with the exception of Sissy because she gets to be "a part" of the Gradgrind family.

Also, there are character similarities between Bounderby and Jafar. They are both in a position of power and influence, Bounderby as a banker and owner of the factory and Jafar as the sultan's second hand. Both characters are very conceited and self-centered and they both end up in a game of lies. Bounderby lies about his status as a "self-made man" and Jafar by trying to manipulate the sultan.

HT: Perspectives

Connection of Hard Times to Demons

The song Demons, by Imagine Dragons can be connected to a few characters in Hard Times. The song is about how the narrator has a past that haunts him thus, the "demons". He wants to protect those around him from his past life - "I want to shelter you" - but he also wants  to be able to move on and he is asking for help - "I can't escape this now, unless you show me how".

This message can definitely be applied to Sissy at the beginning of the book because her mind set is against everyone else's, and she tries so hard to get rid of her past ways and join the Gradgrindian society.

Also, this song can be applied to Louisa because she just sits and observes time and is obedient to everyone as she watches the sparks turn to ashes in her fireplace. Her "demons" are the fact that she oppresses herself from being heard, and she really needs Sissy to help her change from the Gradgrindian society after she breaks down in front of her father.

The last character I think this song can be applied to is Tom because his "demons" are his gambling, drinking, and horrible morals. He needs Louisa's love to get rid of these "demons" which he realizes at the end when he dies trying to get home to her.

HT: Discussion Question

What is the personality and beliefs of the narrator based on his style of speaking and descriptions?

HT: Discussion Question

How does the narrator’s views contrast with those of the inhabitants of Coketown? (In what way does the narrator either favor the plight of the “Hands,” or agree with the fact-based, monotony of the governor Gradgrind, Bounderby, and the upper class characters like Louisa and Harthouse?)

HT: Discussion Question

The narration has many of the same techniques throughout the book (lists, repetition, etc...). What are some of the techniques he uses and how do they add to the story? Why are they so important to the narration? AND what do they say about the narrator and the characters?

HT: Discussion Question

The narrator in a book often has a bias that adds to the the text. What attitude does the narrator take towards the different characters, and Coketown itself (sympathize, mock, etc…)?