Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Royalty: divine, or prepping for their next season now?
I have really enjoyed King Lear thus far. I feel like one thing that stood out to me in this play is the way that the idea of Royalty is approached. In Richard II, it certainly seemed like a divinely given right, and Richard and his subjects made constant reference to the God-given right that Richard had to be king. Though there are similar elements involved in King Lear, I felt like the overall tone of royalty is much different. King Lear feels much more like any common squabble that takes place when a family member gets older. I felt that the divinity was absent, and it was replaced by the, "Who get's grandma's bedside table? I took better care of her! I should get it!" type of a conversation. There is a bastard (Edmund), someone gets kicked out (Kent), and a daughter gets scorned (Cordelia).
Though all the interactions take place in the court, it feels much less holy than Richard II felt. I wonder if this is because King Lear just passed on his haughtiness and faithlessness to his two evil daughters, or if Shakespeare was just trying to give another perspective of the royal court--it isn't about God's will... it's whoever is producing the reality TV series. It helps that it is driven by King Lear, who I can't decide if I dislike him, feel sorry for him, or mainly just think he's a bit of a fool himself. I would enjoy discussing the portrayal of the theme of "royalty" and "the court" in class because it did not feel opulent or holy, it felt like a sitcom. There are certainly those who still treat the king like the king, or who stick up for him, but on the whole it feels that everyone is prepared to turn on the old man without a second thought.
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I am completely on board! I mentioned in my get-to-know-me post that I starting loving Shakespeare when I realized he wrote complete soap operas. These highly dramatized versions of reality, to me, serve the same purpose as genre entertainment: rather than bending a setting to suit a discussion of human elements, the setting completely changes so that humanity can be explored almost in a vacuum. Heightened story telling allows room to exaggerate and heighten characters and the discussion of them.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny to make the comparison, especially when you think about how many people talk about the work of Shakespeare like it is the greatest thing that ever happened to literature. Those same people also shame and mock reality TV shows. It is funny to think that both have similar themes, and though there are obvious differences, there are also many obvious similarities.
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ReplyDeleteThat's a cool comparison! I think one reason it has that reality TV feel is because most of the characters are doing their best to manipulate each other while still playing the role that society expects of them. Nobody's terribly worried about respect or dignity, like reality TV shows that are just trying to create the most spectacle to draw audiences in.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really cool that Shakespeare understood the same principles. He knew that people naturally want to hear gossip and see intrigue, and I'm sure that is one of the things that drew people to his work when he was still alive. His work has so many layers, there are things for the least intellectual person to enjoy, and things that scholars can write about for years.
DeleteWell said, Jessica! I think you just nailed the fascination of reality TV.
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