SOURCE: “‘Mont Blanc’ and Prometheus Unbound: Shelley's Use of the Rhetoric of Silence,” in Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. XXXVIII, 1989, pp. 103-26.

In the following essay, Pierce studies the workings of silence, signification, and absence in “Mont Blanc” and Prometheus Unbound.

“Nothing.” The pivotal moment in King Lear which initiates its tragic action begins from this word. In this “Nothing” the stark contrast of two views of the unspoken word meet. Lear asks his favorite daughter, Cordelia, to express her love for him that she may draw a third of his kingdom “more opulent than your sisters” (1.i.86).¹ Her reply, “Nothing,” and its ensuing silence evoke Lear's rage, since he believes that “Nothing will come of nothing” (1.i.90). Yet in an aside she states “my love's / More opulent than my tongue” (1.i.77-78), and argues that she cannot, like her sisters, “heave / My heart into my mouth” (1.i.91-92) and...