William Shakespeare | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 24 pages of analysis & critique of William Shakespeare.
This section contains 6,708 words
(approx. 23 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Gillian Murray Kendall

SOURCE: Kendall, Gillian Murray. “Ritual and Identity: The Edgar-Edmund Combat in King Lear.” In True Rites and Maimed Rites: Ritual and Anti-Ritual in Shakespeare and His Age, edited by Linda Woodbridge and Edward Berry, pp. 240-55. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

In the following essay, Kendall argues that the elaborate ceremony surrounding the trial by combat between Edgar and Edmund in Act V, scene iii of King Lear betrays the hollowness of the ritual and highlights the ineffectuality of all human constructs designed to establish legitimacy or affirm a natural order.

GON.
An enterlude! 

Broken rituals complicate the action of many of Shakespeare's plays: Ophelia's already “maimed rites” are further marred by an impromptu performance on the part of Hamlet; in Much Ado About Nothing, Claudio turns on Hero and puts an end to the marriage ceremony; in the scene of ritual combat in Richard II, King Richard...

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This section contains 6,708 words
(approx. 23 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Gillian Murray Kendall
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Critical Essay by Gillian Murray Kendall from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.