King Lear Essay | Critical Essay #3

King Lear Critical Essay #3

With regard to the style of King Lear, Nicholas Brooke has remarked on different rhythms in the dramatic verse. Sometimes these rhythms are broken up and sometimes they are sustained, he notes, but they are always directly related to the alternating crescendos and modulations in the play's dramatic action. Emily W. Leider has called attention to the alternating pattern of plain speech and flattery in King Lear, focusing on the connections between words and action in such characters as Lear, Kent, and Cordelia. George W. Williams examines the correlation between the external storm on the heath and the storm raging within Lear's mind.

The metaphor of the storm is at the heart of King Lear, Williams argues: the warring elements reflect divisions in the family as well as in the kingdom, and the storm represents the process of purgation that Lear must endure. When the king invokes the full...
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