Act 1, Scene 2 Summary

This scene takes place in the Ptydepe classroom. Lear instructs four clerks on the origins of Ptydepe, explaining in great detail how it was developed to reduce individuality and the potential for misunderstanding in inter-office communications. As Gross passes through the classroom, memorandum in hand, Lear talks at length about how Ptydepe might seem complicated at first, but he says that with deep and unshakeable faith, it can be learned. A clerk named Thumb asks what Lear clearly sees as smart questions, and at the end of the scene, he is given an "A."

Act 1, Scene 2 Analysis

This relatively brief scene again illustrates the foolishness of Ptydepe in general and the introduction of similar regulations. The scene shows how bureaucrats create plausible, if complicated, explanations to justify things that seem clearly to be foolish, pointless, self-indulgent or just plain wrong. In...