Lear Prewriting

By: Unknown on 9:42 AM

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Sorry this is so late! I was out of town during the weekend. Sorry for the delay.

One thing that really blew my mind when thinking about King Lear was the hints by my classmates on the Slack feed that the play references any number of other gods that the single deity of most plays and work at this time. It got me thinking about possible connections to other "polytheistic" themes in other Shakespeare plays, and if there is a trend going on there. It was an interesting point to consider, and I think I may have found something. (Which I will reference in one of my thesis statements)

My possible thesis statements:

1) King Lear should be read as a Bildungsroman, or coming of age story, even though Lear is already and elderly man when the story opens. (Policy Claim)

2) The numerous references to a polytheistic theme in King Lear hint towards subtle religious propaganda that can be found not only in King Lear, but in various other works by Shakespeare. (Definition Claim)

3) King Lear's inability to distinguish truth from flattery is caused by a deep-rooted sense of inadequacy and a sadly misguided need for fulfillment. (Causal Claim)

4) King Lear's vision of himself is greatly skewed. Had he been more aware of how he appeared to others, and what his actual reality was, he could have made better decisions than he did, and the outcome of the play would have been drastically different. (Evaluation Claim...I'm aware this is not overly compelling as a thesis statement, but I did it more for the sake of the exercise, not because I plan to write about it.)

5) King Lear's personal plight of a skewed self-image is much like the unfortunate, real-life situations of British monarchs that came before Shakespeare's time. (Queen Mathilde, Edward II, Richard II, etc.) While the lives of these monarchs did not actually follow the downward spiral of Lear, they did have similar characteristics of disillusionment which proved detrimental to their reign.
(Comparison Claim)