Look up a definition of "irony" to use for your discussion and begin by explaining it. Cite your source(s).
Then, after answering the previously posted questions on King Lear, read through what everyone has said in response to the questions on nature/unnaturalness and wisdom/foolishness.
Drawing on those responses and your own reading for illustrations, discuss Shakespeare's use of irony in King Lear. You can't cover it all here, so choose one ironic element in the play to develop thoroughly in your answer.
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From Dictionary.com:
"dramatic irony
The dramatic effect achieved by leading an audience to understand an incongruity between a situation and the accompanying speeches, while the characters in the play remain unaware of the incongruity."
One instance of dramatic irony is obvious in 4.1, where the audience is aware that Edgar is pretending to be a beggar, and comes across his father, Gloucester, who is blind and cannot see that he's speaking to his son.
Shakespeare uses asides (Edgar: 4.1.51-53, "I cannot daub it further [...] And yet I must.") quite often to inform the viewers of the play about things the characters are hiding from each other. Asides abound in all of Shakespeare's work, and they usually highlight how well an actor can portray a character keeping the secret, or learning it at the proper time.
Really, Shakespeare's asides give the plot away before the viewer has a chance to figure it out for themselves, a prime example of this being in 1.2.15-18, Edmund: "Well, then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to th' legitimate." Over the course of the play, the audience could have figured out what Edmund was up to, but Shakespeare prefers to take away much of the surprise and all of the thrill of detective-work on the part of the viewer. Perhaps all plays of the time were written thus, so that the audience didn't have to think too hard; it's even possible that the plays were looked down upon if the viewers had to strain to figure things out. Another possibility could be that Shakespeare looked down upon his audience, and thought them to be a little bit slow on the uptake, and felt he had to hand the plot to them. Yet another possibility, and this one seems most likely, is that Shakespeare felt he was confiding in his audience, and telling them a secret, thereby delighting them in holding some intangible power over the unwitting characters on stage. In any case, Shakespeare uses asides and secrets to present nearly all of his plot-points to his audience.
The Wikipedia defines irony as
"a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says and what is generally understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history)."
After really thinking about the theme of sight and blindness in the play I have concluded that it is one of the most ironic aspects of the play. It is ironic because our understanding of vision is that it is our tool to seeing the world and understanding it as we see it. The irony involved is that Gloucester didn't really see his world and understand it until he lost his vision.
Sorry there I couldn't find a place to post my MacBeth question so I'm just squeezing it in right here. I noticed that there was a lot of foreshadowing in Act 1. Does the foreshadowing remain an important element throughout the rest of the play? If so where?
My question is about the character of Macbeth. I'm wondering how much influence his wife has on him. Do you think that Macbeth would have killed Duncan even if Lady Macbeth had not persuaded him to do so by reminding him of his promise and calling him a coward? Or is the desire to kill Duncan and become king to inherent in him?
My question is about the role of the witches. It is obvious that they are of major importance in the play, for they symbolize the negative and Macbeth’s pact with the evil. However, I was wondering if Macbeth would not also have decided to kill the king only by the obviously strong influence of his wife? I mean: could the play not have developed the same way if Shakespeare had just left the witches out?
The definition of irony of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (2nd ed. 1989, Volume 8)is:
"A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt."
An example for irony in "King Lear"(although it does not fit perfectly with the definition above) is to be found in 1.1. Here Cordelia says: "Why have my sisters husbands if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty."
Cordelia refers ironically to the flattery compliments which Regan and Goneril gave to her father. With this sarcastic remark she shows how exaggerated her sisters' behavior is.
Irony
Freedictionary.com/irony
a. use of words to express something different and often opposite to their literal meaning
c. a literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect
Throughout the play, Shakespeare creates numerous examples of irony. For me, one of the most striking and well-used instances involves the happenings in the life of the Earl of Glouchester. At the beginning of the play, he falls victim to the evil doings of his bastard son Edmund, eventually believing that his true son Edgar to be the villain. Simply by Edmund convincing Edgar of some sort of prediction that he read that will lead to problems arising between Edgar and Glouchester, Edmund is able to position himself between his half brother and their father. In turn, after their confrontation at sword point, Edmund even goes so far to cause Glouchester to order armed pursuit of “the villain” Edgar. In this, the Earl has become blind to the fact that Edmund is out to harm him, while Edgar is there to protect him.
Shakespeare creates the dramatic irony in the fact that after Glouchester is physically blinded that he realizes which son truly is loyal to him. As Glouchester has his eyes gouged out by Cornwall in 3.7, Regan admits that is was Edmund who turned him over as a traitor to them. “Thou call’st on him that hates thee. It was he/ That made the overture of they treasons to us/Who is too good to pity thee” (91-93). When Edgar reappears on the scene as the crazy Tom, he tricks Glouchester into thinking that he is leading him up a cliff towards his suicide, and in the process of leading him away from it, saves his life. Through all of this, Shakespeare has masterfully used irony in the fact that while he had sight, GLouchester was blind as to who is truly loyal and loving son was, yet after he was physically blinded he became able to see the horrific ways in which Edmund had deceived both Edgar and he.
From Merriam Webster: "Irony"
1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony
I think Shakespeare makes quite often use of irony in King Lear. One of those scenes is when Kent disguises himself - according to the definition of Merriam Webster this is dramatic or tragic irony, because the audience knows that Kent has disguised himself, the characters in the play do not know. In my opinion this is a very ironical scene, because Lear banishes his best man Kent, because Kent is on Cordelia's side when Lear disinherits her:"If on the tenth day following thy banished trunk be found in our dominions, the moment is thy death. Away!" (1.1.179-182). Kent decides, disguised as Casius, to stay at the court to be Lear's servant and thus to stay at his side. This is very ironical and also shows Kent's character: He has been banished by Lear and thus treated very badly, but nevertheless he wants to be there for Lear. Beneath his disguise, Kent stays the same and his intents and aims are true and from the heart. He endures the treatment as a servant, because he is so loyal to Lear but he does not reveal his true self at the beginning. Lear:"What art thou?"/ Kent:"A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king." (1.4.18-20). Kent serves and helps Lear until they are back at Lear's estate. Ironically, Lear recognizes Kent not before his death.
Taken from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org.
1. irony (FIGURATIVE SPEECH)
a means of expression which suggests a different, usually humorous or angry, meaning for the words used.
2. irony (WRONG RESULT)
a situation in which something which was intended to have a particular result has the opposite or a very different result.
As I already posted under “The Wise Man and the Fool in King Lear”, to me the appearance of the fool besides King Lear seems to be very ironic. It would match with the second of my definitions above, which says that something which should have a certain result comes out in a different way from that originally expected one.
A fool would usually be regarded as one who is not of high intelligence, who “fools around” all day, and does not utter many useful things. A king, the “chief” of the fool, should be the entertained one, who just laughs about the fool. He should be the one who stands above everyone and all the happenings in his state.
The ironic thing now in Shakespeare’s King Lear is that here this cliché is not confirmed. The fool is the one who sees what is really going on; he recognizes that it was a fatal mistake of Lear to give his kingdom to his daughters Goneril and Regan, who are bad and have cruel intentions”. Thus he, the “fool”, is not foolish – in contrast to the king, who should be superior to everyone else (1.4.189-91: “now thou art an O without/ a figure. I am better than thou art now; I am a fool,/ thou art nothing”). But instead he, Lear, is the “real fool” (1.5.43-4: “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst/ been wise.”). Lear’s behaviour reveals him to be a fool, because he banishes Cordelia and Kent, who both are loyal to him and really feel connected to him, and he gives his kingdom to his bad daughters. Thus, Shakespeare has turned around the classic roles of fool and king, which gives the whole play a very ironic touch.
According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary
(Irony is : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony.)
I would have to say that this entire play is an example of irony. from begining to end it is non stop ironic twists and turns. The biggest being that Lear basically exiles his youngest daughter Cordelia but she is the one that ends up saving him at the end. Granted they both end up dead but that is also an ironic twist in the story. I really don't think that it is possible to concentrate on just one aspect of Irony in the play considering that the entire play is built on one ironic event leading right into the next. Examples being Edgar disquised as poor tom but still helping his father, Lear's Fool being the comic relief but still speaking more wisdom than most of the other characters, or the basic plot of Lear's other two daughters proclaiming their love for him and then leaving him to go mad on his own after they are awarded the land of the kingdom. Its all Irony
I am going to just use the definitions everyone else has. I would have looked at dictionary.com. I think that it is ironic that Lear didn't think that Cordelia loved him. It's kinda funny to me that he tried so hard to get her to tell him how much she loves him, and she's the one who truly does love him. I find it ironic that Lear thougth that words could show the amount of love, when it is really actions. He wanted to be TOLD about love, not shown. If he had only thought about the past (the way Cordelia says it), he would have realized that she's the one who really loves him because she can show it rather than tell him what he wants to hear.
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