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andyblv's review against another edition
5.0
Intrigue, ambition and power struggles among King Lear and his daughters are the main themes of this play. It shows the tenuous grasp those in power have on their world. When tragedies strike, their worlds can crumble.
jul_ia's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
toothbrush54345's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
remjunior's review against another edition
4.0
This is probably among the most tragic of Shakespeare's plays. I really enjoyed it, especially the family dynamics and what it means to be family, but could have gone without the incessant mad jibbering. Anyway, another fantastic tragedy.
haileyldavidson's review against another edition
5.0
When you love your dad but he only loves you as a vessel to attempt to extend his life and legacy- but it is an impossible dream and he will always hate you. And you will always attempt to dehumanize yourself for his love even as your betray him.
-
Succession parallels for shits and gigs:
LEAR: Doth any here know me? This is not Lear. Doth Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings are lethargied- ha! Waking? 'Tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?
FOOL: Lear's shadow.
LEAR: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.
LOGAN: Jesus. You’re such fucking dopes. You’re not serious figures, I love you…but you are not…(sighs) serious people.
-
LEAR: What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
CORDELIA: Nothing, my lord.
LEAR: Nothing?
CORDELIA: Nothing.
LEAR: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
CORDELIA: Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty according to my bond, no more nor less.
LEAR: How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, lest you mar your fortunes.
LOGAN : What have you got in your fucking hand?
ROMAN: I don’t know, fucking- love?
ROMAN: Oh my God. Man, it’s nothing. Okay? It’s just nothing….Yeah. Hey, we are bullshit.
KENDALL: We are not bullshit.
ROMAN: We are bullshit. You are bullshit. You’re fucking bullshit, man. I’m fucking bullshit. She’s bullshit. It’s all fucking nothing man. I’m telling you this because I- I know it, okay? We’re nothing.
-
GONERIL: [to EDMUND] Then shall you go no further. It is the cowish terror of his spirit that dares not undertake.
LOGAN [to SHIV]: You run towards politics to prove that you’re your own man. Fine. But that’s not principle. You’re scared to compete. You’re marrying a man fathoms beneath you because you don’t want to risk being betrayed. You’re a fucking coward.
SHIV: You offered to go to jail, Tom! You offered because you’re servile! You’re just…you’re servile!
TOM: You are incapable of thinking about anybody other than yourself ‘cause your sense of who you are, Shiv, is that fucking thin!
SHIV: Oh yeah?
TOM: Yeah.
SHIV: You read that in a book, Tom?
TOM: You’re too fucking transparent to find in a book.
SHIV: You’re pathetic. You’re pathetic. You’re a masochist, and you can’t even take it.
-
LEAR: My wits begin to turn- Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange that can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel- poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart that's sorry yet for thee.
LOGAN [to CONNOR]: Everybody thinks that you're a joke, and you're fucking embarrassing me.
CONNOR: You know what? It’s fine.
KENDALL: Really?
Connor: Yeah. The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is you learn to live without it.
SHIV: What? Con…
CONNOR: You’re all chasing after dad, saying, “Love me, please love me. I need love. I need attention.” You’re needy love sponges. And I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me.
SHIV: Jesus Christ, Con.
CONNOR: If Willa doesn’t come back, that’s fine. Because I don’t need love. It’s like a superpower. And if she comes back and doesn’t love me, that’s okay, too ‘cause I don’t need it.
CONNOR: He never even liked me.
-
LEAR: I am a man more sinned against than sinning.
LEAR: Now, all the plagues that in pendulous air hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
KENT: He hath no daughters, sir.
LEAR: Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature to such lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot those pelican daughters.
LOGAN: Um...Everything I've done in my life, I've done for my children. I know I've made mistakes, but, um, I've always tried to do the best by them...because...they mean everything to me.
ALON: Okay, that was great.
LOGAN: Thank you.
SHIV: Well, that's nice.
CONNOR: It is nice.
SHIV: Yeah, sure. Agreed.
...
LOGAN: Look, everything I've done in my life I've done for my children, I know I've made mistakes-
SHIV: Uh- Dad, you can't just use one sentence.
LOGAN: But that's how I feel, Siobhan. I can make this shit up if you like.
SHIV: Sounds like you already are.
LOGAN: This city…(scoffs) the rats are as fat as skunks. They hardly care to run anymore. I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.
KENDALL: Because you're corrupt...and so is the world. You're kind of...evil.
-
CORDELIA: O, my dear father, restoration hang thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss repair those violent harms that my two sisters have in thy reverence made.
LEAR: Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not. If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me, for your sisters have, as I do remember, done me wrong. You have some cause; they have not.
CORDELIA: No cause, no.
SHIV: Oh. He was...Oh, God, he was so terrifying to us. He'd come out and he'd...he'd yell at us to be quiet. You know, this...this, "Silence!" ( Laughs ) What he was doing in there was so important. We couldn't conceive of...of what it was. You know, presidents, and kings, and queens, and diplomats, and prime ministers, and...world bankers. And I don't know. Yeah. He, um...He kept us outside. But he kept everyone outside. When he let you in...when the sun shone...it was warm. Yeah. It was really...It was warm in the light. But it was...hard to be his daughter. I can't not...You know, he was...It was...Oh, he...he was hard on women. You know, he couldn't...He couldn't fit a whole woman in his head. But he did okay. You did okay, Dad. Uh, we're all here and we're doing okay. We're doing okay. So, goodbye...my dear, dear world of a father.
LOGAN [to SHIV]: Remember this- this slant of light? Remember this.
LOGAN [to KENDALL]: You're my boy. You're my number one boy.
ROMAN: Hey Dad. Um. I hope you're okay. You're okay. You'll be okay, alright. You're a monster. You're a- you're a fucking trojan. You're going to win this okay? I -I don't know. You're good. You're a good dad. You're a good dad. You did a good job.
KENDALL: Dad?I love you Dad. I love you. Okay? It’s okay. I love you. It’s okay. You fucking - I don’t know. I can’t forgive you. But it’s okay. And I love you.
SHIV: Um. Hello Dad? I um, you’re gonna be okay. And -um -I don’t know if he’s dead. Is he
fucking dead?
ROMAN: I don’t know.
...
SHIV: I don’t know. Dad? Don’t go. Dad. Don’t go Daddy. I love you. Don’t go please. Not now.
I love you Daddy. You fucking, I don’t know. Oh God. Dad. There’s no excuses for - for - but I love you. I do. You fucking - I don’t know. I do love you. It’s okay Daddy, it’s okay. I love you.
-
Succession parallels for shits and gigs:
LEAR: Doth any here know me? This is not Lear. Doth Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings are lethargied- ha! Waking? 'Tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?
FOOL: Lear's shadow.
LEAR: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.
LOGAN: Jesus. You’re such fucking dopes. You’re not serious figures, I love you…but you are not…(sighs) serious people.
-
LEAR: What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
CORDELIA: Nothing, my lord.
LEAR: Nothing?
CORDELIA: Nothing.
LEAR: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
CORDELIA: Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty according to my bond, no more nor less.
LEAR: How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, lest you mar your fortunes.
LOGAN : What have you got in your fucking hand?
ROMAN: I don’t know, fucking- love?
ROMAN: Oh my God. Man, it’s nothing. Okay? It’s just nothing….Yeah. Hey, we are bullshit.
KENDALL: We are not bullshit.
ROMAN: We are bullshit. You are bullshit. You’re fucking bullshit, man. I’m fucking bullshit. She’s bullshit. It’s all fucking nothing man. I’m telling you this because I- I know it, okay? We’re nothing.
-
GONERIL: [to EDMUND] Then shall you go no further. It is the cowish terror of his spirit that dares not undertake.
LOGAN [to SHIV]: You run towards politics to prove that you’re your own man. Fine. But that’s not principle. You’re scared to compete. You’re marrying a man fathoms beneath you because you don’t want to risk being betrayed. You’re a fucking coward.
SHIV: You offered to go to jail, Tom! You offered because you’re servile! You’re just…you’re servile!
TOM: You are incapable of thinking about anybody other than yourself ‘cause your sense of who you are, Shiv, is that fucking thin!
SHIV: Oh yeah?
TOM: Yeah.
SHIV: You read that in a book, Tom?
TOM: You’re too fucking transparent to find in a book.
SHIV: You’re pathetic. You’re pathetic. You’re a masochist, and you can’t even take it.
-
LEAR: My wits begin to turn- Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange that can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel- poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart that's sorry yet for thee.
LOGAN [to CONNOR]: Everybody thinks that you're a joke, and you're fucking embarrassing me.
CONNOR: You know what? It’s fine.
KENDALL: Really?
Connor: Yeah. The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is you learn to live without it.
SHIV: What? Con…
CONNOR: You’re all chasing after dad, saying, “Love me, please love me. I need love. I need attention.” You’re needy love sponges. And I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me.
SHIV: Jesus Christ, Con.
CONNOR: If Willa doesn’t come back, that’s fine. Because I don’t need love. It’s like a superpower. And if she comes back and doesn’t love me, that’s okay, too ‘cause I don’t need it.
CONNOR: He never even liked me.
-
LEAR: I am a man more sinned against than sinning.
LEAR: Now, all the plagues that in pendulous air hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
KENT: He hath no daughters, sir.
LEAR: Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature to such lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot those pelican daughters.
LOGAN: Um...Everything I've done in my life, I've done for my children. I know I've made mistakes, but, um, I've always tried to do the best by them...because...they mean everything to me.
ALON: Okay, that was great.
LOGAN: Thank you.
SHIV: Well, that's nice.
CONNOR: It is nice.
SHIV: Yeah, sure. Agreed.
...
LOGAN: Look, everything I've done in my life I've done for my children, I know I've made mistakes-
SHIV: Uh- Dad, you can't just use one sentence.
LOGAN: But that's how I feel, Siobhan. I can make this shit up if you like.
SHIV: Sounds like you already are.
LOGAN: This city…(scoffs) the rats are as fat as skunks. They hardly care to run anymore. I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.
KENDALL: Because you're corrupt...and so is the world. You're kind of...evil.
-
CORDELIA: O, my dear father, restoration hang thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss repair those violent harms that my two sisters have in thy reverence made.
LEAR: Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not. If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me, for your sisters have, as I do remember, done me wrong. You have some cause; they have not.
CORDELIA: No cause, no.
SHIV: Oh. He was...Oh, God, he was so terrifying to us. He'd come out and he'd...he'd yell at us to be quiet. You know, this...this, "Silence!" ( Laughs ) What he was doing in there was so important. We couldn't conceive of...of what it was. You know, presidents, and kings, and queens, and diplomats, and prime ministers, and...world bankers. And I don't know. Yeah. He, um...He kept us outside. But he kept everyone outside. When he let you in...when the sun shone...it was warm. Yeah. It was really...It was warm in the light. But it was...hard to be his daughter. I can't not...You know, he was...It was...Oh, he...he was hard on women. You know, he couldn't...He couldn't fit a whole woman in his head. But he did okay. You did okay, Dad. Uh, we're all here and we're doing okay. We're doing okay. So, goodbye...my dear, dear world of a father.
LOGAN [to SHIV]: Remember this- this slant of light? Remember this.
LOGAN [to KENDALL]: You're my boy. You're my number one boy.
ROMAN: Hey Dad. Um. I hope you're okay. You're okay. You'll be okay, alright. You're a monster. You're a- you're a fucking trojan. You're going to win this okay? I -I don't know. You're good. You're a good dad. You're a good dad. You did a good job.
KENDALL: Dad?I love you Dad. I love you. Okay? It’s okay. I love you. It’s okay. You fucking - I don’t know. I can’t forgive you. But it’s okay. And I love you.
SHIV: Um. Hello Dad? I um, you’re gonna be okay. And -um -I don’t know if he’s dead. Is he
fucking dead?
ROMAN: I don’t know.
...
SHIV: I don’t know. Dad? Don’t go. Dad. Don’t go Daddy. I love you. Don’t go please. Not now.
I love you Daddy. You fucking, I don’t know. Oh God. Dad. There’s no excuses for - for - but I love you. I do. You fucking - I don’t know. I do love you. It’s okay Daddy, it’s okay. I love you.
lucysnowy's review against another edition
4.0
very interesting play - and i really enjoyed the production i watched by the rsc.
from the things i knew about the play going into it - the opening scene where cordelia refuses to make profound speeches about the love she feels for her father - i was really expecting her to have a larger part in the play. im not complaining that it was mainly regan and goneril though - they are incrediblely vicious women. the double interrogation of gloucester from regan and cornwall was great.
as usual i find fool characters very irratating so i wasn't very emotionally attached to the fool at all.
edmund is brilliant. he is so funny. perhaps im only saying this because he was played by paapa essiedu in the production i watched and im in love with that man. his hamlet is still one of the best i've seen.
very interesting. interested to see what will has to say about it in the lecture
from the things i knew about the play going into it - the opening scene where cordelia refuses to make profound speeches about the love she feels for her father - i was really expecting her to have a larger part in the play. im not complaining that it was mainly regan and goneril though - they are incrediblely vicious women. the double interrogation of gloucester from regan and cornwall was great.
as usual i find fool characters very irratating so i wasn't very emotionally attached to the fool at all.
edmund is brilliant. he is so funny. perhaps im only saying this because he was played by paapa essiedu in the production i watched and im in love with that man. his hamlet is still one of the best i've seen.
very interesting. interested to see what will has to say about it in the lecture
reader_in_the_meadow's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ftrebelo's review against another edition
4.0
Tragic, brilliant, comic at moments: a heart-breaking story of a king who tries to measure his daughters' love in flattery and learns that love speaks louder in deeds than words.
Spoiler
Though, since it's a Shakespearean tragedy, by the time he learns this basically everyone has died.lectriceye__'s review against another edition
4.0
o que eu daría por ver unha representación disto... pantasmas e delirios!!! non é a miña favorita nin de lonxe pero aínda que o texto non me dixo nada especial (excepto o bufón, o bufón é incríbel) o concepto volvéme total e completamente tola (pun intended? supoño?). chula.