1) Examine again the eye gouging scene in Act 3. What does this scene contribute to the drama of the play and is it necessary? What is created aesthetically? Consider also the escalation and momentum of the scene. How inevitable is the violence in terms of the play overall? What is the scene suggesting about human beings and their capacity for abject cruelty? Is evil necessarily linked to darkness in the play?
2) Consider the extract from Stanley Cavell’s essay on Lear. How far would you agree that the theme of blindness is as much concerned with not being ‘seen’ as with ignorance itself? Why should characters fear recognition for their acts? Are they recognising/faling to recognise themeslves?
3) What does the intervention of the servant provide for the audience in terms of moral balance and power? What view ofthe world and its words woul be left without this intervention? Is is easy to differentiate betwen Regan and Cornwall? What might this suggest about the individuality of evil? Think too about Edmund’s acknowledgement as he is dying that: ‘ Yet Edmund was beloved.’ Is he surprised? Ironically he is one of few characters to talk about love.
4) How far does Lear’s ‘never,never,never,never,never’ communicate the inexpressibility of grief without end? Why? Think about the tone of this utterance.
5) Does Edgar’s final speech recall Lear’s conjunction in Act 4, Sc 6 for another way of knowing the world or of living our experience? ‘ Look with thine ears.’ Why is such an new ordering of experience necessary?