Draft Essay
- Our reading experience is heightened when we care about the fate of the protagonist.
Intro
In William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” our reading experience is heightened as we are invested in the fate and well-being of the protagonist, King Lear. As the play progresses so does the deterioration of Lear’s mental health as he is quickly betrayed by the ones he holds dearest. As readers standing by and watching his journey unfold, our natural human instinct kicks in and causes us to become emotionally attached and connected to Lear’s impending downfall. Feeling rage, empathy and reaching a state of catharsis all by the dreaded final act 5 intensifies our reading experience dramatically.
Body 1: Act 1, harmatia (heightened as we dislike/are angry with Lear for acting out at daughters/being a prick) ‘blind’ rage stage of tragic hero
From the beginning, William Shakespeare forces our reading experience of the tragedy “King Lear” to become heightened. In the first scene of act one, the protagonist Lear divides his kingdom to his eldest daughters Regan and Goneril after they dramatically bid to ‘out-flatter’ each other and banished his youngest Cordelia for refusing to profess her love. This act of cruelty ignites the readers dislike and anger towards Lear. We immediately take pity on Cordelia as we are viewing the play at a birds-eye view and are able to see everything that is said and done that other characters can not. This something something frustration blah blah
- direct statement
- two quotes
Body 2: Empathy poor old man in the storm 🙁
Body 3: More expansion on Empathy/Catharsis (compare readers life with the unfortunate life of lear) heightened sense of catharsis?
Hi Samie,
Well done on having a go at putting this together. It looks like you have picked up the concepts of the text well.
A couple of things to think about:
– In your introduction, make sure that you address all parts of the question. You haven’t mentioned ‘heightened reading experience” and you would need to decide what that means before you communicate your idea to your reader.
– Avoid relying on the plot to convey your ideas- use the evidence in the text.
– Don’t neglect the author’s intentions. You have set up this idea that we are made to feel sorry for Lear. Why? What do you think Shakespeare is trying to do by making us feel this way?
If you put this together into a formal essay, let me know and I will look over it for you.
Mrs. P