The Structure of King Lear's Act 5 Scene 3

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King Lear. A tragedy written in 1608 by William Shakespeare, in which Lear, the protagonist, fails to share his lands fairly between his three daughters when he banishes his favourite daughter. Combining the themes of madness, death, sight and nature, the play ends with the tragic death of Lear’s fairest daughter, Cordelia. Her death is so overwhelming for the king Lear’s grief changes and develops during the final scene. In the final scenes, Lear goes through different stages of grief for Cordelia’s death. At first, there’s a sense of hope and expectation in the prelude, when he talks to her about being in prison, being happy and finally being together. Then he falls into the second stage of disbelief and shock when Cordelia dies, and later on in the scene, he slips into the third stage in which he is especially angry and slightly mad. His fourth and final stage of grief is his acceptance of her death, and then finally, his death. In the prelude, Lear is speaking of the life that he and Cordelia will have in prison, and how peaceful it will be when he says ‘No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison…We two alone will sing like birds i’th cage.’ Here, Shakespeare is trying to show the contrast between this scene and the other in which Cordelia has died. Shakespeare questions Lear’s state of mind here. It’s as if he’s in a hurry to spend time with Cordelia. Shakespeare usually uses negative animal imagery, but this is the most pleasant imagery using animals in the entire play, compared to ‘pelican daughters (referring to Goneril and Regan) and ‘Howl, howl, howl!’ (Act VI Scene 3, L-256) when Cordelia dies, this is what Lear shouts. This also suggests that Lear wants to be in a cage but happy and singing. King Lear asks for forgiveness when he says ‘I’ll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness’. Shakespeare uses this to show the contrast between ‘Better thou
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