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Responders appreciate texts for different reasons written by Lisa Taylor shagadelic46@hotmail.com King Lear has been interpreted and received in many ways. Different readings have evolved over time due to social and political change, making it easier for each ideology to accept and value. Different productions of the play highlight particular themes, plots, and characters and their interactions, and by doing so, influence the meaning of society’s conventions. King Lear was established as a tragic text hence it was interpreted in an Aristotelian reading. An Aristotelian reading reveals the character flaw of the protagonist, ends unhappily due to an overall progression from order to disorder and incorporates an implacable force such as destiny or fate, usually represented by the Gods through nature. King Lear has also been interpreted as an Absurdist reading. Peter Brook’s 1962 stage version accentuated the inhumanity and disinterest plaguing the then contemporaries, arising from an existentialist philosophy. The Bondi Pavilion version of King Lear was a feminist reading which focussed closely on the misogynist nature of women and how the insubordination of women has given rise to anarchy and chaos, placing men in a positive light. King Lear can therefore be appreciated throughout history due to the differing interpretations which place emphasis on certain aspects of the play. King Lear as an Aristotelian tragedy has been appreciated by responders, who witness a systematic approach that effectively delivers a disordered ending from an ordered beginning, incorporating devices to aid this process. These devices all have a place and purpose in the play to achieve maximum effect – an audience catharsis. These devices include a plot built around a catastrophe, a cast of higher social status with superior moral qualities, a tragic hero or heroine being undone by a fatal character flaw, antagonists, a character that comments morally, often prophetically, and ultimately an unhappy ending. When Lear challenges his divine right as a king by dividing his kingdom before his daughters, the whole balance of life has been shifted and this is the starting point of the tragedy. Fate has been altered and the Gods show their anger through nature, by way of storms and anarchy amongst subjects and even family members, which then develops into a cataclysm.
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