Comments on: Shakespeare’s Undirected Letters: Critical Confusion in King Lear http://blog.oup.com/2008/12/shakespeares_letters/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Fri, 17 May 2013 12:26:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Bruce Oksol http://blog.oup.com/2008/12/shakespeares_letters/#comment-148587 Bruce Oksol Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:08:48 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=2525#comment-148587 I think some folks have too much time on their hands! This is what theatre and film is all about: to suspend belief, either for enjoyment or for a greater message. Look at all the action-drama movies today, and there is no way the hero could do the things the director has him/her do. We go go the movies to suspend belief. But, it must be believable. "Shakespeare" did that very, very well. I think some folks have too much time on their hands! This is what theatre and film is all about: to suspend belief, either for enjoyment or for a greater message. Look at all the action-drama movies today, and there is no way the hero could do the things the director has him/her do. We go go the movies to suspend belief. But, it must be believable. “Shakespeare” did that very, very well.

]]> By: The Shakespeare Blog » Blog Archive » Lear’s Letters http://blog.oup.com/2008/12/shakespeares_letters/#comment-148506 The Shakespeare Blog » Blog Archive » Lear’s Letters Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:44:48 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=2525#comment-148506 [...] Lear may be one of the most letter-heavy in the Shakespearean canon. A recent article highlighted a segment of Bard-related scholarship that has sought to make sense of these letters. As it turns out, these apparently simple devices [...] [...] Lear may be one of the most letter-heavy in the Shakespearean canon. A recent article highlighted a segment of Bard-related scholarship that has sought to make sense of these letters. As it turns out, these apparently simple devices [...]

]]> By: David Basch http://blog.oup.com/2008/12/shakespeares_letters/#comment-148443 David Basch Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:09:07 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=2525#comment-148443 Shakespeare replicates verisimilitude, not reality. It is sufficient that the action is plausible to the audience. The audience would be so involved in the action that they would scarce notice such discrepancies, which, in any case, are not important to the message of the play. It is that message which is crucial to the playwright. The play is the story of a flawed king that grows to a moral ripeness through his suffering. It is then that he becomes a Jobbian figure who, though a good man, suffers -- the same fate visited on other good people in the play, though there are some characters -- Edgar, Kent -- who are restored as Job was. Shakespeare replicates verisimilitude, not reality. It is sufficient that the action is plausible to the audience. The audience would be so involved in the action that they would scarce
notice such discrepancies, which, in any case, are not important to the message of the play. It is that message which is crucial to the playwright.

The play is the story of a flawed king that grows to a moral ripeness through his suffering. It is then that he becomes a Jobbian figure who, though a good man, suffers — the same fate visited on other good people in the play, though there are some characters — Edgar, Kent — who are restored as Job was.

]]>