Zunder, "Shakespeare and the End of Feudalism..." -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"Howl, howl, howl! O! you are men of stones:
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever.
I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone.
Why, then she lives."
"...Lear still alive, but Cordelia definitely dead - as a represetnation of the end of the world."
This was an interesting connection that the story made. When thinking about good and bad within the story and how it ends, Cordelia is the good in all. It is also intersting how the text states that, "...the end of history will actually usher in a new age of unprecedented inhumanity." It seems as though once Cordelia dies then the good is gone and then Lear dies. For Cordelia is good throughout the story and once she dies then it seems as though it is the end of the world. Lear shortly dies after Cordelia and it seems as though Lear cannot live without Cordelia because there is no sense of being.
I couldn't agree more with you Derek. I definitely think that Cordelia is a representation of all that is good and when she dies, Lear finds no more reason of being alive without the good in his life.
I agree. I also thought this was an interesting connection. I never would have thought to connect this play as an allegory to the end of the world, but it makes sense.
With the end of the world thing, it's easy to view Cordelia as a symbol of the future. Looking at it like that, it suddenly struck me that all the young "new" generation had died. I suppose, though, the first thing to go at the end of the world is the future.