ENGL 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Goneril, Hyperbole, Dramatic Structure
17 Oct 2016
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Has its own unique sense of problems. Hero is problematic, because he is petulant, selfish, childish, arrogant, vain, foolish, old, madman. Traits are not justified by circumstances he is faced with. This story is very well known, shakespeare created a rendition for this story. Original story had a happy ending, this one ended in tragedy. Early audiences were uncomfortable with the crushingly depressing ending. Most performances were edited in some way to make it more bearable. Nahum tate"s 1681 revision: no fool, less stage violence, happy ending (cordelia lives, she and. Tate"s version became the standard performance text until 19th century, due to its more positive atmosphere and ease of performance. Shakespeare"s version continued to trouble 18th-18th century critics such as samuel johnson and. This play is still problematic in the 20th century. Our culture is good at irony and satire, not so much on pathos. Difficult for actors to pull off the necessary emotional reaction without appearing ridiculous.
