King Lear by William Shakespeare

Sometimes striking out against society is done in the wrong ways. Edmund sends his own father to torture, sends Lear and Cordelia to their deaths, exiles his brother Edgar, and defiles Regan and Goneril. He does all of this to gain power in the name of bastards everywhere. To be honest, Edmund does all of this for himself. I think part of having one's own different place in society is having a reason for it. Cordelia fights against the grain when she does not flatter her father. She is exiled, but when France takes her hand she knows it is truly out of love rather than greed. She also comes back for her father to save him and in the process is killed herself. She did all of this out of love. Part of what makes us who we are is what we feel we need to change in the world. Some chase after love and others after money. Being original is based off of how strongly you stand on your beliefs and on who you are. Some people will give in to society and allow themselves to be left behind. But, there are always people who are ready to fight for what they believe is right. These are the people we remember as legends. Martin Luther King fought for the rights of African Americans and they were given those rights. Sometimes in fighting for them you may lose your life but if you ask yourself if it is worth it the answer better be yes. In Edmund's case his answer was no. He lost his life and left nothing behind but death and treachery. Cordelia died saving her father. She leaves behind a hope for humanity. Society needs more people like Cordelia. King Lear shoots rays of non-conformists.

New Beginning: Why creativity and originality in some areas of life and not all?

I have decided to tweak my question. What makes you and I different from everyone else? Why do we decide to be creative and original in certain areas and not all? What drives us to conform to society? Maybe, we fear people. I think that this is the easiest fear of all.  Either everyone has the same exact folds on their spongy brains OR we simply won't fight against the grain. I really want to indulge myself in this deep gooey river of conformity and find out why it even exists.

Everyone has a choice:

The Road not Taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

Word Trace: Fortune in King Lear

I have tracked the word Fortune throughout the book King Lear and have decided that these quotes  best represent fate in King Lear.

Act 1, Scene 1

CORDELIA:This is after Cordelia loses all of her inheritance. Burgundy has

 decided he does not want Cordelia's hand.

 "Peace be with Burgundy!
 Since that respects of fortune are his love,
 I shall not be his wife"

Cordelia uses the word fortune to mean money or riches.She uses this word to show that Burgundy did not truly love her. He only wanted her inheritance and power. Her use of fortune means riches. 

Act 1, Scene 2

EDMUND: In this quote Edmund exclaims his grief of being a bastard. This is after Edmund has set up his brother Edgar.

        "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
 when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
 of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
 disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
 if we were villains by necessity; fools by
 heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
 treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
 liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
 planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
 by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
 of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
 disposition to the charge of a star! My
 father compounded with my mother under the
 dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
 major; so that it follows, I am rough and
 lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
 had the maidenliest star in the firmament
 twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar--

 [Enter EDGAR]

 And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old
 comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a
 sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do
 portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi." 

Edmund uses the word fortune to express how his circumstances should be changed. Edmund talks about how his naturalness matches or even surpasses his brothers and that he should not be condemned for this but brought up as an equal son if not 

favorite son. His use of fortune is simply a circumstance of life.

Act 2, Scene 4
Fool: The fool currently talks to Lear and Kent and this is before Lear's 
confrontation with his daughters over his guards. This also lies before Lear's 
exit into the storm.



 "Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.
 Fathers that wear rags
 Do make their children blind;
 But fathers that bear bags
 Shall see their children kind.
 Fortune, that arrant whore,
 Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
 But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours
 for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.]"



The Fool describes how fathers may pay off their daughters and all they will see is kindness from their children. Fortune could mean literal money in which the 
Fool speaks of how the poor never will become rich. Or, fortune could mean 
circumstances which would mean that fortune is cruel to the impoverished. The 
fool describes fortune as a cruel being.


Act 4, Scene 1
EDGAR: This scene is after Gloucester has had his eyes gouged out and this is the first time Edgar lays his own eyes upon Gloucester his father.



 "Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
 Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,
 The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
 Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
 The lamentable change is from the best;
 The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
 Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
 The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
 Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?

 [Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an Old Man]

 My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
 But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
 Lie would not yield to age."



Edgar complains about his circumstances. He one ups fortune and claims to owe 
nothing to fortune and does not deserve the cards he is given but will not lament on his circumstances and will move forward. Edgar speaks as if fortune lives and breaths and he uses apostrophe in his anger towards his circumstances.

Oedipus

How many times have you thought stubbing your toe will kill you. How about that boyfriend that cheated on you? What if you accidentally killed your father and married you mother (vice versa). Would suicide be an answer? Poison? Drugs? How could you possibly go on with such incest embedded in your life? The sweet smell of roses would turn bitter. Soft velvet would feel prickly and itchy. Oedipus somehow finds inspiration to live even after finding out he has done such horrible things. His inspiration seems to be his children, even though they are also his brothers and sisters. He decides to blind himself so that he will never see what he has done in the light of his new eyes. Yet, he somehow lives on. He leaves his town and the reader has to wonder what could be next for someone so trodden down.

What inspired Oedipus to move on with his life I ask. This story inspires me to not take the things I have for granted. I have a wonderful loving family and a place to live and food to eat. Many people live without at least one of these things that are necessities in my life. I'm greatful for every chirping bird in my backyard and for my beautiful little dog. Oedipus must have had some inspiration in his life or else I do not think he could have survived through such and ordeal. Maybe he was inspired by the thought that his adopted parents loved him as if he was truly their son. Maybe he realized that the things that have happened in his life do not need to change who we are if we don't want them to.

Even though Oedipus accidentally kills his father and marries his mother he still has an amazingly sacrificial heart. He had left his family in order to not fulfill his fate. He took the punishment for what he had done even when he, as king, could have run from his punishment. This story can inspire many people and I hope it does because although tragic, Oedipus is a noble man who went through harsh life circumstances and yet still holds a noble soul.

What influences creation?

What influences creation? I think a part of finding yourself is finding what inspires you. As a teenager in high school I struggle with my identity and who I truly am. I've learned to channel my emotions into poetry and I wonder what influences other writers to create something new. One of the first things I wrote was a short story on a little boy who meets a magician and wishes his world away. He learns that even though he is bullied and will go through struggles the sun always will shine through the clouds and the clouds don't last forever. I often wonder why other authors write. What makes their worlds spin? What's keeping their minds ticking?

One book I've always wondered about is Dracula. How did Bram Stoker come up with the idea of blood-sucking demons? What events in his life created this vision in his mind of defeating the ultimate evil? Bram Stoker's Dracula seems to be the basis for so many great novels today. His vampire created one of the foundations for literature all over the world. I wish I could have met this cunning fellow and have been able to find out what goes through his mind when the day has been spent. 

The song "Kaleidoscope Heart" by Sara Bareilles makes me wonder what color other people's hearts are. Do their hearts beat purple? Grey? Technicolor? What inspires people to come up with something new and unique? What experiences have they gone through that have inspired them? Sara Bareilles ends the song with a hope that "inside is not a heart but a Kaleidoscope". Everything we have gone through has made us beautiful. At first the pieces may look like a mush of brown, but when you look through the kaleidoscope there lies a new beautiful creation of color. 

What inspires you to create?