Dramatic Scene Illustrated in Shakespeares King Lear -...

Shakespeare’s King Lear offers its audience an impossible number of dramatic and memorable scenes, but I have chosen the storm scenes in Act III Scenes 1, 2 and 4 as my key dramatic scenes. The storm provides a dramatic centre to the play. It is used to bring about change, to represent Lear’s inner unrest, to symbolise the power of nature and to expose the play’s characters under the intolerant conditions of thunder and lightning. The scenes in which the storm takes place are very different to those which precede and follow them. Lear’s sudden change, from the regal world he has been sheltered by to the raging elements of nature, can certainly be described as dramatic. Before his transition to the wild heath, we have known Lear as a†¦show more content†¦His emotions are raw – we see him dramatically swing from â€Å"high rage†, to grief, to despair and to remorse. Language has important dramatic significance in the storm scenes. Lear ’s speech becomes more and more disordered and dramatic as he struggles with the â€Å"tempest† in his mind. It is littered with punctuation and exclamations, reflecting the chaos of the storm and his own agitation. He no longer speaks with purpose, at a measured and regal pace. He indulges in long, rambling monologues which are a reflection of his self-searching and self-discovery. He cries out â€Å"blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!† personifying the storm as an ally in desperation. Raging as the storm does, he becomes wilder and wilder as his â€Å"wits begin to turn†. Then, believing the storm to be â€Å"servile ministers† to his ungrateful daughters, it seems his mind finally breaks as he comes to terms with their â€Å"filial ingratitude†. His battle with the storm is parallel to his own personal battle to comprehend the cruelty of his offspring. Such is his mental torment that Lear does not feel the pain of being expose d to the thunder and rain. His own tempest is a much â€Å"greater malady† than the gales that can only hurt him â€Å"to the skin†. The storm presents a dramatic background to the storm of human emotion, and in particular Lear’s emotions. The storm in these scenes has an important symbolic meaning. It suggests the power of natureShow MoreRelatedElizabethan Era11072 Words   |  45 Pageswith vigorous life. A special stimulus of the most intense kind came from the struggle with Spain. After a generation of half-piratical depredations by the English seadogs against the Spanish treasure fleets and the Spanish settlements in America, King Philip, exasperated beyond all patience and urged on by a bigots zeal for the Catholic Church, began deliberately to prepare the Great Armada, which was to crush at one blow the insolence, the independence, and the religion of England. There followed