Best of Week: Medieval vs. Renaissance in King Lear

This week, our English teacher, Mr. Allen, introduced us to the writing assignment for the King Lear unit.  Next week, we will sit down at our desks and write an essay showing how either Medieval or Renaissance values prevail in King Lear.  We must find quotes, explain them and their significance to our claim, and then conclude that one set of values defeats the other in this tragic Shakespeare tale.  And on top of that, we won't know which side we have to argue until the day of the test.  So in order to assure success, we must find evidence for both sides prevailing over the other.  

I personally am very enthused by this requirement.  Shakespeare's plays, so far ahead of his time in thoughts, themes, and deeds, deserve a hard look from more than one perspective.  If we were only required to argue one of the points, we would go through the entire book missing half the story.  I really believe that one could argue either point.  As I search the book for passages, I see just how complex the story is, and that one must be open to more than one possibility while reading and analyzing Shakespeare's texts.  

My favorite part of the assignment, however, is the prompt itself.  Earlier this year, we learned in World History about the transition from Medieval times to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.  Knowing what I do about this shift, and knowing that it shows up in King Lear, helps me understand on a deeper level the relationships and actions of the characters.  Shakespeare's portrayal of a royal family torn between two eras reveals so much about the times, as do the times reveal much about his portrayal.  And as the word "change" has become the word of the season, I seek even more to see how change (or lack thereof) manifests itself in society at all levels.  King Lear certainly delves into that question. 

So thank you, Mr. Allen, for your deep prompt.  I'm excited to write that paper (or as excited as an overloaded high-schooler can be).

Connection: King Lear and my grandma

Last year, my maternal grandmother was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.  This neurological syndrome begins usually in a specific muscle area then spreads slowly throughout the body, weakening the muscles and eventually leading to death.  There is no cure.  In my grandma, the disease started in her mouth and throat, slowly chipping away at her speaking, eating, and swallowing abilities.  Now, about a year and a half later, she eats and drinks through a feeding tube in her stomach, can barely speak at all, and is losing movement in her limbs.  This requires constant care by my grandpa, my parents, and a slew of doctors and caregivers.

Shakespeare's main character in King Lear, the King himself, incrementally loses control over his kingdom, his daughters, and his own mind and sanity.  From the first scene when he divides his kingdom between his two daughters to later scenes in which his guards are captured, banished, and debated over, Lear goes from a powerful medieval king to a victim of his own power distribution.  Lear's daughters, Goneril and Regan, along with their husbands, take responsibility for his care, the results of which constantly displease the King.  As demands are made and rejected, the relationship between father and daughters becomes increasingly tense.

This weekend, my aunt flew in from Alabama to meet with my mom, uncle, grandpa, and great-aunt over what to do with Grandma in the coming months.  One of the first things to come up was the caregivers that my grandma requests, fires, likes, and dislikes.  She has gone through quite a few so far, probably due to the unreasonable height of her standards.  They also discussed the possibility of nursing homes, and other long-term solutions such as that.  Similarly, one of the biggest conflicts between Lear and his daughters is whether he can keep his guards that he's had for years - they constantly disturb Goneril and Regan in their daily lives.  The daughters, like my family, only want the best for their parent, yet they have to make some tough decisions.  

This connection between my grandma and King Lear allows me to understand both the past, present, and future in my grandmother's story.   Even more so, it allows me to understand more clearly the complex relationships in King Lear, a story that can sometimes be difficult to follow and appreciate.  Most importantly, I now can more easily relate to the characters in the story, seeing their faults as products of the circumstance rather than bad character.  Before making this connection, I thought of King Lear as spiteful and his daughters as power-hungry.  And though there may be a little bit of that too, I see that they are caught up in a very complicated situation that requires compromises and often arguments.  

TED Presentations

This year's TED presentations, in all, were an interesting experience.  If I had to use two words to describe my experience, they'd be stressful and enlightening.

The so-called "collaboration" part of the project didn't go over well at all.  We had four weeks to work on the project, and 3 people in my group didn't even start working until 5 AM the morning of the presentation.  That certainly doesn't leave much time for collaboration, does it?  Since we were required to discuss and comment on others' work, I began doing that early on.  But there's only so much constructive criticism you can give to your own work.  Granted, by the last few days of the project, most of my group had begun working.  Even that, however, was not enough time to really put together a solid presentation.  

The presentations themselves, however, were very interesting.  I really liked the ideas of all the videos, and I really saw how many intelligent people surround me in the Academy.  My favorite part, by far, of the whole day was the discussion we had as an entire group after the presentations.  People really got into it, and more than just the typical few spoke their opinions.  The discussion actually got somewhere too, not just reviewing the videos or saying "I liked this presentation because they talked about the environment."  We really got to bigger questions about Change in our world.

I really don't believe that this format of presentations is the best way to instill change and progress in our world.  The stress and long hours that went into mediocre presentations really was not worth it.  I thought my presenter, Paul Collier, had amazing proposals.  But I don't think that our hastily-put-together presentation did justice to his ideas.  I think we should all be assigned to watch one TED video per week and at the end of the week discuss the video either as a class, two classes, or if possible, with the entire Academy.  This would allow all of us to learn about the video enough to intelligently discuss it with our peers.  That leaves out the strenuous, time-consuming work.  Jamie T and I discussed this idea on the day of the presentations, and I think it could really work.

In all, it was a successful day preceded by a long, frustrating night and early morning.