The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0341 Tuesday, 15 May 2007
[1] From: Edmund Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 8 May 2007 13:56:07 -0400
Subj: Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
[2] From: Mario DiCesare <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 08 May 2007 23:18:06 -0400
Subj: Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
[3] From: Elliott Stone <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 9 May 2007 08:23:40 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0326 Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Edmund Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 8 May 2007 13:56:07 -0400
Subject: Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
About an earlier post of mine, Larry Weiss comments:
"Ed Taft seems to suggest that the sisters' birth order and supposed
differences in the paternal affections they received gave Goneril a
preference for weak men while Regan preferred strong ones. If that were
so, it would be likely that Regan would exhibit other submissive
characteristics, but she does not. Then, having made this point in the
absence of any real evidence in the text, Ed has to strain to explain why
the sisters (with supposedly diametrically opposed personalities and
preferences in men) should both fall in love with Edmund."
This is a very intelligent comment, but it doesn't quite put the pieces of
the puzzle together. First off, Goneril would prefer weak men if she was
once Lear's favorite but is no longer. Having been supplanted by Cordelia,
Goneril now hates Lear, who has forsaken her.
The fact that Regan chooses a Lear-like husband suggests that she NEVER
was Lear's favorite.
Hence, she hates her father too. It doesn't mean she is passive; it means
she wants what she never got.
There's no "strain" in explaining why both women fall in love with Edmund
[not Edgar, thanks, Larry!].
The Lear-like, young Edmund gives Goneril a chance to get Daddy back,
while it gives Regan one last chance to get Daddy in the first place.
It all fits, Larry. Modern psychological theories do not help us
understand every early modern text, but they "fit" THIS one - just as, for
example, they help explain _Coriolanus_.
Best,
Ed
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mario DiCesare <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 08 May 2007 23:18:06 -0400
Subject: Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
Dear Colleagues,
This has been quoted and commented on more than once in this quite
interesting thread:
"Both, of course, fall in love with Edgar, whose overwhelming
masculinity...."
I guess it's what one of my merrier teachers called a "lipsis languae"
[sic]. Fine. But that it should be repeated....
Cheers,
Mario
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Elliott Stone <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 9 May 2007 08:23:40 -0500
Subject: 18.0326 Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0326 Distinguishing Goneril from Regan
Do we all agree with Brad Berens statement "--I think, worth pointing out
that Shakespeare never expected the primary manner in which people would
interact with his plays to be via reading"? There are many people that
take this as fact. However, could it possibly be true? We all puzzle when
we read the Shakespeare plays and poems over the most pleasing and
sophisticated thoughts. The depths of the works can never be plumbed in a
single performance on the stage. We need to read the works over and over
again. Can we honestly believe that Shakespeare was writing just for an
uneducated class of yeoman who filled up the yard and rough benches at the
Globe?
Best,
Elliott H. Stone
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