The Conspiracy of Realism: Impasse and Vision in The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare's King Lear
The Conspiracy of Realism: Impasse and Vision in The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare's King Lear
The relation of Shakespeare's King Lear to allegory has remained an elusive topic. Two of the older critics of Shakespeare, Watkins and Bradley, seem to think of allegory almost exclusively in the limiting context of characterization in King Lear, rather than in terms of plot or narrative process of the play. Mack also invokes the idea of allegory to explain characterization in King Lear but does so only to distance the opprobrious word allegorical. Mack's and Bradley-Watkin's concept in describing one who is conceived allegorically, whether it is naturalistically or not, gives an insight into characterization in King Lear, and together they cast light on the various characters assembled in the play better than either does alone. Instances of both concepts can be found together in an allegory like The Faerie Queene.
Keywords: allegory, Shakespeare, characterization, King Lear, plot, characters, The Faerie Queene
Fordham Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
