How does Shakespeare’s dramatic technique make vivid the differences between Cordelia and Regan, between good and evil, in Act 4 scenes 3 and 4? Make close reference to language and stagecraft. Anonymous 10th Grade

The way in which these two scenes make vivid the considerable void between the two sisters’ ambitions, and in doing so, both the good and the evil, is the evident differences they possess emotionally. In keeping with the presentation of her in previous scenes, Cordelia shows overwhelming compassion for her father, regarding him as her exclusive concern. Like Edgar, she actively assists the parent who rejected her so cruelly previously. Yet, what makes this comparison all the more poignant and symbolised is Regan’s preoccupation with her own selfish lust which contrasts sharply with Cordelia’s familial generosity, “according to her bond”. And so it is, as perhaps it all too often happens to be, the presence of malevolence and corruption framed against the virtuous which really heightens this polar divergence.

Shakespeare begins in Act 4 Scene 3 with a variety of ‘in media res’ since we get a somewhat hectic speech from Cordelia as she tries to figure out her father’s state of mind as well as his whereabouts. Cordelia describes Lears madness as “a vexed sea, singling aloud, // Crowned with rank fumitory and furrow-weeds, // With burdlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers” and through the ecphrasis here of Lear’s apparent...