Elizabethan Theatre

Before we started reading Shakespeare's King Lear, Dr. Edwin gave us a lecture on the Introduction to Elizabethan Theatre. Gradually it has given me a better understanding of the play itself, where it has a lot of animal imageries, and the implication of the imageries. There are a lot of animal imageries depicted in the play. For example, both Goneril and Regan in the play were associated with the cuckoo bird and there is also a reference to the kite. Cuckoo birds were used to represent both characters as they did not have the courtesy to show their gratitude towards Lear, as their own father, which was very much the cuckoo bird’s nature. These animal imageries are significant ways in a Shakespearean play to tell the readers and audience about the characteristics of the characters in the play. King Lear was a very interesting play to read, and thanks to the notes (",) in our books, we were able to understand the play better. We also watched a movie; Shakespeare Wallah and from this movie, we are able to see how the casts of a play prepare themselves for a performance. Another Shakespeare's movie we had watched is Macbeth. I have never read the play before, and of course, I feel that by viewing the movie, it would be much easier when I want to read the play by myself. Macbeth is another tragic play. As for me, the most interesting part of the play was the appearance of the three witches. I feel that their predictions about what to happen to Macbeth functions as warnings to prevent him from doing the wrong things that he did. Macbeth remembers strongly what the witches told him yet he followed his heart but not his mind which later lead to his downfall. It was obviously a price to pay for he did all but the wrong things to be proclaimed as the King.