“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!” would be said with great anger, in a deep, slow and driving voice to begin with but sounding increasingly agitated as the word “Blow!” is repeated. Lear would accent the word “crack” to make it sound very harsh, as though it was painful to say.
The volume of Lear’s words would begin fairly quiet, but as his anger increases so would the volume. A definite crescendo would show the audience how angry and desperate the King is in having to beg to the heavens for help. To see a King beg would be a sorrowful sight and therefore the audience would feel empathy for Lear.
Lear personifies the weather linguistically but I think it is important he personifies it physically too. He could do this by directing the opening speech to the heavens, talking to the weather directly as though it were a person, as though it had ears that could hear and understand his words. This shows the audience how fraught and helpless he has become, which in turn makes the audience pity Lear and feels sorry for him.
The King would be shaking his hands with painfully arched fingers up towards the sky. Throughout this, a ferocious storm would be mercilessly pouring rain from above; using the idea of pathetic phallacy i.e. the weather creating a mood and reflecting the way the character feels.
“You cataracts and huricanoes, spout. Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!” Again this line would be said with great anger, in the same tone of voice as used for line one. Accents would be placed on the words “drench’d” and “drown’d” to again emphasise the King’s desperation.
Shakespeare continues the semantic field and main theme of vision here with the word “cataracts”, this shows the audience Lear still can not fully see physically because of the rain and mentally because he has not yet reached a turning point where he realises how wrong he is within himself.
The actor playing Lear should spit out the hard sounding constanants e.g. the “c” and “t” sounds in “cataracts” to stress Lear’s hurt he feels after the betrayal of his daughters.
Lear’s face would be dripping wet, with water falling from his cheeks like tears. On this line the camera would zoom in slowly to a close up on his face. This would take the audience closer to how King Lear feels, so they could have a better understanding of his being, but with a main aim of building sympathy for the character.
“You sulphurous and thought-executing fires. Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts.” Likewise this line should be said with the same rage, with Lear still staggering. As the word “thunderbolts” is said though, a flicker of light (resembling lightening) should light up Lear’s face and a rumble of thunder be heard, after which a pause. This can be a time for the audience to reflect on what is happening and also for Lear to feel suddenly small, by raising his head further up to the sky. The audiences’ concentration should be drawn to Lear’s heavy breathing, becoming slower and slower until he erupts again with the last four lines of his opening speech.
With the word “shaking” Lear would shake his hands ferociously towards the sky and from then lower the volume of his voice, still accentuating his words but with less of a force, as though he is about to break down. The audience seeing King Lear breaking down almost will show he has feelings just like everyone else, the audience will be able to relate to this and sympathise with the King.
The Fool, who up until this point has been silent, now steps forwards, lifts his head slowly, maybe reaches his hand to touch the King on his shoulder, but swallows and takes his hand away without making contact. This shows the Fool sympathises with the King and is realising his pain. The Fool is a wise character and therefore if the Fool is seen to feel sorry for the King the audience will take note and follow him with this feeling. “O nuncle, court ………pities neither wise man nor fool” The Fool would speak these lines in a comforting voice as though to calm the King down. The Fool tries to make Lear see that he needs to find some shelter even if that means making up with his daughters. For the audience to see a Fool (the minor character) acting saner than a King (the major character) they will feel pity for Lear because he seems to have gone mad/insane.
“Rumble thy bellyful!” With this line Lear falls to his knees. He is at his weakest ever and feels so small and powerless after reducing himself to begging to the heavens. This will be shown by the positioning of the characters in relation with each other and the camera. Lear will be very close to the camera on his knees, still pleading with the heavens, while the Fool, stands back, looking at the situation from a distance while still upon his feet. This shows a massive contrast in status to that at the beginning of the play. Lear has fallen below the Fool to nothing more than a small, feeble old man. Lear also calls himself a “slave” this again reflects his fall in status, from one extreme to another, which makes a King Lear a tragic hero.
Due to the rain on Lear’s face it may look as though he is weeping, the audience will empathise with the King because again it shows how he is suffering and how hurt is to be betrayed by his own flesh and blood.
“A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man”, this line is crucial because at this point the King has a change in his understanding of himself. For the first time in his life he sees and realises what he has become; he opens his eyes. Lear would say this line to himself, because he is trying to make it sink in, trying to come to terms with it. Its as though in all the ferocity of the storm and the uproar his daughters have caused, he has one small moment to himself and realises exactly what has happened. Lear needs to say this line as though he means it, in a soft, calmer and quieter voice, taking his time to understand what he is saying. The King would lower his head to the floor maybe, pause for a second and say the line while lifting his head back up while wiping the water from his eyes, so that the audience can see the realisation on his face. The viewer at this point will acquire a certain respect for the King, they should recognise that he is willing to change and has gained the skill of vision (represented by the wiping of the King’s eyes), which he did not have at the beginning of the play.
“But yet I call you servile ministers………O! O! ‘tis foul!” The King continues to disagree with the heavens for exposing him to such weather after all he has been through. The rain should still be pouring and the thunder and lightening still threatening, highlighting Lear’s distress and fears about the future.
The play here shows how Lear has become mentally incapable of making fine distinctions. He almost takes the elements as his daughters, “That have with two pernicious daughters join’d”. This insanity makes the audience pity the King and helps to build this image of a tragic hero.
“O! O! ‘tis foul!” should be shouted angrily, maybe with Lear looking up to the heavens yet again, to plead with them one last time.
The Fool steps forward again to try to persuade the King to take shelter “ He that has a house to put’s head in has a good head-piece”. The King is now seen as the Fool for not using his “head” and seeking shelter. This switch in status for the King, and his extreme fall from power makes the audience question whether anyone should have to suffer in this way.
The Fool begins to sing “The man that makes his toe, What he his heart should make, Shall of a corn cry woe, And turn his sleep to wake” While singing this verse the Fool could help the King up, as though he is giving the King a touch of hope. Also the King would accept this help now after abolishing his arrogance towards others. In answer to the Fool, King Lear says calmly “No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.” The King would say this line to himself maybe shaking his head a little and there would be a moments silence, while only the rain could be heard. Lear recognises the truth in the critical song of the Fool and therefore the audience will realise the King is becoming a changed man, and therefore sympathise with him and understand how tragic his situation is. The Fool and King should walk on through the wilderness struggling to balance against the strong winds.
Enter Kent, a loyal ally of King Lear’s who was banished for his blunt honesty earlier in the play. Kent disguises himself as a beggar so that he can still guide the King without the King’s knowledge. Kent comes across the Fool and Lear on the moorland and tries to persuade the saturated and cold King to take shelter, by saying even the animals that love the night take shelter on nights like these. “Things that love night, love not such nights as these”. Kent would talk in a wise and persuasive voice. He reminds the audience that the storm is still as ferocious as at the beginning of the scene and that no human can stand the infliction of the storm of the fear of it. Again the audience has to ask themselves whether anything that Lear has done really deserves for him to be homeless in a storm as abnormally fierce as this.
The King’s next speech beginning “Let the great gods, that keep this dreadful pother over our heads, find out their enemies now” shows Lear’s recognition to the degree of human iniquity in the world. Again the audience see his vision becoming wider and clearer and not so narrow.
“I am a man more sinned against than sinning”, this is another of Lear’s crucial lines which should be directed at the heavens, the other two characters and also himself. He realises that he has sinned in the past and he recognises his flaws, but he believes his sins are nothing compared to those of his two daughters, Goneril and Regan.
Rather than the King saying this line as though he is feeling self pitiful, he should say it as a clear statement, so the audience recognise that this is a fact and not the words of an insane, helpless old man.
“Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel”, Kent finds shelter and should say his lines with a sense of hope, lightening the mood slightly. Kent tells the King that he will “to this hard house” and tries to make the castle open its gates.
Lear again shows the audience his acknowledgment of his state of mind, “My wits begin to turn”, again Lear could say this with a certain degree of curiosity, as though he is finding more and more of himself, and understanding his ways deeper and deeper as the tragedy progresses. The audience will therefore see Lear changing from a worthless, arrogant being to a tragic hero.
Although Lear is angry he changes his voice to a more gentle and caring tone. “Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?” The King here becomes the father figure he never was. At this point the King could put his arm around the fool as though he were a child that needed to be looked after. Lear shows sympathy for the fool and due to his own extreme suffering begins to understand the pain of others. The audience see how Lear begins to care for someone else’s well being other than his own, building respect for the character and ensuring the viewer that he has changed.
To conclude the main aim of the scene is to show Lear’s change in his state of mind from being an arrogant, selfish, blind old man to a more understanding, caring hero with a capability to see deeper into people than ever before. To emphasise this change the hero fell from the top of a hierarchy to worthlessness almost beyond belief due to a flaw, which in this case I think was King Lear’s pride. Making the hero tragic was done however by creating sympathy for the King through techniques like pathetic phallacy, tone of voice and body language along with the script, only for him to die, but with dignity.
