Why Caged Bird Sings

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamshis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamhis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing 

The caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom.(Maya Angelou “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”)

No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison. 

We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage. 

When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down 

And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live, 

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh 

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues 

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too- 

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out- 

And take upon 's the mystery of things, 

As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out, 

In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones 

That ebb and flow by th' moon.

Why Do Caged Birds Sing?

Talk about a truly changed character, Lear has gone from a prideful foolish old man. To one with wisdom and age.  Throughout the play he has refused all reason! When faced with the reason of true love versus the empty flattering words of love, he banished the source of true love "Hence and avoid my sight!" to save the image of his pride. He must not be wrong! Later when all power resides in his two evil daughters, he is faced with his will and the power of his daughters--he runs away into the night, the storm of all storms in order to hold to his will and his word. "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout .../Singe my white head!" He would rather face nature head on than admit he was wrong, he still believes that pride will make him happy!  

Then why do birds sing? 

They sing for each other, they are the closest to humans than any other species.  They use song to communicate with each other and like us it is a language that is learned from each other.  In a cage with everything removed and his pride crushed, why will Lear sing? Because he is with Cordelia, he has finally realized through all hell that it is the ones that love him most that make him happy.  If he is with her in jail, he has cause to sing, to talk, and a reason for joy!  Without having the 'world' they can have the world.  The mysteries of the world they can unfold, stories can be spoken, songs sung, and laughter had, as long as they are together.  He finally sees that his world, his joy, and his happiness are in the one who loved him most.  Happiness is found in others that truly love, and not in pride and power and worldly possessions.

They will sing together of freedom, of the outside world, of prayer, and God.  And together they will be happy.  ...Caged Birds Sing for Each Other...

Rap up on Lear // Tue and Me

Original Note:
TUE:
The essence of King Lear, in my view, ... Lear is distorted emotion (he doesn't understand the developments that take place around him, which confuses him to the point of desperation). What I mean by that is that, by this perspective, the character of Lear specifically represents distorted emotion, one of the consequences of which is that he lacks the rational attitude to be open to education (in contrast, his daughters represent reason, but of a loveless kind). Lear's tragedy, to a large extent, is his inability to understand what is going on, although several characters, incl. Gloucester, attempt to explain it to him. If we are consistent in seeing Lear as distorted emotion, then his death is not a tragedy in itself, but the end of tragedy;

Truth Spoken in Jest // Psychology

So i wanted to add a little more backing behind my idea of the prophetic jester.

What is the purpose of speaking truth in jest? Why dose one do it?
It turns out that it has to deal with conflict.  Wither we are dealing with members of our family, co-workers, or just customers, eventualy challenges and conflicts arise.  We have a few ways to react but the most common are to try and avoid the situation, pretend it isn't happening, we can stand toe to toe with it, or more like the first we can try and save our face.

Saveing face often refferse to our tendancy to be more concerned about how we are perceived that saying what needs to be said.

...we may err in saying too little when things go wrong. ... This is especially so during what could be called a "courting period." Instead of saying things directly, we often try to hint. But the honeymoon is likely to end sooner or later. At some point this "courting behavior" often gets pushed aside out of necessity. We may find it easier to sweep problems under the psychological rug until the mound of dirt is so large we cannot help but trip over it.  Gregorio Billikopf

 Ultimately the jest allows both parties to choose wither or not they want to continue feeding the conflict.  It allows the truth to be spoken plainly while allowing the speaker to save face.  It the offending partly is ready to change he has the option of changing while if choosing not to hear the speaker still appears a good person.

In Lear the jester is allowed to speak the plain blunt truth and remain in Lear's company because the truth is spoken in jest.  The truth is allowed to work in Lear till he is finally ready to change.  However, the fight it out approach, that Cordelia and Kent take just end up getting them banished because Lear will throw out the baby with the bath water at that point to save admitting he is wrong.

O God of Battles! Steel my Soldiers' Hearts

Possess them not with fear; take from them now
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord O, not to-day...

There is nothing more stirring than to see a commander speak in light of his troops, to see one painted in the colors of war, empowered with rank and glory speak passionately a speech from the dust, a speech asking God to inspire the hearts of his troops. HIS troops.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother;

We watched a solider one who has been called to die for his friends--for the ones he loves--We watched him and his commander give these lines, the firmament in all it's glory is not arrayed in more glory than the two of these...  Hecuba is someone to them! 

Those who knew Shakespeare had these lines memorized! This is the power of Shakespeare!

COMPLETE REPORT

PHOTOS: BYU ROTC -- OUR BROTHERS NOVEMBER 17th, 2011

Turing Machine Lear

Turing Machine Gloucester

KingLear.cpp ~To Suffer Algorithm~

Final Project Group Blog

To be a Fool

The Ultimate Cosmic Irony!

So what's the catch?  The fool is the only one that has foresight!  He can see things as they really are, he forecasts the storm in Lear's family, tells that Lear is past hope that he is in his last season, and that Kent is fighting for a lost cause.  I also agree that he acts as a teacher in this regard. (See Act 2, scene 2 comments).

The fool clearly tells the character of the kings two daughters: Fathers that wear rags/ Do make their children blind,/ But fathers that bear bags/ Shall see their children kind./ Fortune, that arrant whore,/ Ne'er turns the key to the poor.  His daughters were kind to their father only when he had power to give them things that they wanted.  Now that they have received his riches, they have no need for him.  They consider him poor and a pest, they think he should reap his pestilent reward, 'Tis his own blame, hath put himself from rest, And must needs taste his folly.  

The fool forecasts the storm of Lear's family by stating: That sir which serves and seeks for gain,/ And follows but for form,/ Will pack when it begins to rain,/ and leave thee in the storm./  But i will tarry, the fool will stay,/ And let the wise man fly./ The knave turns fool that runs away,/ The fool no knave, perdy.  The fool tells Kent that the kings daughters were only servants in form, they were only daughters in form.  They stayed as long as they got gain.  Now that a storm has come: they have gained their inheritance and literally a storm has come.  They pack there bags and run!  They have stripped their father of everything and care not for him.  They leave him out in the storm, both literally and figuratively.  Ragan: I'll receive him gladly, But not one follower.  [During the storm with Lear abroad] Shut up your doors...   

The fool telling Kent of Lear's condition and Kent's folly, yet his grace.  We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no laboring i' the winter.  All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking.  Let go they hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it .  The king is in his winter he is past all hope of saving, like food is to be gathered in the summer--the winter is too late.  Kent in trying to save the king that is dead and already stinketh, is attempting to catch a wheel that is running down hill--he wont catch it but will break himself in the attempt.  

Kent fullfills his role of the man chacing the wheel by being, like the fool, one of the only characters that speaks truthfuly.  But Kent unlike the fool just gets punished for his truth where the fool is just laughed at and not taken seriously.  This point is hit home when Kent bluntly fleshes out the servent Oswald, No marvel, you have so bestirred your valor. You cowardly rascal, Nature disclaims in thee.  A tailor made thee.  A stone cutter or painter could not have made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade.  Here basically calls the servant a soulless shell, he is a empty and as worthless as clothing, there is nothing in him.  By trade Kent also is accusing Cornwall, Gloucester, and Ragan with this same treason.  In his passion to correct the demons he employs blunt speech he also atempts blunt speech on the king, each time his reward is punishment.  He is cast out by the king and Fetch forth the stocks! by Cornwall.

Who's the fool? All in all the irony is the one who see's is the fool, the one who attempts to save is branded a traitor and the ones who are trators are given everything.  Why cosmic because this still happens today--it's ubiquitous!

Make it [Explicit]

Tue Sorensen

Me:

Hey there,

My name is Chris, i'm a college student studying Shakespeare.  One of the recent plays i studied was Much Ado.  Hence i watched Kenneth's adaptation and subsequently your review.

I really appreciated your review of Kenneth's Much ado about Nothing.

Shakespeare all throughout his plays deals with vast contrast, wither it is between scenes, number of actors on stage at a time, seasons, or even through foils.  There is a defined power in providing contrast.  I'm with you i really feel that it added a whole new color to the rest of the characters and the movie.  It augmented this idea of much ado because compared to him the world is drunk on the clouds.

Thanks,

Christopher Morgan

http://chris-clm.blogspot.com/

Tue:

Thanks, Chris! Always happy to hear from a fellow Shakespeare appreciator! If you like, you can check out theshakespearestandard.com, where I write a multimedia news column on a fortnightly basis.

Who the...

Who's the Fool

The old addage wisdom comes with age seems to be far from true in King Lear.  The fool is the only one who can speak the truth without getting thrown out, yet since it's the fool speaking true and the aged that's the fool and the fool who is wise, who's fooling who?

Fool: 

They'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying, and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace.

May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?

If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for being old before thy time.  Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

Much truth is spoken in our society in jest!  In fact most of the time that is when pure truth is spoken, yet because it's in jest nothing is done about it; therefore, we end up just like King Lear, pared [our] wit o'both sides, and left nothing i' the middle.  So the next time your friend or roommate throws a "jest" listen and then throw the book at them!  This book preferably. One would be fool not to listen and they need to quit playing the fool and get their horse in front of the wagon.  But the rug is you may be the one attempting to be wise before your old!

I love the conceit of the fool! Yet the bigger question is who's the fool!