Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education

MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL EDUCATION
OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

Faculty of Foreign Philology of the Urgench State University

Course work


on english and American literature


William Shakespeare “King Lear”

Supervisor:

M. Eshmurotova Student: Ibraximov Murodbek.
e-mail:[e-mail] II year student – group 2012
Department of English Language
and Literature

Urganch
2022

Contents

• 
  BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  
• 
  CHRONOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
  
• 
  THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THE AUTHOR
  
• 
  KEY FACTS OF THE WORK
  
• 
  YOUR THOUGHTS
  
• 
  USED LITERATURE
  
• 
  APPENDIX
  

ENTRY 1. BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Full name	William Shakespeare
Pen name	Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon
Born	April 26, 1564
Died	April 23, 1616
Nationality	English
Education	The King’s New School
Occupation	Playwright, poet, actor
Genre(s)	Histories, tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies
Notable work(s)	“A midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Hamlet”, “Antony and Cleopatra”, “Macbeth”, “King Lear”, “Otello”, “Hamlet”
Award(s), Prize(s)
Quotation(s)	“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” “Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
Uzbek (and Russian) contemporaries	So’fi Olloyor, Boborahim Mashrab,Vassian (Petrikiew) Dmitriy Gerasimov Ivan Grozniy Karpow Maksim Greck
Family of the author
Marriage	Anne Hathaway, 1582
Children	Susanna and twins: Judith and Hamnet

ENTRY 2. CHRONOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

YEARS	DESCRIPTION
1564	William Shakespeare born in Stradford-upon-Avon
1582	Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway
1583	Shakespeare’s first child, Susanna, is born
1585	Shakespeare’s twins, Judith and Hamnet, are born
1592	Shakespeare is first alluded to as a playwright, in Greene’s Groates-worth of Wit
1593	Shakespeare’s first printed poem, Venus and Adonis, appears
1594	Sakespeare’s first printed play, Titus Andronicus, appears
1596	Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, is granted a coat of arms; Shakespear’s son, Hamnet, dies
1597	Shakespeare purchases New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon
1598	Shakespeare is first mentioned as a sonneteer and author of 12 plays in Palladis Tamia
1599	Shakespeare’s father is granted a confirmation of arms
1600	Extracts from Shakespeare’s plays and poetry appear in Bel-vedere, the first printed literary commonplace book to include plays
1601	Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, dies
1603	Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, becomes the King’s Men at the accession of James I; Hmalet appears in print
1607	Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna marries John Hall
1608	Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Shakespeare, dies; his granddaughter Elizabeth is born
1609	Shakespeare’s Spnnets appears in print
1616	Shakespeare writes his will; his daughter Judith marries Thomas Quiney; Shakespeare dies
1623	The First Folio is published; Shakespeare’s widow Anne dies

ENTRY 3. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THE AUTHOR

Years	Full title of the work	Type of work
1590-1592	Henry VI. Part 1,Part2, Part3	History
1592-1593	Richart III	History
1592-1593	The Comedy of Errors	Comedy
1593-1594	Titus Adronicus	Tragedy
1594-1595	Love’s labour’s Lost	Comedy
1594-1595	Romeo and Juliet	Tragedy
1595-1596	Richart II	History
1596-1597	King John	History
1596-1597	The Merchant of Venice	Comedy
1597-1599	Henry IV. Part1.Part2. Part3	History
1599-1600	Twelfhe Night	Comedy
1600-1601	Hamlet	Tragedy
1601-1602	All’s Well Wives of Windsor	Comedy
1604-1605	Measure for Measure	Comedy
1604-1605	Othello	Tragedy
1605-1606	King-Lear	Tragedy
1605-1606	Macbeth	Tragedy
16061607	Antony and Cleopatra	Tragedy
1607-1608	Timon of Athens	Tragedy
1608-1609	Pericles, Prince of Tyre	History
1609-1610	Cymbeline	Comedy
1610-1611	The Winter’s Tale	Tragedy
1611-1612	The Tempest	Drama
1612-1613	Henry VIII	History
11612-1613	The Two Noble Kinsmen	Tragicomedy
1590-1592	Henry VI. Part 1,Part2, Part3	History
1592-1593	Richart III	History
1592-1593	The Comedy of Errors	Comedy
1594-1595	Love’s labour’s Lost	Comedy
1594-1595	Romeo and Juliet	Tragedy
1595-1596	Richart II	History
1596-1597	King John	History

ENTRY 4. KEY FACTS OF THE WORK

Full title	King Lear
Author	William Shakespeare
Type of work	Play
Genre	Tragedy
Language	English
Time & place Written	1905-1906, in London
Date of first publication	1608
Narrator	William Shakespeare
Setting (time)	winter
Setting (place)	Ancient Britaim
Themes, motifs	Justice, Authority versus Chaos, Reconciliation, Nihilism, Self-knowledge, Madness, Betrayal
Translation into Uzbek	Qirol Lir
Translation into Russian	Король Лир

ENTRY 5. Your Thoughts

Answer the following questions
1	What did you learn from the book?
	Right from the beginning, we see the value of sincerity and telling the truth, which Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia does when invited to declare how much she loves her father. we can learn from “King Lear” are those of self-knowledge, compassion, and empathy for the less fortunate which the King, throneless, homeless and abandoned by everyone apart from his faithful (if wittily critical) Fool, Edgar disguised as Poor Tom.
2	Why did the author choose such setting?
	King Lear is set in ancient Britain, several centuries before the arrival of Christianity. In Shakespeare’s day, historians believed pre-Christian Britain had been a single united kingdom that was later divided into Britain and Scotland. When Shakespeare wrote the play, King James I ruled both England and Scotland and wanted to reunite his two kingdoms. James’s plan was vigorously opposed by both the English and the Scots. When King Lear was performed at James’s court, the King would have been pleased to see that Lear’s decision to separate the kingdom of Britain ends in disaster, implicitly suggesting the two kingdoms belong together. Even though Shakespeare’s play supports the King’s cause, the play doesn’t explicitly address the topic of reunifying contemporary Britain directly. Playwrights could be imprisoned for writing anything too political. By setting his story in the distant past, Shakespeare freed himself to tackle this important topic.
3	Why did the author finish the work in the way he did it?
	King Lear ends with a battle for the British throne. Edmund wins the battle for the throne, but is then killed by his brother Edgar. As Edmund dies, he admits that he has sent orders for Lear and Cordelia to be executed. The orders are reversed, but too late; Cordelia has already been killed. Upon discovering that his beloved daughter has died, Lear dies of grief. Generations of readers have found the ending of King Lear unbearably sad. For more than a century it was considered too tragic to perform. In 1681, Nahum Tate wrote an adaptation of King Lear in which Cordelia lives, and until 1838 this optimistic version of the play was more popular than Shakespeare’s. In fact, Shakespeare’s ending was hardly performed during that period. The ending of King Lear is especially hard to bear because the characters suffer in ways that seem meaningless.
4	What questions would you ask the author if you had such chance? Why does Lear banish Cordelia? Why does Edmund hate his family? Who is “Poor Tom”? Who rules Britain at the end of the play?
5	Would you recommend reading this book? Why or why not?
	I highly recommend reading this book. Because the play tells us about families struggling between greed and cruelty, on the one hand, and support and consolation, on the other. Emotions are extreme, magnified to gigantic proportions. We also see old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, pride, and, perhaps, wisdom—one reason this most devastating of Shakespeare’s tragedies is also perhaps his most moving.

USED LITERATURE

• 
  Ackroyd, Peter (2006). Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage.
  
• 
  Adams, Joseph Quincy (1923). A Life of William Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 
  
• 
  Baldwin, T.W. (1944). William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greek. Vol. 1. Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press. 
  
• 
  Barroll, Leeds (1991). Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare's Theater: The Stuart Years. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  
• 
  Bate, Jonathan (2008). The Soul of the Age. London: Penguin.
  
• 
  William Shakespeare, King Lear (1996)
  
• 
  www.wikipedia.com