King Lear and the Not So Happy Ending
Greg Doran, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, thinks the Bubonic plague helped shape William Shakespeare’ writing.
We studied King Lear sometime in college. Yes I found it depressing.
Interesting that the source play (that Shakespeare based his King Lear on) had a happy ending, but he was so traumatized by all the illness and death around him that he wasn’t able to write anything happy. Would a different writer have penned a happy ending, as an antidote to events in real life – much like how people like to escape into the world of romance novels where the girl often (if not always) gets the guy.
I wonder how many more pieces of literature will be found to have been influenced by the health events of its time. I’m sure COVID-19 will have its own body of literature.
