Kumari de Silva answers “What is the significance of the play King...”

Warren Postma asked this question about Station Eleven:

What is the significance of the play King Lear, in the book. I read the book and didn't feel that it was intended to be significant what play was on, in the opening scenes of the book. Did I miss the significance? I liked the book but didn't grasp clearly whether Lear was a significant choice or not that significant.

Kumari de Silva In the play Lear has 3 daughters, 2 who pretend to love him and one who really does. Due to a misunderstanding with the daughter who actually loves hi…moreIn the play Lear has 3 daughters, 2 who pretend to love him and one who really does. Due to a misunderstanding with the daughter who actually loves him Lear sends her away - - in Station Eleven Arthur has 3 wives who are shadows of this relationship structure. Miranda is the only one who actually loved him, but he casts her aside pretty callously for wife #2. Wife #3 is not well developed but we get the idea she's the same type as #2.

In the play after his bout with madness Lear does come to appreciate the love his estranged daughter has for him. In the novel Arthur doesn't become "mad" per se, but he's so far from his former self that Clark notices they barely have a friendship anymore. His friend has become a husk of a person, a hollywood type. And it's after this transformation that Miranda (like Cordelia in Lear) comes back and is kind to Arthur.

The play is also about power and money. The bad daughters really value power and money. But ultimately that isn't what's important in life. In this novel after the Georgian Flu having fame as a movie star suddenly has no traction. I mean they probably, if they survived, still have nicer places to live then everyone else, but there's no more tabloids or places for them to be famous.(less)

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