Shakespeare as Intro-to-Philosophy Instructor/guide: King Lear and Kierkegaard
This lesson plan uses Shakespeare’s King Lear as a framework for introducing and considering important philosophical questions–in this case, Soren Kierkegaard’s separation of ethics, religion and the aesthetic via his notion/examination of the religious knight (i.e., Abraham) in comparison to Lear–and so on and so forth as expounded upon in this lesson plan, below.
The in-class reflection and discussion activity and take home essay assignment are designed to allow undergraduate-level students to begin thinking with Shakespeare and his ideas of self- and other-sacrifice as we think about philosophical concepts–in this case, Kierkegaard’s sacrificing to/for God versus in service of the self. In practicing this key critical thinking skill, students will be able to connect Shakespeare to essential life questions.
This goal of this module is to show how Shakespeare “thinks” and to help students understand how Shakespeare can help them think as well. Philosophy is hard, and at times inaccessible for college students. But Shakespeare makes difficult and often unexamined life questions approachable through his drama” (Dividing the Kingdoms, introduction to philosophy module page). This in-class activity and follow-up out-of-class assignment prompts students to think about the importance of philosophy to inquire into basic assumptions. Lear as a framework for contemplation will yield insights into Kierkegaard’s notion of religious obedience as earthly insanity. Students can move from the abstract concept such as Kierkegaard’s of the separation of religion from ethics and the aesthetic, working through difficult questions that have plagued western humanity since Abraham’s biblical–potentially mad–near-murder of his son, in a (willingness to) act that pits the concrete values–ethics–of this earth (thou shalt not kill) against a not-of-this-world Creator-God.
Students can use the following resources as they think through these issues: Lear act 4; for context on Abraham and Saint Paul, the King James Bible; for compare/contrast to Shakespeare’s other space for thinking about self/other sacrifice, Hamlet or another play of the instructor’s choosing which the students will have read prior to Lear; for additional context on Kierkegaard’s thoughts on the subject, handouts of portions/excerpts of Kierkegaard’s journals.
Methodology: Philosophy
Activity (in class): Introduction to philosophical concepts of Kierkegaard–with Shakespeare as our guide
Assignment (out of class): Compare/contrast essay on Kierkegaard’s religious knight concept versus Lear
King Lear (Benjamin West, 1788, courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts Boston); The Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham (Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, 1150-1160, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
| Activity (in class): Introduction to philosophical concepts of Kierkegaard–with Shakespeare as our guide
Beginning How will I engage the learners: motivational strategy, hook, activation of prior knowledge? |
Prompt students reflect on paper, for the first 5 of class, on Lear act 4, which they will have read for homework. This is a “brain-dump” that should be a free-write to clear their brains and shift focus to Lear.
After about 5 minutes, ask students to shift focus to the (philosophical) “Theme of the Day” and “Key Concepts” written on the board. Once students have finished writing/reflecting on the “Theme of the Day” and “Key Concepts” (for about 5-7 minutes), launch a discussion on what they wrote. Shift focus into a synthesis discussion combining their reflections on act 4 with the theme and key concepts. Once students move from ethics and religious acts faith (abstract) into particular examples from Lear, and reach a consensus on what is perhaps “absolutely right” versus “absolutely wrong,” direct the discussion-flow to Shakespeare and Lear, and the role and/or authority of works of art versus religious texts in contemplating the implications thereof. Shakespeare, a poet, entertainer and, for Kierkegaard, an aesthetic “genius,” prods us to think as one method of entertaining/attracting people to his plays. |
| Middle
How does the lesson develop? How are new concepts/processes learned? By gradual empowerment? Modeled, shared or guided instruction? |
| Leading a visually based discussion about this on the board, divide students into “kingdoms” (groups) to examine each binary (below). Students will think about, by drawing and writing notes/points on the board, the three examples of Soren Kierkegaard presented below.
The teams’ analysis on the board and in their notes should reveal differences and similarities between binaries of subjects/objects; sacrificer/the sacrificed; for God or sake of the self using examples of: the story of Abraham and Isaac in the KJV, Lear’s relationship to his daughters (the needless, immoral sacrifice of Cordelia likened to the senseless, immoral sacrifice of Isaac), and for thinking about Christian versus non-Christian (for Kierkegaard) aesthetic plays–Hamlet/Ophelia (Christian) to contrast with Lear (non-/pre-Christian). Here is an example of how teams can be divided: Team 1: Lear-his daughters / Hamlet-Ophelia / Himself / Abraham / Isaac (pretense to love / sacrifice of self/other to/for god) (ethical acts versus acts of religious faith) Team 2: Bible / Shakespeare (saint / Genius) (religious- versus aesthetically-driven texts) Team 3: Hamlet / Lear (Christian / non-Christian play) (Christian/non-Christian acts in aesthetic, textual works of art) Ask students to identify comparable scenes in the play, moments when Shakespeare deliberately reminds us of what can happen when ethical codes and religious acts are separated (in Lear) and when they are perhaps (for Kierkegaard) not (Hamlet). Take a picture of the board and post it to the LMS for students to refer to in their take-home essay (below). |
| End
How will I conclude this lesson? How will we integrate the ideas/experiences? How will I check for understanding? Application–what will learners do to demonstrate their learning? |
| Pass out handouts of the Abraham-Isaac story from the KJV and of Kierkegaard’s journals (Stewart) as noted in the preface to this lesson plan, for reference while writing their essays.
Assignment (out of class): Compare/contrast essay on Kierkegaard’s religious knight concept versus Lear. This assignment builds on the class activity by asking students to analyze Kierkegaard’s concept of the religious knight versus service of the self in more depth. Using their notes from the in-class activity “Introduction to philosophical concepts of Kierkegaard–with Shakespeare as our guide,” students will develop connections between Kierkegaard’s ethics and notion of the “religious knight” using Shakespeare’s Lear (advanced option: add in Hamlet or another play of Shakespeare’s which Kierkegaard would have seen as “Christian”). The prompt: write a 2-3 page paper in which you examine Kierkegaard’s concept of religion separate from ethics, or religion as unethical as discussed in class. You may use the following questions to prompt your discussion (courtesy of Dividing the Kingdoms): (1) How does Shakespeare’s Lear get us thinking about ethics? (2) How might this kind of philosophical analysis help (or not) one live one’s life? (3) How is the thought related (or not) to the dramatic construction? (4) Does the thought or the dramatic construction “come first”? |
Notes
This lesson plan is indebted to Wayne State University’s Dividing the Kingdoms: Interdisciplinary Methods for Teaching King Lear to Undergraduates, developed for The Folger Shakespeare Library, which I used as a framework/guide for developing this lesson plan’s methodology and format, tailoring it from Aristotelian to Kierkegaardian focus.
Stanley Stewart’s “Lear in Kierkegaard” is an invaluable resource/essay which the instructor can use as background information for prompting students’ discussion into Lear and out of which the instructor can provide key excerpts from Kierkegaard’s thinking on the subject in his personal journals. Students’ essays might reveal similar ideas to Stewart’s critical analysis, or not.
Works Consulted
“Introduction to Philosophy Module.” Dividing the Kingdoms: Interdisciplinary Methods for Teaching King Lear to Undergraduates, developed for The Folger Shakespeare Library’s “Teaching Shakespeare to Undergraduates.” Date accessed: October 31, 2018.
Stewart, Stanley. “Lear in Kierkegaard.” King Lear: New Critical Essays, edited by Kahan, Jeffrey, pp. 277-296. Routledge: 2008.
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