Sympathy Seeking A Thousand Acres From Shakespeare s...

Shreyas Tallamraju Ms. Laura Fitch AP English 12 1 April 2015 Sympathy-Seeking: The Alteration of Characters and their Circumstances To Manipulate Audience Sympathy in Smiley’s A Thousand Acres from Shakespeare’s King Lear There are few names as commonplace, ubiquitous, and recognizable as that of William Shakespeare. His enchanting story telling, complex plot twists, and brilliant usage of rhetoric make it easy to understand why connoisseurs of the English language are devotees to his style of writing. However, it is his extremely portable themes that endear him to today’s audience – plotlines that resonate with the modern everyday human just as much with someone from the 1600s. A direct consequence of this portability of stories is†¦show more content†¦From the beginning, we are to root for a ‘good’ daughter, who is unselfish and honest, and to hate the two ‘scheming’ daughters who manipulate their father to get what they want – land. Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, however, reshapes the original Shakespearean work by altering the who the audience feels sympathy for, and the purpose of this alteration is to convey a deeper disagreement with Shakespeare – that blind unselfishness, submission, and loyalty to authority figures, especially abusive (usually male) figures, should be frowned upon, not sympathized with. Smiley twists the portrayal of major characters to ensure the reader’s sympathy is directed at a whole new target than before, furthering her purpose in writing her inter-textual piece, and we can see this sympathy manipulated in Smiley’s reshaped portrayal of the relationship between the two older sisters (Goneril and Regan/Ginny and Rose) and the younger sister (Cordelia/Caroline), and in Smiley’s portrayal of the character development of the patriarch of the family (King Lear/Larry Cook). Shakespeare’s portrayal of the relationship between the two older sisters and the younger sister easily conveys to the readers that the older sisters are to be hated, while the younger one should be sympathized with. Shakespeare’s King Lear begins with a famous scene that involves the proclamation of love from three daughters to their father in order to receive land. â€Å"Since now we will divest us both of