Who Builds the Arc?

Falling behind a little bit in my postings, so I'll try to recap before it all becomes a blur. On Tuesday night, we looked at a couple of short scenes from the latter half of the play--again, they are ostensibly information scenes, but they yield opportunities to develop the characters, especially Regan and Goneril.

In the first scene, Regan interrogates Oswald (Goneril's servant) about the budding relationship between Goneril and Edmund. This is the first time we see Regan after Cornwall has died; we need to know (in very short order), how her husband's death has affected her, and what she's after now. Shortly afterwards, there's a scene with both sisters plus Edmund (and, yes, Albany makes a brief appearance). Here, we clearly see the tension between the two sisters (who have barely ever appeared onstage together, and usually only to unite against their father).

The blocking was fairly simple, so we spent most of our time dealing with character stuff. Brittany (Regan) and Beverly (Goneril) are close to completing arcs for their respective characters, and I want to make sure they are clearly articulated before we break for Christmas.

Earlier, when I asked Beverly what she thought of Goneril, she replied, "She's a bitch." Now, however, she's starting to suspect that Goneril is missing some important things in her life, and that's what's driving her bitchiness. She has a husband who appears to love her (at least, until she starts behaving truly vilely), but it wasn't the husband of her choice (she's more attracted to bad guys, like Edmund). Since the marriage was arranged (by Daddy), she can never quite believe Albany when he shows affection for her. She wants choice, even more than power, which is why she's willing to share her power with Edmund.

Regan starts the play as a very submissive person--constantly agreeing with anyone who happens to be speaking, usually Goneril or Cornwall. We decided early on that Cornwall was probably an violent and abusive husband, which helps to explain R's psychology, I think. But something happens in 3.1 to bring her out from under his thumb. It's not his death, as one might think, that liberates her. Brittany has pinpointed it as happening in response to Gloster's vicious accusatory speech:

Because I would not see thy cruel Nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes: nor thy fierce Sister,
In his Anointed flesh, stick boarish fangs.
The Sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In Hell-black-night endur’d, would have surg’d up
And quench’d the starry fires.
If Wolves had at thy Gate howl’d that harsh time,
Thou should’st have said, “Good Porter, turn the Key:
All Cruelty’s forgiven.” But I shall see
The wingèd Vengeance overtake such Children—

When he says these things to Regan, she snaps. How could anyone accuse her of such cruelty? She's the victim, not the perpetrator. Well, then, if the world thinks she's a horrible person, she'll behave like one. She has the impulse to make Gloster suffer--and, almost on cue, Cornwall steps in to "do her bidding" by putting out the old man's eyes. The rest of the scene is Regan's violent tear--she urges C. to put the second eye out, she kills the Servant who intervenes, and she all but ignores Cornwall as he bleeds to death. She has gone from being the victim of violence to being its instigator.

The remainder of her scenes have a sort of bi-polar feel to them, careening from almost uncontrollable rage to Goneril-like manipulation. One gets the feeling that, if Goneril hadn't poisoned her at the end of the play, she probably would have self-destructed pretty soon anyway.