King Lear

Reinventing <I>Lear</I>
Caroline Cakebread writes about Jane Smiley's book, A Thousand Acres.

King Lear in Overalls?
Well, sort of. Picture King Lear set on a farm in Midwestern America. That's where our modern Lear family lives in Jane Smiley's novel, A Thousand Acres, where she takes the plot of Shakespeare's tragedy and moves it to Iowa in 1979. Larry Cook, head of the Cook family, decides that he's going to divide up his farm - all 1,000 acres of it - among his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and young Caroline, the apple of his eye. Sound familiar? It gets better - there's a snag in Larry's plan when his favourite daughter, Caroline, questions his decision and becomes the target of her stubborn father's wrath. Larry proceeds to shut Caroline out of the deal and to divide the farm between sisters Ginny (Gonerill), Rose (Regan) and their husbands, Ty (Albany) and Pete (Cornwall).

Aside from the plot itself, author, Smiley, offers yet another important twist on Shakespeare's play - the narrator of A Thousand Acres is Ginny, the American farm-wife version of Gonerill. While Lear's oldest daughter is one of the villains in Shakespeare's tragedy, Ginny Cook is a sympathetic character in Smiley's book - because she's the narrator, we experience all the events through her eyes. That makes for a very interesting take on Shakespeare's play - one where we see Ginny and her sister Rose stuck trying to pacify their angry and irrational father while trying to keep things together as dutiful farm wives. We learn about their childhood, their mother's death from cancer, and about a secret both Ginny and Rose harbour as adults - the fact that their father sexually abused them when they were girls living at home.

The new perspective that Smiley brings to King Lear teaches us a lot about Shakespeare's play and the family dynamics it highlights. For one thing, we have new sympathy for daughters growing up under a tyrannical father - one who has abused them in the past. Jane Smiley gives us new ways to understand the actions of King Lear's daughters - and creates a character around the absent mother in Shakespeare's play. While patient Cordelia is a touchstone for all that is good in Shakespeare's tragedy, Caroline, the lawyer who left farm life for a high-powered career in the city, is dry, logical and unsympathetic. She helps Larry take his older daughters to court in an effort to get his farm back. She stands by her father, an abusive man whose judgement is impaired by growing paranoia, dementia and bouts of drinking.

Because Smiley retells King Lear from a completely different perspective, you could call her novel a revision of Shakespeare's play - a complete re-visioning of Lear's tragedy through Ginny's eyes.

There are still more Shakespeare-inspired characters in A Thousand Acres. For example, Gloucester and his family take the form of Harold Clark and his two sons Jess (Edmond) and Loren (Edgar). Jess is the black sheep of the Clark family: a pacifist, he fled to Canada to escape being drafted for the Vietnam War. He's an environmentalist and a vegetarian. His affair with Ginny and, later on, Rose, leads both sisters to discover new truths about the land on which they live. Years of fertilizer and pesticide-use have polluted the soil and, importantly, the well water from which they drink. Rose, who is recovering from breast cancer, learns the roots of her disease -- pollution. And Ginny - who is unable to have children - realizes that the water she's been drinking for years has lead to her miscarriages and inability to carry a baby to full term.

So, does that mean Jane Smiley's novel is a feminist version King Lear? Yes, on one level. But it also takes a look at the environmental impact of modern farming practices and the relationship between the past and the present. Ginny's story is both compelling and profound - like Shakespeare's play. Looking at King Lear in a completely different context - 1979 in Iowa - teaches us a lot about ourselves in the present and our relationship to the past. While Ginny and her siblings work to come to terms with their father's sins, Jane Smiley is using Shakespeare's play to break new literary ground.

Caroline Cakebread is a Toronto-based writer and journalist. She has published numerous essays on Shakespeare, women's literature and contemporary culture. She holds an MA and a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.


			Caroline Cakebread writes about Jane Smiley's book, A Thousand Acres. Well, sort of. Picture King Lear set on a farm in Midwestern America. That's where our modern Lear family lives in Jane Smiley's novel, A Thousand Acres, where she takes the plot of Shakespeare's tragedy and moves it to Iowa in 1979. Larry Cook, head of the Cook family, decides that he's going to divide up his farm - all 1,000 acres of it - among his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and young Caroline, the apple of his eye. Sound familiar? It gets better - there's a snag in Larry's plan when his favourite daughter, Caroline, questions his decision and becomes the target of her stubborn father's wrath. Larry proceeds to shut Caroline out of the deal and to divide the farm between sisters Ginny (Gonerill), Rose (Regan) and their husbands, Ty (Albany) and Pete (Cornwall). Aside from the plot itself, author, Smiley, offers yet another important twist on Shakespeare's play - the narrator of A Thousand Acres is Ginny, the American farm-wife version of Gonerill. While Lear's oldest daughter is one of the villains in Shakespeare's tragedy, Ginny Cook is a sympathetic character in Smiley's book - because she's the narrator, we experience all the events through her eyes. That makes for a very interesting take on Shakespeare's play - one where we see Ginny and her sister Rose stuck trying to pacify their angry and irrational father while trying to keep things together as dutiful farm wives. We learn about their childhood, their mother's death from cancer, and about a secret both Ginny and Rose harbour as adults - the fact that their father sexually abused them when they were girls living at home. The new perspective that Smiley brings to King Lear teaches us a lot about Shakespeare's play and the family dynamics it highlights. For one thing, we have new sympathy for daughters growing up under a tyrannical father - one who has abused them in the past. Jane Smiley gives us new ways to understand the actions of King Lear's daughters - and creates a character around the absent mother in Shakespeare's play. While patient Cordelia is a touchstone for all that is good in Shakespeare's tragedy, Caroline, the lawyer who left farm life for a high-powered career in the city, is dry, logical and unsympathetic. She helps Larry take his older daughters to court in an effort to get his farm back. She stands by her father, an abusive man whose judgement is impaired by growing paranoia, dementia and bouts of drinking. Because Smiley retells King Lear from a completely different perspective, you could call her novel a revision of Shakespeare's play - a complete re-visioning of Lear's tragedy through Ginny's eyes. There are still more Shakespeare-inspired characters in A Thousand Acres. For example, Gloucester and his family take the form of Harold Clark and his two sons Jess (Edmond) and Loren (Edgar). Jess is the black sheep of the Clark family: a pacifist, he fled to Canada to escape being drafted for the Vietnam War. He's an environmentalist and a vegetarian. His affair with Ginny and, later on, Rose, leads both sisters to discover new truths about the land on which they live. Years of fertilizer and pesticide-use have polluted the soil and, importantly, the well water from which they drink. Rose, who is recovering from breast cancer, learns the roots of her disease -- pollution. And Ginny - who is unable to have children - realizes that the water she's been drinking for years has lead to her miscarriages and inability to carry a baby to full term. So, does that mean Jane Smiley's novel is a feminist version King Lear? Yes, on one level. But it also takes a look at the environmental impact of modern farming practices and the relationship between the past and the present. Ginny's story is both compelling and profound - like Shakespeare's play. Looking at King Lear in a completely different context - 1979 in Iowa - teaches us a lot about ourselves in the present and our relationship to the past. While Ginny and her siblings work to come to terms with their father's sins, Jane Smiley is using Shakespeare's play to break new literary ground. Caroline Cakebread is a Toronto-based writer and journalist. She has published numerous essays on Shakespeare, women's literature and contemporary culture. She holds an MA and a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.