Although this video is very short, it mentions and strongly emphasizes one recurring theme in Shakespeare’s King Lear, betrayal. I mainly picked this video not because it was short haha, but because it was a theme I did not think of at first when I first read the summary on Sparknotes. It was also a theme not mentioned in the other video responses to King Lear on Youtube. In this video, the speaker groups the betrayal happening in in the play into four categories: betrayal between father and children, between the body and itself (old age), between the mind and the body (madness), and lastly, betrayal of justice. The point of betrayal between children was very obvious and easily grasped; so was the example of betrayal of madness. It was easy to point out King Lear was betrayed by his two eldest daughters and Gloucester was betrayed by his illegitimate son, Edmund. Also, it was easy to see how King Lear went through phases of insanity. The speaker’s points of betrayal of old age was very interesting because while it is common sense that when we grow old, our organs begin to fail and etc. However, because it was in our common sense, it did not even register in my head that it was tied into King Lear. I extremely liked her point on the betrayal of justice. Not only is justice betrayed because the “good” people, like Cordelia, was killed for trying to save her father, but the “bad” people were also killed, like Regan and Goneril. This shows betrayal of justice because for example, Goneril does not get punished for abandoning and betraying her father, for plotting against and killing her sister Cordelia, and also for poisoning her other sister Regan.

Another thing I found interesting was the speaker’s color choice of clothing. Although it may not have been intentional, but the woman is wearing a green shirt. The color green is usually associated with jealousy, feelings or emotions-wise. I found this interesting because feelings of jealousy can lead to acts of betrayal as shown by Goneril when she was jealous of Edmund and Regan’s attraction for each other so she planned to kill her own sister.