So now that we’re reviewing, one of the more interesting aspects that we were able to focus on today while review our books and previous notes, was characterization in the novel/ play and how it was conveyed / how it affected the portrayed relationships between characters and thus was ultimately able to better express the theme.  Looking back on the novel related question that we were faced with on the practice exam on Saturday, out of the novels presented that we could choose from, I felt that King Lear and Othello were two of the more easy plays to write about especially because the influence and words from others played such a great role in shaping the actions of the main characters in both plays (and often also caused their downfall in the end).  Within King Lear, because there were so many character interactions, I feel that it is a bit harder to pinpoint a main underlying “mentor-student (often unknowingly)” relationship because there were quite a few of them, though not all of them are as obvious at first.  The most prominent mentor-student relationships are perhaps the positive ones in which the mentor usually cares about the student and influences the student to make better choices and decisions affecting their own lives and others around them.  This could be seen in Kent’s devotion and loyalty to King Lear even after his two eldest daughters begin plotting against him and his other knights abandon and leave him; even after Lear banishes him, he still comes back in disguise to advise him and even defend his reputation against Oswald.  And the Fool (Joker) is also almost like Lear’s unofficial and unacknowledged but subtle advisor because he hides all his advice under the guise of humor and lilting comedy (ex: the kingdom being like an egg split into two crowns with the middle yolk being eaten out, and his so very flattering descriptions of Regan and Goneril).  He also may be said to have helped his “nuncle” become a better, perhaps more aware, person, though this could also be due to the unfortunate circumstances Lear finds himself thrust into when neither of this two eldest daughters welcome him into their house and he finds himself banished into the storm like a beggar with not even a place to call home.  It is here that he realizes what the poor people of his kingdom must go through, and the suffering that he was previously oblivious to.  Another possible, though not as strong candidate for a mentor to Lear, could possibly be Cordelia?  Because I feel like her initial actions and insistence in maintaining her original honest stance throughout the play is what sets off Lear on this journey of change and revelation for him.  However, because she is absent for most of the play and only returns to Lear’s side at the end I feel like she had less of an influence or part in his transformation to the end, but indirectly started it with her honest response at the beginning.  And on the opposite end of the spectrum, there was also the negative influences of mentors which would probably awarded to either Edmund in his manipulation of Gloucester to banish Edgar and Iago in basically ruining Othello’s mind and in the end his life.