King Lear by William Shakespeare
In William Shakespeare's King Lear, the aging king of Britain descends into insanity as he realizes two of his daughters, Goneril and Regan, are betraying him to gain control of his kingdom, while his other daughter Cordelia, whom he had banished, remains his most devoted supporter. As Cordelia returns to help her father, a bloody, tragic conflict ensues. Shakespeare's King Lear, said to be based on historical events, tells how the quest for power can literally tear a family apart.
The True Chronicle of King Leir is first entered into the Stationers's register in 1594, although there is no record of its publication until the 1605 edition appears. This source, while containing the basic Lear story, is grounded in Christianity, something not contained in the story of the ancient Leir or in Shakespeare's Lear. Many scholars do find ample evidence of Christian ideology in King Lear, but no overt emphasis on Christianity, as there is in Shakespeare's principle source. The old play has a happy ending, where evil is punished and good is rewarded, thus reinforcing the Christian belief in divine justice. Instead of proposing such easy answers, Shakespeare leaves his audience to ponder the role of God and divine justice. As he did so often in borrowing from sources, Shakespeare wove threads of historical accounts and original writings to create the fabric of his own King Lear.
Cast of Characters
King Lear
Lear is the protagonist, whose willingness to believe his older daughters' empty flattery leads to the deaths of many people. In relying on the test of his daughters' love, Lear demonstrates that he lacks common sense or the ability to detect his older daughters' falseness. Lear cannot recognize Cordelia's honesty amid the flattery, which he craves. The depth of Lear's anger toward Kent, his devoted follower, suggests excessive pride — Lear refuses to be wrong. Hubris leads Lear to make a serious mistake in judgment, while Lear's excessive anger toward Kent also suggests the fragility of his emotional state. Hubris is a Greek term referring to excessive and destructive pride. In the ancient Greek world, hubris often resulted in the death of the tragic, heroic figure. This is clearly the case with Lear, who allows his excessive pride to destroy his family.
Throughout the play, the audience is permitted to see how Lear deals with problems. He is shocked when people do not obey as they have in the past, since Lear is king and he expects to be obeyed. However, instead of dealing with issues, Lear looks to the Fool to distract him with entertainment, to help him forget his problems. He has been insulted and demeaned as king, but he is not prepared to face those who are responsible. Instead, Lear often responds to problems with anger and outbursts of cursing, even a physical attack when provoked. When confronted with insults, Lear is helpless, at the mercy of his daughter and her servants, and he often succumbs to despair and self-pity. The once-omnipotent king struggles to find an effective means of dealing with his loss of power.
Eventually, the king reveals that he is frightened and apprehensive for his future, but he refuses to submit to another's decisions. Lear wants to remain in charge of his destiny, even though the choices he makes are poor or filled with danger. Thus, Lear chooses to go out into the storm because he must retain some element of control. The only other choice is to acquiesce to his daughters' control, and for Lear, that option is not worth considering. Lear is stubborn, like a willful child, and this is just one additional way in which he tries to deal with the events controlling his life. Lear flees into the storm, as a child flees a reality too harsh to accept.
In spite of his despair and self-pity, Lear is revealed as a complex man, one whose punishment far exceeds his foolish errors, and thus, Lear is deserving of the audience's sympathy. Eventually, Lear displays regret, remorse, empathy, and compassion for the poor, a population that Lear has not noticed before. Lear focuses on the parallels he sees to his own life, and so in a real sense, his pity for the poor is also a reflection of the pity he feels for his own situation.
Lear is the anointed king, God's representative, and thus, he shares the responsibility for dispensing justice on earth. He recognizes that he bears responsibility for both his own problems and for those of others, who suffer equally. His understanding of his complicity in the events that followed is a major step in accepting responsibility and in acknowledging that he is not infallible. Because of his own suffering, Lear has also learned that even he is not above God's justice.
Goneril
Goneril is Lear's eldest daughter. After professing her deep love for her father and receiving half of his kingdom, she betrays him and plots his murder. Goneril's expressions of love are extreme and reveal the inherent dishonesty of her nature. Goneril reveals her true character when she defies the hierarchy of nature, which calls for daughters to respect and honor their fathers, and lays the groundwork for the torment she will set in motion for the remainder of her father's life.
Goneril leads her father to believe that her love for him extends beyond any evidence of poor behavior, and so ultimately, she is responsible for Lear's actions, having earlier endorsed them. Later, both Goneril and Regan are depicted as especially cruel and bloodthirsty, as they call for Gloucester's punishment. Throughout most of the play, having power has been most important to Goneril, but by its conclusion, she is willing to lose the battle, and thus the kingdom, rather than lose a man.
Regan
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Regan is Lear's second daughter. Regan is as villainous as Goneril. In the beginning, both Regan and Cornwall appear to be conscientious and reasonable people. Regan appears genuinely upset to learn of Edgar's betrayal. Thus, Regan initially appears as the more sympathetic and gentler sister. She greets her father with politeness, but her deportment is deceptive. Regan has no real reverence for her father and king, as her subsequent actions reveal, but Regan is more competent than Goneril at deception, more easily assuming the mantle of deference and politeness that a gracious daughter is expected to exhibit.
Like Goneril, Regan also proves herself to be unyielding and cruel. Regan's plucking of Gloucester's beard reinforces the point that she has no respect for age or rank. In contrast to her basic inhumanity, Regan shows some real humanity, though briefly, when Cornwall is wounded. Regan's concerns that Gloucester should be relieved of his misery indicates that she is cognizant of public opinion and concerned that her subjects support her actions.
Cordelia
Cordelia genuinely loves her father, but her refusal to flatter him leads to the tragedy that unfolds. Cordelia's tears at the news of her father's treatment prove her compassion and establish that she is, indeed, the opposite of her sisters. Cordelia has no desire for revenge, nor any need to make her father suffer for having misjudged her. Her virtue and purity make it easy to see why she is often described as Christ-like or representative of God's goodness. Her response to her father's capture, and her own capture, evokes the stoicism of kings, and reveals that Cordelia is as royal as her father is.
Edgar
Edgar is Gloucester's only legitimate heir, but he must flee and hide from his father when he comes under suspicion. Edgar's innate honesty and dignity lets him believe that his brother, Edmund, would never lie to him, since Edgar would not lie to his brother. Edgar's stoic belief that he has survived the worst that fortune can throw at him is tested when Edgar discovers his father, now blinded. The manner in which Edgar addresses his father indicates compassion, understanding, and an acceptance of his father's flaws.
Edmund
Gloucester's younger illegitimate son is an opportunist, whose ambitions lead him to form a union with Goneril and Regan. The injustice of Edmund's situation fails to justify his subsequent actions. Edmund rejects the laws of state and society in favor of the laws he sees as eminently more practical and useful — the laws of superior cunning and strength.
Edmund's desire to use any means possible to secure his own needs makes him appear initially as a villain without a conscience. But Edmund has some solid economic impetus for his actions, and he acts from a complexity of reasons, many of which are similar to those of Goneril and Regan. To rid himself of his father, Edmund feigns regret and laments that his nature, which is to honor his father, must be subordinate to the loyalty he feels for his country. Thus, Edmund excuses the betrayal of his own father, having willingly and easily left his father vulnerable to Cornwall's anger. Later, Edmund shows no hesitation, nor any concern about killing the king or Cordelia. Yet in the end, Edmund repents and tries to rescind his order to execute Cordelia and Lear, and in this small measure, he does prove himself worthy of Gloucester's blood.
Fool
The Fool assumes the role of Lear's protector when Cordelia is banished. The Fool functions much as a Chorus would in a Greek tragedy, commenting upon events and the king's actions and acting, in some ways, as the king's conscience. The Fool is the king's advocate, loyal and honest, but he is also able to point out the king's faults, as no one else can. The Fool's use of irony, sarcasm, and humor help to ease the truth, and allows him to moderate Lear's behavior. The Fool shares his master's fate, and this reinforces the impression that the Fool's purpose is to protect Lear until Cordelia can arrive to help her father. Both Cordelia and the Fool are caretakers for Lear, and when one is present, the other need not be.
Earl of Kent
Although banished, Kent disguises himself in an effort to stay close to his king. Kent is honest — he will not lie to his king — and he is truly selfless, devoted to Lear. When his attempts to protect Lear from his own impetuous nature fail, Kent assumes the guise of an ordinary man and resolves to protect his king. When queried by Lear as to his identity, Kent replies that he is "a man" (I.4.10). Thus, he is no one special, and yet, he stands apart from many other men. Kent is a man defined by integrity, whose goodness is immeasurable, as is his love for his king. Kent's destiny is irrevocably connected to that of the king's, as the final scene of the play reveals. In rejecting Albany's offer to rule the kingdom with Edgar, Kent reveals that he will soon join his king in death. Clearly, Kent feels that his job on earth is to serve his king, and with that job now ended, he anticipates his own death.
Earl of Gloucester
Gloucester is depicted as afoolish old man, whose inability to see through Edmund's lies parallels Lear's own difficulties. By mistaking Edmund's motives, Gloucester is blind to the events occurring around him, even before Cornwall gouges out his eyes. Clearly, he is not intuitive or quick enough to understand the plotting or undercurrents present around him. Gloucester blames events on the stars, and thus, he absolves himself of any responsibility for his actions.
Later, Gloucester is willing to sacrifice his own life for the king. This heroic behavior sets Gloucester apart from his youngest son, Edmund, who is merely an opportunist. Like Lear, Gloucester feels despair and questions a god, and like Lear, Gloucester finds his humanity in the midst of his tragedy. The blinded old man who asks that clothing be brought, so that Bedlam Tom might be covered, is a very different man from the Gloucester of Act I, who in the play's opening scene, bragged of the good sport to be had at Edmund's conception. Instead of a thoughtless braggart, Gloucester is filled with compassion for Poor Tom. This compassion for his fellow man indicates that Gloucester regrets the behavior of his past, as he seeks to make amends by sharing with those he never noticed before the recent events.
Royal Shakespeare Plot Synopsis
Lear, King of Britain, decides to abdicate and divide his kingdom between his three daughters. When Cordelia refuses to make a public declaration of love for her father she is disinherited and married to the King of France without a dowry. The Earl of Kent is banished by Lear for daring to defend her. The two elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, and their husbands inherit the kingdom.
Gloucester, deceived by his bastard son Edmund, disinherits his legitimate son, Edgar, who is forced to go into hiding to save his life.
Lear, now stripped of his power, quarrels with Goneril and Regan about the conditions of his lodging in their households. In a rage he goes out into the stormy night, accompanied by his Fool and by Kent, now disguised as a servant.
They encounter Edgar, disguised as a mad beggar. Gloucester is betrayed by Edmund and captured by Regan and Cornwall, who put out Gloucester's eyes.
King Lear is taken secretly to Dover, where Cordelia has landed with a French army. The blind Gloucester meets, but does not recognise Edgar, who leads him to Dover. Lear and Cordelia are reconciled but in the ensuing battle are captured by the sisters' forces.
Goneril and Regan are both in love with Edmund, who encourages them both. Discovering this, Goneril's husband Albany forces Edmund to defend himself against the charge of treachery. A knight appears to challenge Edmund and, after fatally wounding him, reveals himself to be Edgar. News comes that Goneril has poisoned Regan and then committed suicide. Before dying, Edmund reveals that he has ordered the deaths of Lear and Cordelia.
Extended Synopsis
In Britain, King Lear, in old age, chooses to retire and divide up Britain between his three daughters. However, he declares that they must first be wed before being given the land. He asks his daughters the extent of their love for him. The two oldest, Goneril and Regan, both flatter him with praise and are rewarded generously with land and marriage to the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall, respectively. Lear's youngest and most beloved daughter, Cordelia, refuses to flatter her father, going only so far as to say that she loves him as much as a daughter should. Lear, unjustly enraged, gives her no land. The Earl of Kent tries to convince Lear to reconsider, but Lear refuses then banishes Kent for acting traitorously by supporting Cordelia. Gloucester then brings the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy in and Lear offers Cordelia to Burgundy, though without a dowry of land, contrary to a previous agreement. Burgundy declines, but the French King, impressed by Cordelia's steadfastness, takes her as Queen of France. Next, Lear passes all powers and governance of Britain down to Albany and Cornwall.
Edmund, bastard son of Gloucester, vows to himself to reclaim land his father has given to his "legitimate" son Edgar. Edmund does this by showing his father a letter he (Edmund) forged, which makes it seem that Edgar wants to take over his father's lands and revenues jointly with Edmund. Gloucester is enraged, but Edmund calms him. Later, Edmund warns Edward that he is in trouble with his father, pretending to help him.
Goneril instructs her steward, Oswald, to act coldly to King Lear and his knights, in efforts to chide him since he continues to grow more unruly. Kent arrives, disguised as a servant, and offers his services to Lear, who accepts. However, as a result of the servants' lack of respect for Lear, his own fool's derisions of him, and Goneril's ill respect toward him, Lear storms out of Goneril's home, never to look on her again. Lear goes next to Regan's house. While leaving, the fool again criticizes Lear for giving his lands to his daughters. Lear fears he (himself) is becoming insane.
At Gloucester's castle, Edmund convinces Edgar to flee, then wounds himself to make it look like Edgar attacked him. Gloucester, thankful for Edmund's support of him, vows to capture Edgar and reward Edmund. Regan and Cornwall arrive to discuss with Albany their ensuing war against Lear. Kent arrives at Gloucester's with a message from Lear and meets Oswald (whom Kent dislikes and mistrusts) with a message from Goneril. Kent attacks Oswald, but Cornwall and Regan break up the fight, afterwhich Kent is put in the stocks for 24 hours. Edgar, still running, tells himself he must disguise himself as a beggar. King Lear arrives, finding Kent in the stocks. At first, Regan and Cornwall refuse to see Lear, further enraging him, but then they allow him to enter. Oswald and Goneril arrive, and Lear becomes further enraged. After Regan and Goneril chide Lear to the brink, he leaves Gloucester's castle, entering a storm. The daughters and Cornwall are glad he leaves, though Gloucester is privately concerned for his health.
In the storm, Kent sends a man to Dover to get Cordelia and her French forces to rescue Lear and help him fight Albany and Cornwall. Lear stands in the storm swearing at it and his daughters, but Kent convinces him to hide in a cave. Gloucester tells Edmund of the French forces and departs for Lear, but Edmund plans to betray his father and inform Cornwall of the proceedings. Kent finds Lear, nearly delirious, in the storm, and tries to take him into the cave. Just then, Edgar emerges from the cave, pretending to be a madman. Lear likes him and refuses to go into the cave. Gloucester arrives (not recognizing Edgar), and convinces them all to go to a farmhouse of his. Edmund, as promised, informs Cornwall of Gloucester's dealings with the French army. Cornwall vows to arrest Gloucester and name Edmund the new Duke of Gloucester.
At the farmhouse, Lear, growing more insane, pretends his two eldest daughters are on trial for betraying him. Edgar laments that the King's predicament makes it difficult to keep up his (Edgar's) charade, out of sympathy for the King's madness. Gloucester returns and convinces Lear, Kent, and the fool to flee because Cornwall plans to kill him. Cornwall captures Gloucester and with Regan cheering him on, plucks out Gloucester's eyeballs with his bare fingers. During the torture, Gloucester's servant rescues his master from Cornwall and they flee to Dover to meet the French. On the way there, Gloucester and the servant meet Edgar (still a madman, named Poor Tom), who leads his father (Gloucester) the rest of the way.
At Albany's palace, Goneril promises her love to Edmund, since her husband (Albany) refuses to fight the French. Albany believes that the daughters mistreated their father (Lear). A messenger brings news that Cornwall is dead, from a fatal jab he received when a servant attacked him while he was plucking out Gloucester's eyeballs. Albany, feeling sorry for Gloucester and learning of Edmund's treachery with his wife, vows revenge.
At Dover, Cordelia sends a sentry out to find her estranged father. Regan instructs Oswald (Goneril's servant) to tell Edmund that she (Regan_ wants to marry him, since Cornwall is dead. Edgar pretends to let Gloucester jump off a cliff (Gloucester believes it truly happened), then Edgar pretends to be a different man and continues to help his father. Lear, fully mad now, approaches and speaks to them. Cordelia's men arrive and take Lear to her. Oswald comes across Edgar and Gloucester, threatening to kill them. Edgar, though, kills Oswald, and discovers by letter that Goneril plants to murder Albany and marry Edmund. At Cordelia's camp, King Lear awakes, more sane than before, and recognizes Cordelia.
At her camp, Goneril, while arguing with Albany, states to herself that she would rather lose the battle than let Regan marry Edmund. Edgar, disguised, brings warning of ill plots (by Goneril) to Albany. Lear and Cordelia are captured in battle by Edmund. Edmund sends them to jail and instructs a Captain to kill them. Edgar arrives and fights and wounds Edmund, who admits his treacheries to all. Goneril mortally poisons Regan, then stabs herself. Edmund reveals that he and Regan ordered the Captain to hang Cordelia and kill Lear. Lear then emerges with dead Cordelia, and tells all he killed the Captain that hung her. Edmund dies and King Lear, in grief over Cordelia, dies.
Complete Script of the Play
Another full script: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/lear/full.html
KING LEAR (1605-06) from The Annotated Shakespeare by A.L. Rowse
To Elizabethan audiences, the story of Lear and his daughters had a status of authentic history, and both early productions describe it as a 'true chronicle history'.
Play's structure: Complex and Gothic
Role of Fool- is important - brings Lear light/dark sides of situations
speaks much WISDOM and TRUTH, with caustic effect
EVIL is dispersed throughout the play
-Lear's daughter's, Goneril and Regan
-Regan's husband, Duke of Cornwall
-Gloucester's bastard son, Edmund
All act evil conversely due to the actions of these characters:
-Gloucester: gullible, suffers for his illusions
-King Lear: suffers the most for his illusions; his character is fully revealed in the first scene giving away his
kingdom, exposing self to the bitterest ingratitude, and throwing away devotion of two most loyal supporters, Cordelia and Kent.
Most believe Lear gets what he asks for--He is rash and intemperate by nature, so later his wits disappear and turn to senility.
The largest portion of the play King Lear is used to draw the consequences for his (Lear's ) actions:
finally learns...Truth about himself, about others, and about life itself. Fool tells all of this to him.
"Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise"
***Could be regarded as the moral of the play in one sentence***
(Most of the moral lessons in the play are presented by Fool)
Gloucester- "I stumbled when I saw", "...full oft 'tis seen, Our means secure us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities."
*Meaning: Our resources make us feel secure and careless--when our very defeats may prove to benefit us.
Treatment of Psychological Distortion
*Gloucester's blinding
*Edgar's exile as mad Tom O' Bedlam
*Regan and Goneril's sexual rivalry
*Lear's madness
Lear's Madness
Madness on the stage is extraordinarily exciting. Why?
1. Removes all restraint upon the tongue..anything can be said with more cutting words.
Lear-condition is extrovert-his tragedy is clear from the beginning and is brought on his own head.
-condition is intensive-but far more extensive, showing a world afflicted by evil.
General Paresis (French Physician, Phillipe Pind (1745-1826) 1st person to see it as a disease
a psychosis characterized by a general decline in physical and psychological functions, culminating in marked personality abberations which may include: Childish Delusions and Wild Hypochondriacal Delusions
Play is Epical--just from the elements themselves:
Storm and Rain, Heath and Hovel, Men Mad/Pretending to be mad
Further Commentary
Core issue in King Lear is Human Failing
1. Gloucester's blindness foreshadowed in lack of judgment concerning Edgar.
2. Lear's madness by his egotistical demand for total love.
these are shown in conjunction with the issue of Unscrupulous Ambition for Power
Edmund, Cornwall, Goneril, Regan are all involved in this area
Classroom Notes
Widely regarded as Shakespeare's crowning achievement, King Lear is an example of Tragic Lyricism.
Shown through: Lear raging naked on a stormy heath against his deceitful daughters and nature itself.
Origin of the Play: First appeared in writing in the 12th century, as a Folk tale about an aged monarch who was abused by his children.
Shakespeare's Lear: a tragedy of such consuming force that audiences and readers are left to wonder whether there is any meaning to the physical and moral carnage with which the play concludes.
The very question, "Is this the promis'd end" (Kent, V.iii.264) stands at the divide between traditional critics who find a heroic pattern in the story and modern readers who can see no redeeming or purgative dimension to the play at all--the message being the bare futility of the human condition with Lear as Everyman.
Four (4) questions to be covered:
1.) Is Lear a Good King?
In the first act of the play, Lear clearly sees himself as a good king reigning over a country that is prosperous and at peace with its neighbors, and using the marriage of his daughter Cordelia to enlarge his nation's foreign alliances.
Yet, Lear is "blind" long before he reaches the status of unaccomodated man raging on the heath.
*He fails to take counsel from the loyal Kent
*He fails to realize that relinquishing his throne will necessarily entail a reduction in privileges he enjoys.
WORST OF ALL: Divides his Kingdom, creating conditions for Civil War.
Lear wants it both ways:
+Wants to unburden himself from the role of the king but to retain the power of a king.
He thinks himself a good king, but by all reality he is not.
2.) Is Lear a good Father?
From the standpoint of his role as the father of three daughters, Lear's division of his kingdom into three equal parts seems fair.
-The division is a recipe for discord.
**What strikes the audience is how little insight Lear has into the basic character of his daughters.
+Having lived with Goneril and Regan for two decades or more, Lear is completely unaware of their capacity for deceit; he seems genuinely shocked when they begin to undermine his status.
+By the same token, his dismissal of Cordelia as an ingrate stands in contrast with her character as Lear's only honest progeny.
Lear's view of himself as an ideal father does not square with his lack of insight into the character of his daughters.
3.) Does Edmund have a legitimate cause for complaint?
The bastard Edmund is even more villainous than Lear's daughters.
*Daughters--exploit circumstances Lear creates
*Edmund--creates the division between Gloucester and Edgar
Nevertheless, Edmund does have some cause for complaint.
1. Product of father's liscentious behavior
2. Gloucester maligns his character
*Edgar flees, then Edmund moves to get rid of father to inherit Gloucester's estate.
--Kent is mistreated by Edmund; however, it is in the arranging of Cordelia's death where Edmund does the most harm.
However, so many evil tasks are assigned to Edmund that the validity of his complaint against Gloucester is negated.
Therefore, his status as a bastard provides cause for discontentment, but his actions go well beyond the redress of any legitimate complaint.
4.) Why did Shakespeare insert the conflict between Goneril and Regan over Edmund?
In the last scene of the play, Goneril confesses to poisoning her sister Regan and then commits suicide herself.
**Crux of conflict begins in Act 4
Love emerges between Goneril and Edmund
--Immediately upon learning of the death of brother-in-law Cornwall (Regan's husband), Goneril suspects her sister will become Edmund's lover.
*ACT 5--Goneril would rather "lose battle at hand than see sister get Edmund"
+Insertion of odd love triangle--reason--to intensify the animal-like viciousness of the two (2) women.
They are part of two matters of sheer expediency:
1. Cooperative endeavor against their father
2. Against Cordelia...Lear's "favorite"
In the end, they are both so evil they cannot keep their unholy alliance together.
Neither woman:
-displays true passion for Edmund
-fail to deny satisfaction to the other
-realize a perverse love affair with the bastard Edmund
Summary Study Guide
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xKingLear.html
Study guides
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Discussion Questions: King Lear
1. This is the first of the great Tragedies we've seen that is set in England. What might we make of this? Why are we no longer in the far off lands of Denmark, Venice, or even Vienna? What do you make of the fact that so many of the secondary characters are called by place names (Albany, Cornwall, Gloucester, Kent, France)?
2. How could a familial (or psychoanalytic) reading be expanded by adding a New Historicist perspective? Given that this isn't just any family -- it is, after all, the royal family -- what socio-political readings can you do of these relationships?
3. Shakespeare's version of this story differs quite a bit from his source, Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae). In Geoffrey's version Lear eventually goes to France to stay with Cordelia; Regan and Goneril both have sons who eventually try to take the throne from Cordelia; Cordelia rules over her father's kingdom, once he dies, for a period of five years; Cordelia is eventually imprisoned by her nephews and grieves so much over the loss of her kingdom that she kills herself Why do you think Shakespeare changed the story? What, if anything, gets foregrounded in Shakespeare's version that doesn't emerge as central in Geoffrey's? Is this important?
4. Why does Lear make his daughters prove themselves? Why does he divide the kingdom between them?
5. What are the connections between the main plot and the subplot?
6. What is the role/significance of the fool?
7. What is the significance of insanity in the play?
8. What is the significance of "nothing" in the play?
9. Why does Edgar choose to disguise himself as a madman? Why doesn't he reveal himself to his father until so much later? Why does Gloucester "jump" off the cliff?
10. What is the significance of Nature in the play?
11. Why doesn't Lear go into the hovel at first?
12. What roles do Albany and Cornwall play? Why is there a conflict between them?
13. What is the function of Oswald and the "Gentleman"?
14. Why must Cordelia die?
15. "Through tatter’d clothes small vices do appear;Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,And the strong lance of justice hurtles breaks;Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it."
The lines above are from a speech by King Lear. Write a carefully reasoned essay in which you briefly paraphrase Lear’s statement and then defend, challenge, or qualify his view of the relationship between wealth and justice. Support you argument with specific references to your reading, observation, or experience
Practice Quiz
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/lear/quiz.html
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