Type of Work

King Lear is a tragic stage play centering on the decline and fall of a dysfunctional royal family.
It is also sometimes referred to as a chronicle play because it draws upon historical information
in such documents as The True Chronicle History of King Leir and His Daughters (anonymous,
1594) and The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, by Raphael Holinshed (1587).
Composition and Performance
.
The best evidence indicates that Shakespeare wrote King Lear between 1603 and 1606. The first
documented performance of the play took place December 26, 1606, before King James I at his
palace in London. According to Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto, another documented
performance took place at the town of Nidderdale, Yorkshire, in Gowthwaite Hall.
Publication
Quarto editions of King Lear were published in 1608 and 1619. In 1623, the play was published
in a book that included thirty-five other Shakespeare plays. This book was in folio format, a
larger format than quarto, and constituted the first authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays. It
came to be known as the First Folio.
Sources
The probable main sources for the play were The True Chronicle History of King Lear and His
Daughters (anonymous, 1594); The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, by Raphael
Holinshed (1587); Arcadia (1590, Chapter 10, Book 2), by Sir Philip Sidney; and a Dutch
pamphlet entitled “Strange, Fearful and True News Which Happened at Carlstadt in the
Kingdom of Croatia” (a source for the information on eclipses in Act 1, Scene, 2.)
Settings
.
The action takes place in ancient Britain. The places include the castles of King Lear and the Earl
of Gloucester, the palace of the Duke of Albany, a forest, a heath, a farmhouse near Gloucester’s
castle, a French camp near Dover, a British camp near Dover, and fields near Dover.
Characters
Lear: King of England and the main character, or protagonist. He is a headstrong old man who is
blind to his weaknesses and misjudges his three daughters, believing that the two evil daughters
have his best interests at heart and that his good and selfless daughter opposes him. He
undergoes great suffering that opens his eyes and ennobles his character. Whether there was a
historical Lear is uncertain.
Goneril, Regan: Selfish, greedy daughters of Lear who pretend to love him when he announces
that he will gives them shares of his kingdom. Later, they treat him cruelly.
Cordelia: Loyal and unselfish daughter of Lear. He disowns her after confusing her honesty with
insolence. She continues to love her father in spite of his rejection of her.
Duke of Burgundy: Suitor of Cordelia. He decides to reject her after Lear disowns her.
King of France: Suitor of Cordelia. He marries her even though Lear has disowned her.
Duke of Cornwall: Regan's husband, who is just as cruel as she is.
Duke of Albany: Goneril's husband. He turns against her when he realizes that she is an evil
schemer.
Earl of Kent: True and honest friend of Lear who remains loyal even after the king banishes him.
To continue serving the king, he wears a disguise and calls himself “Caius.”
Earl of Gloucester: Old man who suffers from many of the same faults as Lear. Like Lear, he is
old and self-important; like Lear, he misjudges his children and undergoes suffering that makes
him a better man. However, Gloucester is less forceful and demanding than Lear and more given
to compromise. Such qualities make him a foil of Lear.
Edgar: Gloucester's loyal son and heir. He resembles Cordelia in his loyalty to his father.
Edmund: Gloucester's evil bastard son. He resembles Goneril and Regan in his disloyalty to his
father.
Fool: Jester loyal to Lear and Cordelia. The fool is a walking paradox—that is, he is the wisest
character in play in that he is the only character who understands the motivations of Lear, his
daughters, and other characters. He acts as a kind of mirror, reflecting Lear’s faults and
weaknesses.
Curan: Courtier.
Old Man: Tenant of Gloucester.
Doctor: Physician who attends Lear after the old king arrives at Dover.
Oswald: Villainous steward of Goneril.
Captain: Employee of Edmund.
Gentleman: Attendant of Cordelia.
Herald
First Servant, Second Servant, Third Servant: Servants of the Duke of Cornwall.
Monsier La Far: Marshal of France. He has no speaking part.
Minor Characters: Knights of Lear's train, captains, messengers, soldiers, and attendants.
.
Plot Summary
.
King Lear, a dotty 80-year-old ruler of ancient Britain, announces that he will retire from the
throne and divide his kingdom among his three daughters: Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. The
foolish, self-centered old man declares in Act 1that the daughter who loves him most will receive
the biggest share of his property. Then he will live with each daughter in turn, one month at a
time. The avaricious Goneril declares that her love for her father knows no bounds:
Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you. (1.1.39-45)
Equally avaricious Regan says Goneril comes up short, declaring, “I am alone felicitate / In your
dear highness’ love” (1.1.59-60). Much pleased, Lear asks his favorite daughter, Cordelia, what
she can do to win the richest share of his kingdom. She replies, “Nothing, my lord” (1.1.72).
Surprised and disappointed, Lear presses Cordelia, the only daughter who truly loves her father,
to speak up for herself. But she says,
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less. (1.1.76-78)
Angry now, Lear warns her to “mend your speech a little, / Lest it may mar your fortunes”
(1.1.79-80). But Cordelia stands fast, refusing to take part in the foolish contest. Consequently,
Lear disowns her and divides his property between Goneril and Regan. The Duke of Kent, long a
loyal friend of the king, advises Lear that his action is rash and foolish. He asserts: “Thy
youngest daughter does not love thee least” (1.1.142). Lear warns him to hold his tongue. Kent—
believing himself honor-bound to point out Lear’s folly—says, “I’ll tell thee thou dost evil”
(1.1.161). In response, Lear banishes him from the country.

The Duke of Burgundy, who has been suing for the hand of Cordelia, now rejects her as
unworthy. After all, she is without property and title. But the King of France, who admires the
young woman for her honesty and spunk, marries her; they leave to live in France.

Goneril and her husband, the Duke of Albany, first host Lear, his fool, and his entourage of a
hundred knights. But in time, the eccentric old man and the rowdy behavior of his companions
vex her sorely. After Goneril’s steward, Oswald, scolds the king's fool, Lear strikes Oswald. In
response, Goneril says,
By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other,
That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it. (1.3.5-7)
She tells Oswald to ignore Lear and his entourage since he is now an “idle old man” (1.3.18)
who has relinquished his authority. If he dislikes the treatment he receives, she says, he can
move to the castle of Regan and her husband, the Duke of Cornwall. There, she says, he will
receive similar treatment, for Regan and she are of one mind in their view that their father is a
pesky old man.

Meanwhile, the banished Kent presents himself in disguise, calling himself Caius, and tells the
king he wishes to serve him: “I can keep honest counsel, ride, run . . . and deliver a plain
message bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is
diligence” (1.4.26). After Lear accepts him, Kent learns from one of the knights that Goneril no
longer regards her father with affection.
Oswald enters. Lear, regarding him as a tool of Goneril, insults and slaps him. For good measure,
the disguised Kent trips Oswald and pushes him away. The king’s fool comes in just then and
recites a little speech for Lear and Kent. It contains more wisdom than Lear realizes:
Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest [own],
Ride more than thou goest [walk],
Learn more than thou trowest [know],
Set less than thou throwest [in a game of dice, bet less than you can afford to lose]
Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door [indoors],
And thou shalt have more [more money]
Than two tens to a score. (1.4.71-80)

Goneril enters and reprimands Lear for the rowdy behavior of his knights. She tells him to
reduce their number, keeping only those who behave. Lear defends them as honorable men and
curses Goneril as a monster. He tells her husband, Albany, never to have children with her: "Into
her womb convey sterility; / Dry up her organs of increase (1.4.193-194). But if she does become
pregnant, Lear says, "Create her child of spleen, that it may live / And be a thwart disnatur'd
torment to her!" (1.4.198-199). With such a child, he says, she shall come to learn "how sharper
than a serpent's tooth it is / to have a thankless child" (1.4.203-204).

Lear and his company then depart for Gloucester's castle, where Regan and her husband,
Cornwall, are to pay a visit. Goneril sends Oswald ahead to warn her sister of Lear’s approach.
Lear, unaware of Oswald’s mission, sends word of his coming in letters carried by the disguised
Earl of Kent. Lear's fool then picks at the old man, the better to make him understand himself
and the folly of his headstrong ways. “If thou wert my fool, nuncle,” he says, “I’d have thee
beaten for being old before thy time” (1.5.25).

Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester and his son Edgar become victims of skulduggery when
Gloucester's illegitimate son, Edmund, claims that Edgar, Gloucester’s rightful heir, had
schemed to murder the old man and attempted to persuade Edmund to take part in the plot.
Edmund says that when he refused to participate, Edgar ran at him with a sword and glanced his
arm. When he recovered and defended himself, Edmund says, Edgar ran off. Edmund shows his
father the bleeding injury to his arm, which Edmund himself had inflicted. Gloucester believes
Edmund even though Edgar dearly loves his father, and he orders his servants to pursue Edgar.
When Regan and Cornwall arrive for their visit, Gloucester repeats what Edmund told him and
commends the latter for foiling the plot. Cornwall promises to support Gloucester against Edgar
and praises Edmund for his virtue and loyalty to his father. Regan and Cornwall then reveal the
purpose of their visit: to seek Gloucester's advice about how to handle Lear, a matter that Goneril
and Lear have both brought to the attention of Regan in separate letters.
Kent then arrives at Gloucester’s castle. There, he encounters Oswald and heaps insults upon
him. Oswald had arrived at the castle before Kent to poison Regan’s ear against Lear and his
entourage. When Kent draws his sword against Oswald, the latter cries for help. The commotion
attracts Regan and Cornwall, and Cornwall orders Kent placed in stocks (a wooden frame that
closes around the wrists and ankles.)

Out on a heath, Edgar, aware now that he has been framed, hides in the hollow of a tree to avoid
capture. Realizing that people everywhere will be on the lookout for him, he decides to disguise
himself as a lunatic beggar, griming his face, knotting his hair, and stripping off most of his
clothes.

After Lear arrives at the castle, his fool pokes fun at the immobilized Kent (still disguised as
Caius), saying that he wears "cruel garters" and that when "a man is over-lusty . . . he wears
wooden nether-stocks" (2.4.12). Kent reports that he delivered Lear's letters to Regan and
Cornwall at their castle at the same time that letters to Regan from Goneril arrived. Regan and
her husband then immediately left to see Gloucester, telling Kent to follow to await their reply to
Lear's letter. Kent finishes his report with an account of his clash with Oswald and his
immobilization in stocks.

Lear enters the castle and returns a short while later with Gloucester. The king is angry that his
daughter and her husband have so far refused to leave their chamber to see him. When they
finally deign to appear, they free Kent while Lear explains to them what happened at Goneril’s.
But Regan defends her sister and suggests that Lear apologize to her.

After Goneril arrives, the two sisters gang up on Lear. In a rage, he storms out with his fool into
a tempestuous night. Winds howl and rain falls in torrents as the elements mimic the raving
anger of Lear. The king observes that nature has joined with his faithless daughters to torment
him. “I am a man / More sinn’d against than sinning” (3.2.49-50), he laments. Kent, who has
followed Lear, persuades the old man to take shelter in a hut. By and by, Edgar, now acting the
part of a wandering beggar and lunatic, finds shelter in the same hut Lear occupies. His wits now
failing him, Lear identifies with Edgar and strips away his royal robes to become like Edgar.

Gloucester, torch in hand, also finds his way to the hut. He advises Kent that Lear must leave
quickly, for his daughters want him dead. If Lear goes to Dover, Gloucester says, he will be safe.
The King of France and his army will soon land there to help the old king win back his throne.
Lear and his fool—along with Kent and Edgar—then travel with Gloucester back to his castle.
There, they take shelter in his farmhouse. After Gloucester enters the castle, Lear—now out of
his wits—announces legal proceedings against Regan and Goneril, addressing Edgar as "a robed
man of justice" (3.6.25) and the fool as a "yoke-fellow of equity" (3.6.26). He tells them to
arraign Goneril first and then begins testifying against her. Edgar and the fool play along. When
Gloucester returns, he tells Kent he has overhead a plot to murder the king. Hurriedly, they lay
the demented Lear in a litter Gloucester has provided, and Kent and the fool carry him off toward
Dover. Gloucester and Edgar, still in the guise of a “wandering lunatic,” remain behind at
Gloucester's castle.

After Gloucester reports news of the French invasion to his “trusted” son, the evil Edmund, the
young man immediately reports the news to Regan and her husband, Cornwall. Goneril is there
with them. In turn, Cornwall tells Goneril and Edmund to go at once to alert Goneril's husband,
Albany, of the invasion so that he may prepare for battle.

Hot after more news, Cornwall orders servants to fetch Gloucester. When he arrives, Cornwall
orders him bound to a chair as a traitor who has furthered the plan to restore Lear to the throne,
via the French invasion. When Regan and Cornwall demand to know the destination of Lear,
Regan begins plucking the hairs of Gloucester's beard. Gloucester then tells them he sent Lear to
Dover to save him from the wrath of Regan and Goneril. Defiantly, he adds that he "shall see /
the winged vengeance overtake" (3.7.67) the two sisters. In retaliation, Cornwall rams a foot into
one of Gloucester's eyes. When a servant comes to Gloucester's defense, Cornwall draws a sword
against him. The servant draws and wounds Cornwall, but Regan stabs the servant from behind,
killing him. Cornwall then puts out Gloucester's other eye, blinding him, as Regan taunts
Gloucester by revealing that Edmund had duped him, then informed on him. The blind old man
now realizes how wrong he was to place his trust in Edmund instead of Edgar. Regan and
Cornwall cast him out of the castle. "Let him smell his way to Dover" (3.7.97-98), Regan says.
Cornwall later dies of his sword wound.

While a loyal attendant leads the blinded Gloucester through a heath, they come upon
Gloucester’s good son, Edgar (the “wandering lunatic”). Gloucester asks him to take him to
Dover, where Gloucester intends to throw himself off a cliff. Edgar, without revealing his
identity, agrees to lead him.

When Goneril arrives with Edmund at the castle of her husband, Albany, Oswald greets them
and informs them that he has already conveyed to Albany news of the French invasion. He warns
Goneril that Albany is a changed man who condemns the maltreatment of Gloucester and the
services performed by Edmund, as well as the plans of Goneril and Regan in general. Goneril
then tells Edmund it is best for him to leave and prepare for war, as she herself will do. Oswald
will act as a go-between to maintain communications. When Edmund is about to depart, Goneril
kisses him and gives him a favor (such as a charm or keepsake). After he leaves, Albany
confronts Goneril, calling her and her sister vile for their treatment of Lear, whom he refers to as
"a gracious man, / Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would lick" (4.2.48-49). A messenger
arrives and reports the death of Cornwall.

In a room in Gloucester's castle sometime later, Regan questions Oswald after he stops there on
his way to deliver a letter from Goneril to Edmund. When she asks Oswald to allow her to unseal
and read the letter, Oswald hesitates. Regan then summarizes the message she believes the letter
contains: Goneril expresses her love for Edmund, upon whom she has looked fondly. However,
Regan says she herself is better suited for Edmund, especially now that her husband, Cornwall, is
dead. She then gives Oswald her own message to bear to Edmund. She also asks him to kill
Gloucester if he encounters him, for the old man could speak against her and Goneril.
"Preferment falls on him that cuts him off" (4.5.44), she tells Oswald.

Meanwhile, when Gloucester and Edgar arrive at Dover, Edgar pretends that they are on a cliff.
As Gloucester prepares to jump, Lear arrives wearing flowers and speaking nonsense. Gloucester
recognizes his voice and begs to kiss his hand. Lear says, "Let me wipe it first; it smells of
mortality" (4.6.134). After raving on, Lear says he recognizes the voice of his interlocutor: that
of Gloucester. An unidentified gentleman approaches Lear and tries to tell him that Cordelia has
arrived with the French army, but Lear gibbers on. The gentleman then converses with Edgar,
telling him the French army is very near and "on speedy foot" (4.6.205).

After the gentleman leaves, Gloucester hurls himself forward, falling only a few feet while
thinking he is falling into eternity. He survives his "suicide." Oswald is at the scene.
Approaching Gloucester, he says, "The sword is out / That must destroy thee" (4.6.227-228).
Edgar steps to Gloucester's defense, dealing Oswald a mortal blow. Before he dies, Oswald asks
Edgar to give the letter on his person to Edmund. After Oswald breathes his last, Edgar reads the
letter. In it, Goneril mentions "reciprocal vows" (4.6.256) between her and Edmund, urges
Edmund to kill her husband (Albany), and signs the letter as Edmund's affectionate wife-to-be.

In the French camp, Cordelia thanks Kent for helping her father, then asks a doctor for a report
on his condition. Lear has been sleeping soundly, the doctor says. However, it is all right to rouse
him so that Cordelia can visit him. When he awakens, he does not recognize Cordelia, does not
know where he is, and does not even know where he lodged the night before. In a moment,
however, he comes around, saying, "I think this lady / To be my child Cordelia (4.7.80-81).
Later, while they walk together, he is repentant: “Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and
foolish” (4.7.99).

Meanwhile, after Edmund, Regan, and their troops enter the British camp, Regan asks Edmund
whether he desires Goneril. "In honour'd love" (5.1.13), he replies. Upon further prodding by
Regan, he avows that he has never slept with Goneril. Regan then urges him to keep away from
her sister, who, at that very moment, arrives with Albany and their troops. Though he
sympathizes with old Lear, Albany tells Edmund that he will fight for England against the
French invaders. Edmund commends him, saying their "domestic and particular broils / Are not
the question here" (5.1.38-39). They agree to confer on a war plan in Albany's tent.

After Edmund, Regan, and Goneril leave with officers, Edgar (still in disguise) approaches
Albany and gives him the letter he intercepted. Albany promises to read it. After Edgar walks
off, Edmund returns to tell Albany the French troops are in view and gives him an estimate of
their number. When Albany leaves to marshal his forces, Edmund muses for a moment about
Regan and Goneril: "To take the widow / Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril" (5.1.73-
74). But Goneril is already married. He decides that after the battle he will let Goneril devise a
way to murder Albany. As for Lear and Cordelia, he will show them no mercy.
Finally, French and English swords cross. Edgar posts Gloucester in a safe place and leaves.
After the battle, he returns to inform the old man that the English won the day and that Lear and
Cordelia have been taken prisoner.

When Albany returns to the English camp with officers and attendants, he commends Edmund
for battlefield valor. He also asks Edmund for his prisoners, Lear and Cordelia, "to use them / As
we shall find their merits and our safety / May equally determine" (5.2.50-52). Edmund refuses,
saying he wishes to hold them for further disposition, and Regan backs his position. Her show of
support for Edmund arouses Goneril's jealousy, and they argue over him. Albany asserts that he
will not permit Goneril to entertain notions of marrying Edmund, then accuses Edmund of
"heinous, manifest, and many treasons" (5.2.108).

Albany throws down his gauntlet, and Edmund does the same. (A gauntlet was a glove usually
overlaid with metal for protection in battle. Throwing down a gauntlet was a sign that one man
challenged another man to a fight.)

Regan becomes ill. (Unbeknownst to her, Regan had poisoned her earlier.) Regan is taken to
Albany's tent. Edgar, who remains in disguise, then steps forth to support Albany's charges,
calling Edmund a traitor and telling him to draw his sword. They fight and Edmund falls when
Edgar wounds him. Goneril declares that under the rule of arms Edmund was not bound to fight
Edgar because he did not know his enemy's name. Albany then reveals the letter from Goneril to
Edmund, exposing her treachery. She leaves the scene.

Edgar then reveals his true identity and implicates Edmund as a participant in the plot that
resulted in the capture and blinding of their father, Gloucester. Unable to rebut the evidence
against him, Edmund admits his wrongdoing, saying "The wheel is come full circle" (5.2.203).
Albany apologizes to Edgar for having at one time been an adversary of Gloucester and Edgar,
then questions Edgar about the ordeal he underwent after Edmund betrayed him. Edgar tells him
his story. After finishing it, he praises Kent for his selfless service to Lear.

Shouting for help, an unidentified gentleman with a bloody knife runs up to report that Goneril
had plunged the weapon into her heart after poisoning Regan. Edmund, realizing he is dying,
says, "I was contracted to them both: all three / Now marry in an instant" (5.2.265-266). (He
means that he, Regan, and Goneril will be "married" by death.) After the bodies of the two sisters
are carried forth, Edmund—experiencing remorse—reveals that he ordered Cordelia to be
hanged and urges his listeners to save her. But the revelation comes too late: Cordelia has been
executed. At the scene, Lear mourns for her as he carries her in his arms. Kent and Edgar arrive
as Lear says, "I might have sav'd her; now, she's gone for ever!" (5.2.320). An officer reports the
death of Edmund. Lear, now a broken man, falls upon Cordelia and also dies. Edgar, Kent, and
Albany are left to restore order, with Albany endorsing Edgar and Kent as joint rulers.
.
Themes
.
Suffering

Suffering can transform a contemptible human being into a good person. Lear acts contemptibly
at first but appears to redeem himself by the end of the play after enduring great mental and
physical pain.

A passage that encapsulates this theme is spoken by Regan:

O sir, to willful men
The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters. (2.4.316-318)
The Sharp Edge of Truth

Candor has a sharp edge. Telling the truth can deeply wound the listener as well as the
speaker. Cordelia wins our admiration because she is forthright and sincere. However, her
honesty offends her father, and he disowns her. The Earl of Kent, a loyal subject of Lear, suffers
banishment for speaking the truth about Cordelia. This theme is an old one in world history and
literature. In 399 BC, the Greek philosopher Socrates paid with his life for being honest and
asking probing questions that exposed the hypocrisy of others, declaring that his god had
commanded him to do so. He was executed by being forced to drink poison. In England,
statesman and humanist Sir Thomas More also died (1535) for being honest—in particular, for
his outspoken opposition to King Henry VIII's divorce from Katherine of Aragon on grounds
that it violated moral law.

Redemption

After his daughters cast him out, Lear begins to lose his mind. But he still has enough perception
of the world around him to see and sympathize with the plight of the poor, whom he ignored in
his earlier years. It is this perception—an epiphany and turning point in his life—that starts him
on the road to redemption from his selfish past. The key moment comes during the thunderstorm,
when he says:
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O! I have ta’en
Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just. (3.4.33-41)

What he is saying is this: I must remedy my indifference to the poor. So should everyone else
who is wealthy and powerful. One must take time to expose himself to what wretches feel so that
he or she may realize how important it is to share wealth (superflux, line 40) with them. Paying
attention to the needy will demonstrate that the world and the heavens care about them.

Gloucester experiences a similar awakening. He tells his son Edgar, whom he does not recognize
in his disguise as a beggar:
Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens’ plagues
Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched
Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still!
[Here, take . . . so still: Here, take the money in this purse, you who have been humbled beyond
measure by the heavens. You are happier because I am wretched. I hope the heavens continue to
deal out justice in that way.]
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough. (4.1.68.75)
[Let the . . . enough: Let the man who has an overabundance of wealth and who lusts after
women—a man who treats directions or commands with disdain and who does not see the
suffering around him because he does not feel it—experience the pain of corrective measures so
that he may share his wealth with the less fortunate.]

Sanity and Madness

Ironically and paradoxically, Lear's progressing mental derangement eventually makes him
keenly aware of his faults and weaknesses. At the beginning of the play, he is sane but mad; at
the end of the play, he is mad but sane. The great nineteenth-century American poet Emily
Dickinson wrote a one-stanza poem on the madness of sanity (and the sanity of madness) in 1861
(probably without any thought of King Lear). The first three lines aptly sum up Lear's behavior:
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
To a discerning Eye—
Much Sense—the starkest Madness—

Appearances Are Deceiving

At the beginning of the play, the Lears and other characters are presented as normal and caring.
But as Shakespeare rubs away the pretty veneers of the characters, we find greed, betrayal, lust
for power, and cruelty. In other words, they are anything but normal and caring.

Fatal Flaws: Greed, Lust for Power

Greed and lust for power corrupt human beings and bring about their downfall. Goneril and
Regan reject their own father in favor of material possessions and power. Ultimately, their
cupidity results in their downfall.

Old Age as a Second Childhood

Advanced age and wisdom do not go hand-in-hand. Lear is probably about eighty, but he is often
childish in his judgments until suffering reforms him. Shakespeare's depiction of Lear may have
been, in part, an attempt to discredit and satirize the tendency of the Elizabethan English
automatically to revere elders and authority figures.

Humans as Playthings of Fate

Are humans the playthings of fate? Shakespeare raises that question in King Learand other plays.
Indeed, the role of fate is a major motif in his works. In King Lear, Gloucester expresses the
view that the forces of the universe do control human destiny. For example, after his son
Edmund deceives Gloucester into believing that his other son, Edgar, is a villain, Gloucester
says,
These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us . . . . Love cools, friendship falls
off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond
cracked between son and father. . . . We have seen the best of our time: machinations,
hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves. (1.2.58)
Later, after Cornwall blinds Gloucester and Regan casts him out of his castle, Gloucester says to
the loyal old servant attending him, “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. / They kill us
for their sport” (4.1.44-45). Meanwhile, in the French camp at Dover, Kent expresses a view
similar to Gloucester's: "It is the stars / The stars above us, govern our conditions" (4.2.32.-33).

In Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar, fate seems all-powerful and ineluctable. It is as
if human beings are puppets who have no control over their actions. For example, the prologue
of Romeo and Juliet tells the audience that the two lovers are "star-cross'd" as children of "fatal
loins." In Macbeth, the witches predict the title character's future. So transfixed is Macbeth by
their prophecy that Banquo says,
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate. (1.3.62.65)
In Julius Caesar, a soothsayer tells Caesar, "Beware the ides of March" (1.2.23 and 1.2.29).
Caesar ignores the warning and, on the ides of March (March 15), dies at the hands of knife-
wielding conspirators. In the same play, however, Cassius tells Brutus,
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. (1.2.146)
In All's Well That Ends Well, Helena expresses a similar view:
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull. (1.1.209)
In Henry VI Part III, Edward—after taking the English throne from Henry—maintains that he
controls his own destiny:
Edward will always bear himself as king:
Though Fortune’s malice overthrow my state,
My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel. (4.3.52)
But after Warwick removes Edward's crown and declares that Henry remains the rightful king,
Edward says, "What fates impose, that men must needs abide; / It boots not to resist both wind
and tide. (4.3.60).

The Fate Motif

Fate as the arbiter of human destiny is an old theme in world history and literature. (See also
"Humans as Playthings of Fate," under Themes.) In the Old Testament of the Bible, Job wonders
why he, a righteous man, suffers so many reverses, including the loss of his material possessions,
his sons, and his health. In Greek tragedy—in particular, in the plays of Sophocles, such
as Oedipus Rex—fate becomes an inexorable force that rules man. In the nineteenth century,
English novelist Thomas Hardy populated his novels with characters dominated by forces
outside of them or irresistible forces within them. The environment, Darwinian determinism, and
the human libido all turned humans into marionettes.

But what did Shakespeare think? Did he believe that human destiny is written in the stars?

Shakespeare was more interested in what he wrote on a page with quill and ink—whether it
reflected how people react to the world around them. In some of his plays, the characters believe
in fate; in others, they do not. In still others, they credit themselves for their successes but blame
fate for their failures. Considering Shakespeare's religious upbringing, his intelligence, and his
practicality, it is likely that he shared the view of one of his villains—Edmund—in King Lear.
Alone on the stage, he says,
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,—often the surfeit of
our own behaviour,—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we
were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by
spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary
influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of
whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! (1.2.58)
Conflicts
There are two main conflicts in the play: the one between Lear and his daughters and the one
between Lear and his faults. There are also secondary conflicts.

In the first main conflict, the headstrong king rejects the one daughter who truly loves him,
Cordelia. A short while later, he comes in conflict with his other two daughters, greedy Goneril
and Regan, who pretend to love him to gain control of his possessions. Once in control of these
possessions, they reject him and cast him out into a stormy night.

In the second main conflict, Lear's inner devils struggle with his inner angels. Will his
selfishness give way to selflessness? Will he acknowledge his wrongs? The answer is yes to both
questions. His life begins to turn around after realizes that Regan and Goneril are monsters.
Then, on the heath during the storm, he feels pity for the poor and downcast after experiencing
great suffering himself. At Dover, he welcomes Kent back as a friend. Finally, and most
important, he reconciles with his beloved daughter Cordelia.

In a secondary conflict, Edmund pits himself against his father and brother, Edgar, and—as a
result of Edmund's skulduggery—Gloucester rejects the loyal and loving Edgar. Another
secondary conflict arises between Goneril and Regan as they vie for the attentions of Edmund,
whom they believe will inherit Gloucester's money, property, and title.Then there is the conflict
between England and France, precipitated by the efforts of Cordelia—who has become Queen of
France—to rescue her father from the evildoers in his own kingdom.
Tone
Bitterness, treachery, and disloyalty make the tone of the play dark and foreboding, like the
storm on the heath.
Climax
..
The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as
(1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the
final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax in King Learoccurs, according to
the first definition, when Lear leaves Gloucester's castle during a violent storm after being
rejected by his evil daughters, Goneril and Regan. According to the second definition, the climax
occurs in the final act, when Goneril, Regan, and Edmund die and Lear comes to his senses, then
falls and dies on the body of innocent Cordelia, who has been executed.
King's Fool
.
King Lear’s fool (court jester) is the wisest character in the play in that he is the only character
who understands the motivations of Lear, his daughters, and other characters. He constantly
ridicules Lear, the better to make the old man understand himself and the folly of his selfish,
headstrong ways. “If thou wert my fool, nuncle,” he says, “I’d have thee beaten for being old
before thy time” (1.5.25).
In the royal courts of England, a fool was a comic figure with a quick tongue who entertained the
king, the queen, and their guests. He was allowed to—and even expected to—criticize anyone at
court. Many fools were dwarfs or cripples, their odd appearance enhancing their appeal and,
according to prevailing beliefs, bringing good luck to the court. Actors William Kempe and
Richard Armin became London celebrities for their performances as fools in Shakespeare’s
plays. Armin wrote a book about fools, Foole Upon Foole; or Six Sortes of Sottes. Egypt’s
pharaohs were the first rulers to use fools, notably Pygmies from African territories to the south.
Animal Imagery
Shakespeare uses metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech to compare Regan, Goneril,
and other characters to animals. This imagery shows that human greed and lust for power, as
well as other negative qualities, turn people into rapacious or poisonous beasts. It also
demonstrates that the dilemmas people create for themselves can lower them to the status of
beasts. Among the animals to which characters are compared are rats, wolves, sheep, goats,
horses, dogs (including a mastiff, a greyhound, a spaniel, and a mongrel), cats, mice, owls, wild
geese, bears, monkeys, crabs, snails, an ass, a hedge-sparrow, a cuckoo, and each of the
following:
Kite: Bird of prey that occurs in several varieties. It feeds on small land animals, fish, garbage,
and carrion. In Act 1, Scene 4, Lear speaks this line to his daughter Goneril: "Detested kite! thou
liest" (284).
Vulture: Scavenger bird that feeds primarily on carcasses. In Act 2, Scene 4, Lear bemoans
Goneril's behavior by saying that “she hath tied / sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here
[points to his heart]” (136-137).
Serpent: Large snake, such as a python or boa constrictor; any poisonous snake; the devil in the
form of a snake. In Act 2, Scene 4, Lear says Goneril "struck me with her tongue, / Most serpent-
like, upon the very heart" (162-163).
Pelican: Bird of prey that feeds on fish. In Act 3, Scene 4, Lear scolds himself for fathering
Regan and Goneril, saying “‘twas this flesh begot those pelican daughters” (76-77).
Tiger: Largest member of the cat family. In Act 4, Scene 2, the Duke of Albany condemns
Regan and Goneril for their treatment of Lear, comparing them to tigers.
The use of animal imagery in King Learprompted critic G.B. Harrison to write, "It is as if
Shakespeare wished to portray a world in which most men and women are beasts, and only the
exceptional few [are fully human]."—G.B. Harrison, ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works.
New York: Harcourt, 1952 (page 1139)
Invective
King Lear is a storehouse of insults. Here are examples.
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. (4.2.37-38)
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
Filths savour but themselves. (4.2.45-46)
Milk-liver’d man!
That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs. (4.2.58-59)
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman. (4.2.69-70)
Thou art a traitor,
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
Conspirant ’gainst this high illustrious prince,
And, from the extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot,
A most toad-spotted traitor. (5.3.155-160)
Kent wins the prize for best invective in the play with the following barrage leveled at Oswald.
(Explanations and definitions are boldfaced in brackets.) Kent tells Oswald that he knows him to
be
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats [lower-class man who eats the meat scraps left by
others]; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking
knave; [three-suited . . . knave: Lowly man of the servant class who has a small wardrobe,
limited financial assets (a hundred pounds), and wears common worsted stockings instead of silk
ones]; a lily-liver’d, action-taking knave [cowardly man who sues an enemy in court rather than
fighting him]; a whoreson, glass-gazing , superserviceable, finical rogue [whoreson . . .rogue:
Son of a whore who admires his image in a mirror, bows and scrapes to his master, and is
finicky]; one-trunk-inheriting slave [person who inherited so little from his father that it can fit in
one trunk]; one that wouldst be a bawd [pimp], in way of good service, and art nothing but the
composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar [one who arranges illicit sexual encounters], and
the son and heir of a mongrel bitch [female dog of mixed breed]: one whom I will beat into
clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition [description].
Figures of Speech
Among examples of figures of speech in the play are the following.
Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or syllables
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood (1.1.100-101)
Death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state; menaces and maledictions
against king and nobles (1.2.64)
What! fifty of my followers at a clap,
Within a fortnight? (1.4.211-212)
I heard myself proclaim’d;
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escap’d the hunt. (2.3.4)
Myself could else out-frown false Fortune’s frown. (5.3.9)
I come to cope. (5.3.144)
Anaphora: Repetition of words at the beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences
Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and withchampains rich’d,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady. (1.1.47-50)
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty. (1.1.87-88)
Hyperbole: A gross exaggeration
As I stood here below methought his eyes
Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses. (4.6.85-86)
Irony, Dramatic: Situation in which the audience or reader is aware of information or a
development that a character (or several characters) is unaware of
Until the seventh scene of Act III, Gloucester is unaware of what the audience knows: that Edgar
is innocent of the charge that he betrayed his father.
Metaphor: Comparison of unlike things without using like, as, or than
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. (1.1.76-77)
Cordelia compares her feelings to her heart
Peace, Kent!
Come not between the dragon and his wrath. (1.1.109-110)
Lear compares himself to a dragon.
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend (1.4.173)
Comparison of ingratitude to a fiend
Paradox: Contradiction that contains a measure of truth
Thou madest thy daughters thy mothers. (1.4.103)
While chiding Lear for yielding his authority and domain
to Regan and Goneril, the fool speaks this line.
Simile: Comparison of unlike things using like, as, or than
She hath abated me of half my train;
Look’d black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
Most serpent-like, upon the very heart. (2.4.154-156)
Lear compares Regan to a serpent.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach 24
Appear like mice. (4.6.24-25)
Comparison of fishermen to mice
He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
And fire us hence like foxes. (5.3.26-27)
Lear compares himself and Cordelia to foxes

Patrimony, Henry VIII, and the Annesley Case

The first scene of Act 1 resembles a legal proceeding that determines the rightful heirs of a
decedent’s estate. However, in this case, the “decedent,” Lear, is alive, acting as arbiter.
According to English law, the firstborn male would automatically inherit Lear’s possessions,
including the crown. But since Lear has fathered only females, he has decided to parcel out his
kingdom before his death to his three daughters, granting the largest part of his property to the
daughter who loves him most. Ironically, he ends up repudiating the only daughter who truly
loves him, Cordelia, in the mistaken belief that her refusal to vie with her two sisters for his
affections is a sign that she loves him least. Swearing oaths, he disowns Cordelia, telling her that
By the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. (1. 1. 96-103)
His attempt to prevent a family brouhaha with his silly contest succeeds only in precipitating
one, for the daughters who heaped flattery upon him—Goneril and Regan—turn against him
once his property is securely in their control.
Shakespeare’s audience was keenly aware of the problems that could arise when a king failed to
produce a male heir. After all, the memory of the turmoil after the death of Henry VIII in 1547
was still fresh in the minds of Elizabethans. Although Henry did father a son, Edward VI, he
reigned only briefly, dying when he was sixteen. Then Lady Jane Grey, the great-granddaughter
of Henry VII, sat on the throne for a mere nine days before Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII,
became queen and ordered Lady Jane’s execution. When Mary died in 1558, Henry’s other
daughter, Elizabeth ascended the throne. However, another Mary—Mary Queen of Scots, the
great-niece of Henry VIII—had a legitimate claim to the throne. Mary was Catholic; Elizabeth
was Protestant. A nineteen-year struggle ensued between supporters of Mary and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth ended the unrest in 1587 by having Mary executed.

Shakespeare’s audience was also aware of events in a sensational lawsuit in 1603 in which two
daughters of Sir Brian Annesley attempted to seize his property, claiming that he was mentally
incompetent. Annesley, who had served in a minor role in the court of Queen Elizabeth, owned
an estate in Kent. A third daughter defended her father. Her name was Cordell (a name which
resembles that of Cordelia, the loyal daughter in King Lear). The Annesley case ended happily
for Sir Brian, and Cordell ended up with most of her father’s property.