King Lear

Themes Key Moments

Love
● Two types portrayed in Shakespeare’s King Lear
○ Pure, selfless, uncorrupted love
○ Selfish, treacherous, lustful love

● Lear and Gloucester have incomplete understandings of love

○ Neither appreciates their loving children at the start of play
○ Both are initially beguiled by false flattery and outwards signs of devotion
○ Both men come to realise the worth of true love, albeit too late

● Love Test
○ The idea of ‘quantifiable’ love

● Cordelia represents true love in the play

● France and Burgundy represent opposite understandings of love

○ Burgundy sees love as something that can be auctioned off to the highest bidder
○ France knowns you cannot measure love this way

● Gloucester’s view of love at the start of the play is deeply flawed

○ He equates sexual lust with real
○ He is taken in by false words
○ He rejects the son who truly loves him

● Edgar loves his father in his darkest hours

○ He urges his father to avoid suicide
○ He helps him to accept his fate
○ Edgar’s selfless love redeems his father and he is able to die at peace

● When Gloucester is reunited with Edgar his love overwhelms him

○ He dies when his heart ‘burst smilingly’

● A parody of the love test is seen in Act 2 Scene 4

○ Goneril and Regan compete to bring about the greatest reduction in Lear’s followers

● Goneril and Regan fall in love with Edmund

○ Corrupt, lustful love which drives them apart and ultimately kills them

● Edmund had an extremely corrupt and warped view of love

○ He toys with Goneril and Regan’s love
○ He believes he was loved because of the horrific nature of their deaths

● Kent loves Lear as much as any child could love a father

 ● Cordelia’s love for her father is the driving force behind all of her actions

● Lear and Gloucester’s souls were saved by the redeeming power of love

Justice
Divine Justice:
● Divine justice was important to Shakespearean audiences because of their religious beliefs

● Gloucester’s view of divine justice changes as the play progresses

● Edgar’s view of divine justice is more consistent than Gloucester’s

● Divine justice is often portrayed as harsh and unyielding

● There is no easy answer as to whether or not the play is arguing for the existence of divine justice
- it is up to each audience member or reader to judge for themselves

● Time and time again, Lear calls on the gods to help him, but they never do

● Although Edgar continues to believe in divine justice, he is equally poorly serve by the gods on
several occasions

● Edgar believes that the gods alone can determine when a man should die

● At the end of the play, many evil characters who deserved punishment have died or been killed
○ Cornwall, Edmund, Goneril, Regan and Oswald’s death may be seen as evidence of
divine justice - the punishment of evildoers - but Cordelia’s death is far more problematic

Human Justice:
● Lear abuses his position as king to dispense grossly unfair justice in the love test

● Gloucerster, like Lear, jumps to judgement and also disowns his loving and loyal child based on
flimsy and unproven evidence.

● Edmund believes that he is taking justice into his own hands because of the unfairness of being
deemed unworthy of inheritance. He rejects human law and turns instead to natural law.

● Gloucester suffers greatly for his misjudgement of his sons

○ The torture and mutilation of Gloucerster is shocking and revolting, but a Shakespearean
audience would have seen a certain justice in it, nonetheless. Gloucester looked lustfully
at Edmund’s mother and committed a physical sin with her.

● Cornwall’s ‘trial’ of Gloucester is not his first. He and Regan try Kent for fighting with Oswald and
speaking rudely to them.

● Lear conducts a mock trial of Goneril and Regan when sheltering from the storm.

● The play ends with a series of just deaths

 ● The fight between Edgar and Edmund is a necessary example of justice being served in the play.
Their trial by combat is a battle between good and evil

● Cordelia’s death is a problem for the notions of both human and divine justice
○ Her untimely and unfair end leaves the audience with a pessimistic view of human justice

Social Justice:
● Lear and Gloucester come to see that there is great inequality in the kingdom

● Gloucester sees more clearly in many ways now that he is blinded

● Lear remarks bitterly that the world is unfair and justice non-existent. Lear believes that the
judicial and political systems are corrupt

● There is a terrible irony to Lear’s appreciation of social justice once he has lost the power to do
anything about it

Madness
Lear
● Lear’s madness is primarily driven by his obsession with filial ingratitude

● As Lear’s sanity disintegrates, he achieves a level of self-knowledge and an understanding of the

world around him that he didn’t have before losing his sanity

● Lear’s behaviour during the love test raises questions about his mental state
○ What he considers to be Cordelia’s betrayal is the first of many shocks that soon place an
unbearable strain on an already rash, impulsive nature given to unreasoning rages

● Lear’s sense of self is shaken by his daughters’ coldness and cruelty

● Lear begins to fear openly for his sanity, calling on heaven to help him in his hour of need, after
his falling-out with Goneril

● Lear is further appalled to see Goneril and Regan unite against him

● Lear’s disjointed speech patterns at this stage reflect his distress and confusion

● The tempest is a pathetic fallacy for the storm and madness in his mind

● Lear’s obsession with Goneril and Regan’s ingratitude takes hold as he wanders in the storm

● An interesting feature of Lear’s growing madness is that it is matched by his increasing sense of
social justice and wisdom - Learn becomes torn between madness and compassion
 ● Lear’s madness also has a symbolic role
○ Lear is the head of the kingdom and his fall and mental disorder reflect the state of the
kingdom now that he has abdicated and left his evil daughters in control. The storm is a
physical manifestation of the tempest in Lear;s mind but also mirrors the disintegration of
the country without a proper leader

● In Dover, Lear wanders through the fields, dressed only in a fantastical costume of wildflowers.
Although he is mad, Lear’s personal growth continues.

● Under Cordelia’s gentle, loving care, Lear begins to recover his sanity. The arrogant, high-handed
king of the first act has been replaced by a far nobler, better man

The Fool:
● The Fool is a professional madman but his act hides a keen wit
○ He holds a unique position in the play: he alone can point out Lear’s foolishness without
fear of punishment. The Fool plays an important role in Lear’s journey to self-knowledge
○ The Fool’s position as a jester allows him to present some harsh and unpalatable truths
in an entertaining way that the audience would have greatly enjoyed

● As Lear’s sanity begins to slip away, the Fool increasingly becomes the voice of sense and
reason. The Fool delivers a keenly satirical analysis of society at the time the play was written

● Once Poor Tom appears, the Fool stops speaking in rhymes and riddles
○ Edgar, disguised as the Bedlam beggar, has taken over his role so he is no longer
needed, Also, the Fool has no real function once Lear loses his mind completely

Edgar:
● Edgar is forced to adopt the role of madman when he is on the run from his father

● Edgar’s descent into madness, though feigned, foreshadows Lear’s fall into despair and insanity
later in the play

● Lear’s meeting with Poor Tom plays an important role in his growing social awareness
○ The encounter also marks Lear’s transition from sanity to madness

Appearance and Reality

● Lear does not appreciate the difference between appearance and reality
○ Lear abdicates from the throne but still wishes to retain the power and respect that he
enjoyed as king. He has confused his position with his person and thinks that the control
and reverence he has enjoyed until now come from him rather than the kingship
○ Lear is taken in by Goneril and Regan’s false flattery and sends away Kent and Cordelia
even though they truly love and honour him

● Goneril and Regan are good judges of character and know their father’s vanity demands the
outward show of love such as that they indulge him with in the love test

● Cordelia, on the other hand, values reality over appearance, therefore she cannot and will not
participate in the ridiculousness of the love test
 ● Gloucester, like Lear, confuses appearance with reality at the start of the play
○ Edmund, like Goneril and Regan, turns his father’s inability to distinguish between
appearance and reality to his advantage

● As the play progresses, the gap between appearance and reality widens.
○ Edgar and Kent are forced to disguise themselves as a lowly beggar and a servant
respectively while the evil and corrupt Goneril, Regan and Edmund dress in finery and
live in palaces.

● In time, Lear sees that it does not matter how a person appears: their true nature is all that counts

● Both Lear and Gloucester gain wisdom through suffering and see the harsh reality of the world

● Lear and Gloucerster’s journey to self-awareness and an appreciation of the difference between
appearance and reality is long and difficult, but both grow in stature and wisdom over the course
of the play

Power
● When we first meet Lear, it is obvious that he is used to wielding great power and expects to be
treated with the utmost respect

● Lear does not appreciate the responsibility that comes with power, nor does he realise that the
authority that he possesses derives from his position rather than his person.

● Lear’s language as he first threatens and then banishes Kent shows how powerful he considers
himself. He compares himself to a dragon and a drawn bow before calling on his royal authority to
send Kent out of the kingdom.

● Lear ignores the inconvenient fact that he has abdicated the throne and therefore has no legal
right whatsoever to impose such a punishment on Kent.

● The love test sheds an interesting light on the power held by the female characters in the play
○ The role of women in Shakespearean England was generally unenviable. Women who
behaved like men and exercised power and authority were viewed in a negative light.
○ The duty of a woman at the time the play was written was to be obedient to God, her
father and then her husband
○ A woman could use what power she possessed to disobey her father or husband if he
was behaving very badly, but only in order to save him and set him on the path of virtue

● Cordelia possesses greta moral power

○ Later in the play when she has the military power of the French army behind her, it seems
that Cordelia may at last have a chance to gain control of the kingdom and depose her
sisters

● Lear makes a terrible mistake when he hands over his power to Goneril, Regan and their
husbands.
 ● Goneril and Regan are motivated by a selfish desire for power and driven to acts of great cruelty
and violence against their father. Power, in their eyes, is a license to do as they please

● Lear abused his power in a number of ways; insisting on the love test; disowning Cordelia;
banishing Kent and placing Goneril, Regan and their husbands in charge of the kingdom
○ Lear and his subjects suffer greatly due to his abuse of power and his decision to
relinquish that power

● Ironically, t is only when Lear no longer has any authority that he learns what the true duties of a
ruler should be

Imagery and Symbolism Key Moments

Sight and Blindness

● Sight and Blindness is literal and metaphorical in KL

● Lear shows his poor sight or judgement when he disowns Cordelia and then disowns Kent too
○ Lear’s blindness here is his inability to see that it is Cordelia who is the honest daughter,
while it is Goneril and Regan who are not to be trusted

● Lear’s blindness is not limited to his understanding of his daughters. He is unable to see that his
power derives from his position as king rather than from any personal strength

● It was Lear’s blind love for Cordelia that led to his setting up the love test

● Goneril claims that her love for Lear is ‘dearer than eyesight’

● It is only when he is wandering in the storm that Lear begins to see how things really are
○ Lear comes to the realisation that a person may be blinded to the truth by material
possessions

● Paradoxically, Lear grows in wisdom as he loses his sanity. This greater understanding of himself
and the world around him is reflected in images of sight and blindness

● Lear points out that although Gloucester is physically blind, this should not be an obstacle to
knowledge

● Gloucester, like Lear, is blind to the reality of his children’s natures at the start of the play

● Gloucester’s moral blindness is punished with actual blindness

○ When Gloucester is physically blinded by Cornwall, it symbolises not just his own
metaphorical blindness but also that of the other father figure in the play: Lear

● Lear and Gloucester see too late the loving and honest natures of Edgar and Cordelia

Clothing and Disguise

● In Renaissance times, the contrast between the clothed and naked form was revisited
 ○ Nakedness came to represent virtues such as temperance, fortitude, truth and chastity
○ Clothing became associated with vanity, worldliness and passing things
● In King Lear, those who wear the most elaborate, beautiful costumes are often the most cruel and
corrupt

● The clothing imagery and the various disguises used in King Lear highlight power and corruption
as well as the distinction between appearance and reality - central themes in the play

● Because so little value is placed on the truth, loyalty and honesty, several characters in the play
are forced to adopt disguises in order to protect themselves
○ Kent and Edgar both change their appearance and their manner of speaking so that they
can continue to loyally serve those who have threatened them with a death sentence
○ It is significant that both adopt such costumes and places in society, as it emphasises
their humility and essential goodness - neither is concerned with personal glory but
instead both are focused on providing help and support for those who have, after all,
betrayed their love and loyalty

● Kent using clothing imagery when he confronts Oswald

○ ‘Three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, woosted-stocking knave’ - Oswald is the one who
pretends that both he and his clothes are finer than they are

● Edgar’s disguise is tested when he leads the blinded Gloucester

○ ‘In nothing am I changed /But in my garments’

● Edgar raises the idea that no matter what a man wears - fine clothes or grimy rags - his essential
nature remains the same. If anything, he is bettered by casting off the trappings of his status and
wealth, as it is only then that he achieves true self-awareness by confronting the real meaning of
humanity.

● Lear comes to the realisation that crowns and robes mean nothing and that at heart
‘Unaccommodated man is no more but a poor, bare, forked animal’

● It is only when Lear has reached true self-awareness that he is clothed once more - ‘ put fresh
garments on him’

Man and Nature

● In Renaissance thinking, the balance of the natural world could be easily upset because it was
linked to the nature of man. If a person or people behaved in an unnatural way, then disorder in
the wider world was inevitable

● At the time, it was believed that a king ruled by divine right, so was never in a position to simply
stop becoming king. When Lear relinquishes his authority, he sets in motion a train of events that
will inevitably lead to disharmony and disaster

● Goneril and Regan’s unnatural behavior in refusing to remain subordinate to their father would be
shocking to a Shakespearean audience
○ Goneril and Regan are unnatural daughters, in that they treat their father appallingly and
subvert the social order of the day
 ● Lear uses imagery from nature when he casts Cordelia out

● Goneril, Regan and Edmund are all examples of children who reject the natural and proper order
that says that children are duty-bound to love and honour their father

● Edmund particularly embraces the more primal and basic laws of nature in which the strongest
prevails and self-interest is the main motivation for all action. He rejects social order

● When Lear discovers that Goneril and Regan have betrayed him, we see the true strength of the
link between man and nature. In the storm on the heath, Lear calls on the storm to destroy the
world, wishing it to be flattened, flooded and struck by lightning

● The storm shows us that the connection between man and nature is so strong that is the balance
of one is disturbed, the balance of the other will be equally thrown

● The storm on the heath reflects the storm in Lear’s mind

● All of those who flout the natural order of things (according to the understanding of social laws of
the time) are dead by the end of the play
○ Because of their actions, innocent characters such as Cordelia and Kent are dead or
close to death from grief too.

● Only Albany and Edgar remain at the end of the play and they represent obedience to the natural
social order - in their hands the kingdom will be safe and secure

Animal Imagery
● Animal imagery in King Lear is linked to pain and suffering.
○ Animal imagery in King Lear is violent and horrific and serves to strengthen the
impression of physical pain and horror that pervades the play/

● The animals to which the evil characters are compared are all predators that feed on the flesh of
other animals - for their appetites to be satisfied, others have to die

● Ultimately, the characters linked with predators turn on one another and in the deaths of Goneril,
Regan and Edmund we see the death of the animal nature and the restoration of proper social
order.

● By linking the behaviour of certain characters to the behaviour of animals, we see how inhuman
and dangerous their actions

● In Act 1 Scene 4, Lear cries ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / To have a thankless child!’
after she reveals her true nature to him

● Goneril is likened to a snake several times.

○ When Lear tells of Goneril’s ill-treatment of him he says that his eldest daughter ‘struck
me with her tongue, / Most serpent-like’
 ○ The final comparison between Goneril and a snaked occurs in Act 5 Scene 3 when
Albany calls his wife a ‘gilded serpent’ who has made sexual overtures to Edmund
despite being married
○ For a woman to be compared to a serpent conjures up the image of the snake in the
Garden of Eden leading Eve to tempt Adam, thus bringing about the exile of humankind
from paradise

● In Act 2 Scene 4 Regan attempts to persuade Lear to return to Goneril’s castle . He is appalled
and says he would rather ‘be a comrade with the wolf and owl’
○ For a king to be willing to reduce himself to the level of a beast emphasises the horror of
the situation in which he finds himself

● When the Gentleman tells of Lear’s crazed wandering in the open air, he compares his situation
to those of wild animals and says even they would hesitate to be outside in such stormy and
inhospitable conditions

● In Act 3 Scene 4, Lear describes Goneril and Regan as ‘pelican daughters’.

○ In his time, it was believed that pelicans fed their young by stabbing their own breasts
with their long beak and feeding blood to their chicks. This vampiric image is appropriate,
however, as Lear implies that Goneril and Regan are taking his life’s blood and draining
him of everything that makes him who he is

● Underneath all of our sophistication lies an animal ‘Unaccommodated man is no more but such a
poor, bare, forked animal as thou art’.

● The two main aims of animal imagery in the play are to show that if we behave like animals then
we will be subject to dreadful pain and suffering and that if we reduce ourselves to the level of
beasts, we lose our basic humanity.
○ Animals live by a simple rule: kill, if that is what it takes to survive. If humands adopt this
philosophy, then all is lost.