King Lear

King Lear Continues…

• In a world dependent on words for communication, each of us comes to value the
spoken and written word. Students of all ages can readily identify with a child who “says
what his parents want to hear.” Older, non-traditional students understand the need to
hear a child’s expression of love. Communication between the generations is
complicated by our perception of the elderly. At what age is one “old?” When should a
person retire? Older students identify with the desires of children to be successful and
supplant the older generation in the power structure; the young express an impatience
to be in charge and free from the ideas of the “older” generations. Yet, in their desires
and expressions, they do not “appear” as dutiful or respectful children. A related issue
the play explores is the granting of the power of an office to a younger generation
without releasing the largess that attends that office. Can one retire from the position
of CEO and retain the respect and authority given to a CEO? Elizabethans, three
centuries ago, struggled with the same type of questions. In King Lear, Shakespeare
offers a world where the natural and unnatural are intertwined, appearances and self-
perception are confused, and words—written and spoken—are deceptive.
 ACT 1
• “His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I
am brazed to it. “ – Gloucester referring to his son, Edmund
• “GONERIL Sir, I do love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space, and
liberty, Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor,
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.” – Judging from her words, any interesting observations?
• -”CORDELIA (aside) What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.”
• “REGAN Sir, I am made of that self mettle as my sister, And prize me at her worth. In my true heart,
find she names my very deed of love—Only she comes too short, that I profess Myself an enemy to
all other joys, Which the most precious square of sense possesses.” – Observations?
• -CORDELIA (aside) Then poor Cordelia! And yet not so, since I am sure my love’s More ponderous
than my tongue.
• “No less in space, validity, and pleasure Than that conferred on Goneril.” – Lear gave Regan equal
size of land compared to Goneril
• “Speak.” “Nothing, my lord.” – Lear ends his lines with “speak”, Cordelia replied with “nothing”.
What is this “nothingness”? Keep in mind.
 KING LEAR
1.Most people identify themselves by what they do—athlete, scholar, entrepreneur,
accountant, doctor, waiter, etc. Does your vocation—a regular occupation, especially one
for which a person is particularly suited or qualified—define you? Is that who you are?
How do you decide who you are?
2.During your life you have either heard (or have said), “My parents/teachers just don’t
understand.” What does this really mean? Explain how this type of “generation gap”
affects or has affected you.
3. One of the more recent concerns of our nation is how to accommodate a growing senior
citizen population, yet as individuals we tend to ignore the concerns of the elderly until we
are counted among them. We seem to be overwhelmingly interested in being and staying
young. When the time comes, how will you take care of the senior citizens in your family?
What are your concerns about growing older?
4.Part of the fun of acting is dressing up and for a time being someone other than yourself.
You experience the same type of fun if you dress up at Halloween, go to a costume party,
or maybe even attend a prom or other formal occasion. However, clothes do not
necessarily change who you are. How may appearances be deceiving?
5.In a nation that demands that promises be in writing before they are honored, the spoken
word and its meaning is devalued. How are spoken words deceptive? Describe a time
when you have been deceived—or you have deceived someone—by spoken words.
 KING LEAR
• 6. In the check-out line at your local grocery you are assaulted by tabloid
headlines blaring alien dogs, four-feet tall walking frogs, and a host of other
oddities. You give these little credence, but most of us are influenced by
advertising claims. How deceptive is the written word? How do you protect
yourself from such deceptions? Describe a time that you have been deceived
by written words.
• 7. “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the
land” (Exodus 20:12). Most have heard this Old Testament commandment, but
what does it mean? How do you honor your parents? How important is it?
• 8. Find an article in a newspaper or a magazine that details an injustice.
Respond to that injustice. How should the injustice be righted?
• 9. Think back to when you did something wrong and another person was hurt,
emotionally or physically, by your error. Did you confess your error? Why or
why not?
 Act 1
• “I love your majesty According to my bond, no more nor less…You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I Return those duties back
as are right fit—”
• “So young and so untender?“ “So young, my lord, and true.” “Thy truth then be thy dower.”
• “Be Kent unmannerly When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man? Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state, And in thy best
consideration check This hideous rashness. “ -When powerful kings cave in to flatterers, do you think loyal men will be afraid to
speak out against it?
• “Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound Reverbs no hollowness.” –
Kent “hollowness” vs. “nothing”
• “Do, kill thy physician, and the fee bestow Upon thy foul disease.” – kent cure vs. disease. Co-existing
• “I am sorry then. You have so lost a father That you must lose a husband.” – Burgundy (equal love, equal loss)
• “Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor… most loved despised!” – France
• “—Fine word, “legitimate”!—Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top th'
legitimate.” – Edmund (comparing himself with the “legitimate” son)

•
 Act I
• “These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature
can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools,
friendship falls off, brothers divide…The king falls from bias of nature—there’s father against
child.” – Gloucester after reading the letter handed to him by Edmund
• -”Find out this villain, Edmund. It shall lose thee nothing. Do it carefully.—And the noble and
true-hearted Kent banished, his offense honesty! 'Tis strange, strange. “ – Truth vs Lies Why do
you think those who tells the Truth are misunderstood?
• “A credulous father, and a brother noble—Whose nature is so far from doing harms That he
suspects none, on whose foolish honesty My practices ride easy. I see the business. Let me, if
not by birth, have lands by wit.” – Edmund
• “A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.” – Poor in what sense?
• “No, sir. But you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master. …[Kent sees]
Authority” – Clearly in this scene, Lear has no authority or power whatsoever, but what then
did Kent see in him that represents authority?
 Act 1
• “O you sir, you, come you hither, sir. Who am I, sir?” OSWALD “My lady’s father.” – Power shift
• “If I gave them all my living, I’d keep my coxcombs myself.” – Fool mocks the King
• “Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest…” Fool
(Nothingness comes up again. What can we understand from this?)
• “keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie. I would fain learn to lie.” – Fool (lie vs. truth)
• “I am better than thou art now. I am a fool. Thou art nothing. “ – Fool (what is nothingness
referring to here?)
• “Well, you may fear too far.” “Safer than trust too far.” – Goneril (her idea of trust – fear better
than trust (powerful how?))
• -”Let me still take away the harms I fear, Not fear still to be taken.”
• “Inform her full of my particular fear, And thereto add such reasons of your own As may compact
it more.” – Goneril telling Oswald to add additional details to her words in order to “compact it
more”. -> lie to conquer fear
 Act I
• 1. Why does Lear favor Goneril’s and Regan’s professions of love over Cordelia’s? (I, i)
• 2. How is this favoritism related to the exiling of Kent? (varied opinions)
• 3. Why does Edmund wish to overthrow Edgar’s claim to his father’s title? (I, ii)
• 4. In what manner has Lear offended Goneril and her household? (I, iii)
• 5. How is she justified in her anger? (varied opinions)
• 6. According to the Fool’s arguments, how has Lear “deserved” this poor treatment from
Goneril?
• 7. Is Lear a sympathetic character? What about Gloucester? How do our impressions of them
change during the course of the play?
• 8. Analyze the function that the Fool serves. Why does he disappear from the action?
• 9. Discuss Edmund. Are we meant to find him sympathetic?
• 10. Is Lear's demand of an expression of love from each daughter likely to bring honest answers?
• 11. How would you describe the character of Kent?
• 12. Does Gloucester's treatment of his two sons at all account for their attitude?
• 13. How far has Lear a just right to think himself ungratefully treated?
 Act ii
• “Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond. The child was bound
to th' father. “ – Edmund telling Gloucester about Edgar. (sacredness
between father and son)
• -Gloucester is similar to King Lear in many ways (fooled). Is it an
accident that he was not at the scene when King Lear banished his
daughter Cordelia?
• “Would he deny his letter, said he?” – Gloucester angry with Edgar.
(Written word vs. spoken words)
• “a tailor, sir. A stone-cutter or painter could not have made him so ill
“ – Kent talking about Oswald (what is the meaning of this?)
• turning their noses whichever way the wind blows without taking a
firm stance on anything. They blindly follow their masters' impulses,
like dogs. – Kent
-” I have seen better faces in my time. Than stands on any
shoulder that I see. Before me at this instant.” – Kent hinting at the
fact that they are all similar to the servant.
 ACT II
• “This is some fellow, Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness and
constrains the garb Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he. An honest mind and plain, he must speak
truth. An they will take it, so. If not, he’s plain. These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Harbor
more craft and more corrupter ends than twenty silly-ducking observants that stretch their duties nicely.”
– Cornwall to Kent
• “My sister may receive it much more worse To have her gentleman abused, assaulted For following her
affairs.” – Regan (puts her sister on the same level as King Lear. Evident for no respect)
• “Fortune, good night. Smile once more. Turn thy wheel.” – Kent mentioning about fortune
• ““Poor Tom!”—That’s something yet. Edgar I nothing am.” – Edgar is now Nothing
• “Horses are tied by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and men by the legs. “ –
Fool referring to Kent (meaning?)
• Kent’s lock-up:
• -” It is both he and she: Your son and daughter.”
-”No”
-”Yes.”
• -”No, I say.” –Lear’s denial
-”I say “yea.”  Kent’s honesty
 ACT II
• Fool: the fool will stay, the servant who runs away is a fool.
-Fool calling Kent a fool (meaning?)
• “Gloucester,
• I’d speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
• GLOUCESTER Well, my good lord, I have informed them so.“ － “ informed”
• “Maybe he is not well. Infirmity doth still neglect all office Whereto our
health is bound. We are not ourselves When nature, being oppressed,
commands the mind To suffer with the body. ” － Lear’s denial vs. truth
• “You should be ruled and led By some discretion that discerns your state
Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you That to our sister you do make
return. Say you have wronged her, sir.” – Regan (off balance)
• “Thou better know’st The offices of nature, bond of childhood, Effects of
courtesy, dues of gratitude. Thy half o' th' kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endowed. “ – Lear to Regan (using monetary value to
evaluate their bond)
 Act ii
• “I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.” – Regan (weak vs. weak
behaviour)
• “Now, I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad. I will not trouble thee,
my child. Farewell. We’ll no more meet, no more see one another. But
yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter—Or rather a disease that’s
in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine.” – Lear to Goneril (What is a
parent to a child? What is a child to a parent?)
• “How, in one house, Should many people under two commands Hold
amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.” – Regan to Lear about useless
holding on to the 50 knights. (under two commands. Again, daughter
and King holds same status)
• “I gave you all—” – Lear (everything and nothing what is the difference?)
• “Those wicked creatures yet do look well favored When others are more
wicked. Not being the worst Stands in some rank of praise. (to GONERIL)
I’ll go with thee. Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty, And thou art
twice her love. “ – Lear (balancing and comparing love with power)
 ACT II Questions
• 1 Why is Gloucester so easily deceived by Edmund?
2 How does he differ from Lear in his treatment of his child?
3 What reason is there for setting Kent in the stocks?
4 How does Edgar show himself the most Christian character in this entire drama?
5 How is this a fault?
9 How are we led to hope that Regan will be kind to Lear?
• 10. Does Regan defend her sister from sisterly affection?
• 11. How have our feelings changed toward Lear since Act I?
• 12. What does the purchased love become?
• 13. Give resemblances and difference in Regan and Goneril.
• 14. What has each inherited from the father?
• 15. How do they differ from Shakespeare's other women?
• 16. Why are they put in pairs?
•
Act III
GENTLEMAN (talking about Lear):
• Contending with the fretful elements.
• Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea
• Or swell the curlèd water 'bove the main,
• That things might change or cease. Tears his white hair,
• Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
• Catch in their fury and make nothing of.
• Strives in his little world of man to outscorn
• The to-and-fro–conflicting wind and rain.
• This night—wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
• The lion and the belly-pinchèd wolf
• Keep their fur dry—unbonneted he runs,
• And bids what will take all.
•
Act iii
“Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
• I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.
• I never gave you kingdom, called you children.
• You owe me no subscription. Why then, let fall
• Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand, your slave—” – Lear
• – pathetic fallacy the weather reflecting his inner agony. Also a way of representing the daughters.
Interesting to note that the reflection of agony and the CAUSE of pain (also represented by the storm) is
presented as ONE thing. Hint that he is the cause of his own misery.
• -Nature also punishes the sisters, but on the same level as Lear (Lear gets “punished” as well)
• -” I am a man more sinned against than sinning” – Lear (he feels that he is more a victim)
• “The art of our necessities is strange that can make vile things precious.” – Lear upon hearing about the hut
• “But where the greater malady is fixed the lesser is scarce felt.” – Lear (when something greater is felt, the
lesser counterpart is scarcely felt. Comparison. What do you think about this attitude? What kind of
character is Lear at this point?

•
 Act iii
• “Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel…” – Lear feels what homeless people must’ve
felt. Those more powerful should experience the hardships in order to “And show the
heavens more just”. – Again about the balance, but what kind of “balance” is this?
• -Lear’s encounter with Edgar is particularly interesting. Parent (realizing his mistakes) and
child (the result of the mistake). What is the point of this encounter?
• “What, has his daughters brought him to this pass?—Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst
thou give 'em all?” – Lear questioning Edgar, Lear thinks Edgar had the same fate as him.
Why is this? What is Shakespeare’s message here?
• “I will lay trust upon thee, and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. “ – Cornwall to
Edmund (new father and son relationship established, but what is their foundation?
(trust))
• “Thou call’st on him that hates thee. It was he that made the overture of thy treasons to
us, who is too good to pity thee.” – Regan to Gloucester (after Cornwall gouged out his
eyes)
• -servant sides with Gloucester (meaning)
 Act iii
• How is the blindness of Gloucester symbolic to
the blindness of Lear?
 ACT IV
• “Yet better thus, and known to be contemned, than still contemned and flattered.
“ – Edgar
• “…The lamentable change is from the best…Welcome, then, Thou unsubstantial
air that I embrace!
• The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst Owes nothing to thy blasts.” –
Edgar (wind can blow, sunk as far down as he can go)
• “I have no way, and therefore want no eyes.” – Gloucester (way is parallel with
sight)
• “'Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” – Gloucester wanting to be
guided by Edgar (Tom) suggestive of what it means to be a lunatic.
Connotation?
• Nature cures the King – What is natural
• What is Death in this play? How is it represented?
• Naked=nothing
• “I know you do not love me, for your sisters have, as I do remember, done me
wrong.
• You have some cause; they have not.” – Lear to Cordilia
 ACT IV
• Describe the Dover Cliff incident.
Gloucester determines to commit suicide by throwing himself over the Dover
Cliff. He meets Edgar and not recognizing his son, asks him to lead the way to
the Cliff. Edgar divines his father's intention and leads him across a field, but
pretends they are climbing a steep hill. They finally stop and Edgar tells his
father they are within a foot of the edge of a great precipice. Gloucester gives
Edgar money and tells him to go away; he then throws himself forward. Edgar,
who has thought of this deceit to cure his father of his wish to die, now comes
forward as another person who had seen the fall. Gloucester is persuaded that
he did fall. Since he was not killed he decides to live and bear his affliction.
• Describe the restoration of Lear's sanity.
 Act v
• “To both these sisters have I sworn my love, each jealous of the other as the stung are of the
adder. Which of them shall I take? Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed if both remain
alive.” –Edmund
• “We are not the first who with best meaning have incurred the worst.” – Cordelia to the King
• “Come, let’s away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage…Talk of court news, and
we’ll talk with them too—Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out—And take upon ’s the
mystery of things as if we were God’s spies.” – Lear to Cordelia
• “I hold you but a subject of this war, not as a brother.” – Albany to Edmund (unequal in status)
• “He led our powers, bore the commission of my place and person—The which immediacy may
well stand up and call itself your brother.” – Regan about Edmund (equal because of her)
• “In his own grace he doth exalt himself more than in your addition.” – Goneril (Edmund
distinguished himself as a great soldier in his own right)
 Act v
• “Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony. Dispose of them, of me. The walls is thine.
Witness the world that I create thee here my lord and master.” – Regan traded wealth for
love
• Edgar in disguise called Edmund a traitor (he has no name)
• “I was contracted to them both. All three now marry in an instant.” – Married in death
Edmund, Regan, and Goneril
• “This a dull sight. Are you not Kent?” – Lear recognizes Kent on his own and with blurry
eyesight
• “He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that. He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.” –
Can’t understand that Kent is actually Caius in disguise
• “The weight of this sad time we must obey. Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long.” –
Edgar (meaningful conclusion)
 Sample essay
• .” King Lear's love for his daughter mainly Goneril
and Regan can be more related to Desdemona's love
for Othello because much the same as Desdemona
King Lear's unconditional love for Goneril and Regan
hazed his vision to the wicked plans hiding under
their angelic masks and impure flattery (A. Bradley). “
• -”unconditional love”
• -What can we compare between Othello and King
Lear?
 Scholarly journal aBSTRACT
• “Holy Bible is the classic of Christian, having a deep and far-reaching influence on the thought and
the everyday life of western people. The elements in Holy Bible were shown everywhere in
Shakespeare’s tragedy: King Lear. This article aims to explore the essential propositions of
Christian: sin, punishment and redemption as the clue, and analyzes the behaviors and fates of
characters in King Lear.
• First, human beings are born with sins. The characters can not escape the deep-rooted original sin
in human’s nature, committing different kinds of sins. Second, God is fair to everyone. The
punishment follows their sins. The characters deserved their proper punishment accordingly.
Owing to their different sins, some experienced kinds of sufferings; some lost their life; some will
be tortured in the hell forever. Third, God punishes those who commit the sins, but he also saves
those who die for justice, and forgives those who repent. Suffering is the road leading to being
redempted. After those sufferings, people were saved. “
• The religious ideas are widely used King Lear, further heightening the feelings of Christians, and
preaching the lessons of punishing the evil and advocating the good.
 sCHOLARLY JOURNAL: SINS
• Influence of religion: The invention of the Human (Riverhead Books, 1999), argues that “Shakespeare seems too
wise to believe anything” political or religious.
• “death is the most serious punishment “ –
-The first one is the death of the body, or the departure of the body and the soul.
• >” lost all the nice things in the earth and be tortured in the hell forever/free from the bitter life, entering a
beautiful world and enjoying the happiness forever. “
• -death of the soul
• >chance to resurrect
• -eternal death
• >no chance of resurrection
• Lear’s suffering is not without compensation. He learned the truth and discovered himself through his suffering.
• The drama not only plays the role of moral teaching of punishing the evil and advocating the good, but also leads
the audience to think about means of “punishment” and “death” under the Christian culture. King Lear has
deepened the religious ideas in the play, and further heightened the Christian feelings, making the play shed the
eternal radiance similar to the Holy Bible.
 King Lear Journals
• http://www.gregteach.net/yahoo_site_admin/asse
ts/docs/Sample_Feminist_critique_1.125221535.
pdf
• https://a2englishlearningcommunity2010.wikispac
es.com/file/view/Disguised+and+deceived+in+
Lear.pdf
• http://web.csulb.edu/~dtsuyuki/portfolio/Writing/
Essays/Research%20paper%20on%
20Disguise.pdf
• http://www.firstthings.com/article/1993/10/king-l
ear-beyond-reason-love-and-justice-in-the-
family
 Homework
• Response Journal:
What is the dramatic effect of the storm? Explain
and reflect your own thoughts and opinions using
textual evidence
• Read ACT IV
 Act 1
• “I love your majesty According to my bond, no more nor less…You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I Return those duties back
as are right fit—”
• “So young and so untender?“ “So young, my lord, and true.” “Thy truth then be thy dower.”
• “Be Kent unmannerly When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man? Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state, And in thy best
consideration check This hideous rashness. “ -When powerful kings cave in to flatterers, do you think loyal men will be afraid to
speak out against it?
• “Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound Reverbs no hollowness.” –
Kent “hollowness” vs. “nothing”
• “Do, kill thy physician, and the fee bestow Upon thy foul disease.” – kent cure vs. disease. Co-existing
• “I am sorry then. You have so lost a father That you must lose a husband.” – Burgundy (equal love, equal loss)
• “Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor… most loved despised!” – France
• “—Fine word, “legitimate”!—Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top th'
legitimate.” – Edmund (comparing himself with the “legitimate” son)

•
 Act I
• “These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature
can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools,
friendship falls off, brothers divide…The king falls from bias of nature—there’s father against
child.” – Gloucester after reading the letter handed to him by Edmund
• -”Find out this villain, Edmund. It shall lose thee nothing. Do it carefully.—And the noble and
true-hearted Kent banished, his offense honesty! 'Tis strange, strange. “ – Truth vs Lies Why do
you think those who tells the Truth are misunderstood?
• “A credulous father, and a brother noble—Whose nature is so far from doing harms That he
suspects none, on whose foolish honesty My practices ride easy. I see the business. Let me, if
not by birth, have lands by wit.” – Edmund
• “A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.” – Poor in what sense?
• “No, sir. But you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master. …[Kent sees]
Authority” – Clearly in this scene, Lear has no authority or power whatsoever, but what then
did Kent see in him that represents authority?
 Act 1
• “O you sir, you, come you hither, sir. Who am I, sir?” OSWALD “My lady’s father.” – Power shift
• “If I gave them all my living, I’d keep my coxcombs myself.” – Fool mocks the King
• “Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest…” Fool (Nothingness
comes up again. What can we understand from this?)
• “keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie. I would fain learn to lie.” – Fool (lie vs. truth)
• “I am better than thou art now. I am a fool. Thou art nothing. “ – Fool (what is nothingness referring to here?)
• “Well, you may fear too far.” “Safer than trust too far.” – Goneril (her idea of trust – fear better than trust (powerful
how?))
• -”Let me still take away the harms I fear, Not fear still to be taken.”
• “Inform her full of my particular fear, And thereto add such reasons of your own As may compact it more.” –
Goneril telling Oswald to add additional details to her words in order to “compact it more”. -> lie to conquer fear

• “
 Act I
• 1. Why does Lear favor Goneril’s and Regan’s professions of love over Cordelia’s? (I, i)
• 2. How is this favoritism related to the exiling of Kent? (varied opinions)
• 3. Why does Edmund wish to overthrow Edgar’s claim to his father’s title? (I, ii)
• 4. In what manner has Lear offended Goneril and her household? (I, iii)
• 5. How is she justified in her anger? (varied opinions)
• 6. According to the Fool’s arguments, how has Lear “deserved” this poor treatment from
Goneril?
• 7. Is Lear a sympathetic character? What about Gloucester? How do our impressions of them
change during the course of the play?
• 8. Analyze the function that the Fool serves. Why does he disappear from the action?
• 9. Discuss Edmund. Are we meant to find him sympathetic?
• 10. Is Lear's demand of an expression of love from each daughter likely to bring honest answers?
• 11. How would you describe the character of Kent?
• 12. Does Gloucester's treatment of his two sons at all account for their attitude?
• 13. How far has Lear a just right to think himself ungratefully treated?
 Act ii
• “Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond. The child was bound
to th' father. “ – Edmund telling Gloucester about Edgar. (sacredness
between father and son)
• -Gloucester is similar to King Lear in many ways (fooled). Is it an
accident that he was not at the scene when King Lear banished his
daughter Cordelia?
• “Would he deny his letter, said he?” – Gloucester angry with Edgar.
(Written word vs. spoken words)
• “a tailor, sir. A stone-cutter or painter could not have made him so ill
“ – Kent talking about Oswald (what is the meaning of this?)
• turning their noses whichever way the wind blows without taking a
firm stance on anything. They blindly follow their masters' impulses,
like dogs. – Kent
-” I have seen better faces in my time. Than stands on any
shoulder that I see. Before me at this instant.” – Kent hinting at the
fact that they are all similar to the servant.
 ACT II
• “This is some fellow, Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness and
constrains the garb Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he. An honest mind and plain, he must speak
truth. An they will take it, so. If not, he’s plain. These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Harbor
more craft and more corrupter ends than twenty silly-ducking observants that stretch their duties nicely.”
– Cornwall to Kent
• “My sister may receive it much more worse To have her gentleman abused, assaulted For following her
affairs.” – Regan (puts her sister on the same level as King Lear. Evident for no respect)
• “Fortune, good night. Smile once more. Turn thy wheel.” – Kent mentioning about fortune
• ““Poor Tom!”—That’s something yet. Edgar I nothing am.” – Edgar is now Nothing
• “Horses are tied by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and men by the legs. “ –
Fool referring to Kent (meaning?)
• Kent’s lock-up:
• -” It is both he and she: Your son and daughter.”
-”No”
-”Yes.”
• -”No, I say.” –Lear’s denial
-”I say “yea.”  Kent’s honesty
 ACT II
• Fool: the fool will stay, the servant who runs away is a fool.
-Fool calling Kent a fool (meaning?)
• “Gloucester,
• I’d speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
• GLOUCESTER Well, my good lord, I have informed them so.“ － “ informed”
• “Maybe he is not well. Infirmity doth still neglect all office Whereto our
health is bound. We are not ourselves When nature, being oppressed,
commands the mind To suffer with the body. ” － Lear’s denial vs. truth
• “You should be ruled and led By some discretion that discerns your state
Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you That to our sister you do make
return. Say you have wronged her, sir.” – Regan (off balance)
• “Thou better know’st The offices of nature, bond of childhood, Effects of
courtesy, dues of gratitude. Thy half o' th' kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endowed. “ – Lear to Regan (using monetary value to
evaluate their bond)
 Act ii
• “I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.” – Regan (weak vs. weak
behaviour)
• “Now, I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad. I will not trouble thee,
my child. Farewell. We’ll no more meet, no more see one another. But
yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter—Or rather a disease that’s
in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine.” – Lear to Goneril (What is a
parent to a child? What is a child to a parent?)
• “How, in one house, Should many people under two commands Hold
amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.” – Regan to Lear about useless
holding on to the 50 knights. (under two commands. Again, daughter
and King holds same status)
• “I gave you all—” – Lear (everything and nothing what is the difference?)
• “Those wicked creatures yet do look well favored When others are more
wicked. Not being the worst Stands in some rank of praise. (to GONERIL)
I’ll go with thee. Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty, And thou art
twice her love. “ – Lear (balancing and comparing love with power)
 ACT II Questions
• 1 Why is Gloucester so easily deceived by Edmund?
2 How does he differ from Lear in his treatment of his child?
3 What reason is there for setting Kent in the stocks?
4 How does Edgar show himself the most Christian character in this entire drama?
5 How is this a fault?
9 How are we led to hope that Regan will be kind to Lear?
• 10. Does Regan defend her sister from sisterly affection?
• 11. How have our feelings changed toward Lear since Act I?
• 12. What does the purchased love become?
• 13. Give resemblances and difference in Regan and Goneril.
• 14. What has each inherited from the father?
• 15. How do they differ from Shakespeare's other women?
• 16. Why are they put in pairs?
•
Act III
GENTLEMAN (talking about Lear):
• Contending with the fretful elements.
• Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea
• Or swell the curlèd water 'bove the main,
• That things might change or cease. Tears his white hair,
• Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
• Catch in their fury and make nothing of.
• Strives in his little world of man to outscorn
• The to-and-fro–conflicting wind and rain.
• This night—wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
• The lion and the belly-pinchèd wolf
• Keep their fur dry—unbonneted he runs,
• And bids what will take all.
•
Act iii
“Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
• I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.
• I never gave you kingdom, called you children.
• You owe me no subscription. Why then, let fall
• Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand, your slave—” – Lear
• – pathetic fallacy the weather reflecting his inner agony. Also a way of representing the daughters.
Interesting to note that the reflection of agony and the CAUSE of pain (also represented by the storm) is
presented as ONE thing. Hint that he is the cause of his own misery.
• -Nature also punishes the sisters, but on the same level as Lear (Lear gets “punished” as well)
• -” I am a man more sinned against than sinning” – Lear (he feels that he is more a victim)
• “The art of our necessities is strange that can make vile things precious.” – Lear upon hearing about the hut
• “But where the greater malady is fixed the lesser is scarce felt.” – Lear (when something greater is felt, the
lesser counterpart is scarcely felt. Comparison. What do you think about this attitude? What kind of
character is Lear at this point?

•
 Act iii
• “Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel…” – Lear feels what homeless people must’ve
felt. Those more powerful should experience the hardships in order to “And show the
heavens more just”. – Again about the balance, but what kind of “balance” is this?
• -Lear’s encounter with Edgar is particularly interesting. Parent (realizing his mistakes) and
child (the result of the mistake). What is the point of this encounter?
• “What, has his daughters brought him to this pass?—Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst
thou give 'em all?” – Lear questioning Edgar, Lear thinks Edgar had the same fate as him.
Why is this? What is Shakespeare’s message here?
• “I will lay trust upon thee, and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. “ – Cornwall to
Edmund (new father and son relationship established, but what is their foundation?
(trust))
• “Thou call’st on him that hates thee. It was he that made the overture of thy treasons to
us, who is too good to pity thee.” – Regan to Gloucester (after Cornwall gouged out his
eyes)
• -servant sides with Gloucester (meaning)
 Act iii
• How is the blindness of Gloucester symbolic to
the blindness of Lear?
• Is Edgar really mad? If not, how do you account
for his actions and words?
 ACT IV
• “Yet better thus, and known to be contemned, than still contemned and flattered. “ – Edgar
• “…The lamentable change is from the best…Welcome, then, Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
• The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst Owes nothing to thy blasts.” – Edgar (wind can
blow, sunk as far down as he can go)
• “I have no way, and therefore want no eyes.” – Gloucester (way is parallel with sight)
• “'Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” – Gloucester wanting to be guided by Edgar
(Tom) suggestive of what it means to be a lunatic. Connotation?
• Nature cures the King – What is natural
• What is Death in this play? How is it represented?
• Naked=nothing
• “I know you do not love me, for your sisters have, as I do remember, done me wrong.
• You have some cause; they have not.” – Lear to Cordilia
 ACT IV
• Describe the Dover Cliff incident.
Gloucester determines to commit suicide by throwing himself over the Dover
Cliff. He meets Edgar and not recognizing his son, asks him to lead the way to
the Cliff. Edgar divines his father's intention and leads him across a field, but
pretends they are climbing a steep hill. They finally stop and Edgar tells his
father they are within a foot of the edge of a great precipice. Gloucester gives
Edgar money and tells him to go away; he then throws himself forward. Edgar,
who has thought of this deceit to cure his father of his wish to die, now comes
forward as another person who had seen the fall. Gloucester is persuaded that
he did fall. Since he was not killed he decides to live and bear his affliction.
• Describe the restoration of Lear's sanity.
 Act v
• “To both these sisters have I sworn my love, each jealous of the other as the stung are of the
adder. Which of them shall I take? Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed if both remain
alive.” –Edmund
• “We are not the first who with best meaning have incurred the worst.” – Cordelia to the King
• “Come, let’s away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage…Talk of court news, and
we’ll talk with them too—Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out—And take upon ’s the
mystery of things as if we were God’s spies.” – Lear to Cordelia
• “I hold you but a subject of this war, not as a brother.” – Albany to Edmund (unequal in status)
• “He led our powers, bore the commission of my place and person—The which immediacy may
well stand up and call itself your brother.” – Regan about Edmund (equal because of her)
• “In his own grace he doth exalt himself more than in your addition.” – Goneril (Edmund
distinguished himself as a great soldier in his own right)
 Act v
• “Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony. Dispose of them, of me. The walls is thine.
Witness the world that I create thee here my lord and master.” – Regan traded wealth for
love
• Edgar in disguise called Edmund a traitor (he has no name)
• “I was contracted to them both. All three now marry in an instant.” – Married in death
Edmund, Regan, and Goneril
• “This a dull sight. Are you not Kent?” – Lear recognizes Kent on his own and with blurry
eyesight
• “He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that. He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.” –
Can’t understand that Kent is actually Caius in disguise
• “The weight of this sad time we must obey. Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long.” –
Edgar (meaningful conclusion)
 Scholarly journal aBSTRACT
• “Holy Bible is the classic of Christian, having a deep and far-reaching influence on the thought and
the everyday life of western people. The elements in Holy Bible were shown everywhere in
Shakespeare’s tragedy: King Lear. This article aims to explore the essential propositions of
Christian: sin, punishment and redemption as the clue, and analyzes the behaviors and fates of
characters in King Lear.
• First, human beings are born with sins. The characters can not escape the deep-rooted original sin
in human’s nature, committing different kinds of sins. Second, God is fair to everyone. The
punishment follows their sins. The characters deserved their proper punishment accordingly.
Owing to their different sins, some experienced kinds of sufferings; some lost their life; some will
be tortured in the hell forever. Third, God punishes those who commit the sins, but he also saves
those who die for justice, and forgives those who repent. Suffering is the road leading to being
redempted. After those sufferings, people were saved. “
• The religious ideas are widely used King Lear, further heightening the feelings of Christians, and
preaching the lessons of punishing the evil and advocating the good.
 sCHOLARLY JOURNAL: SINS
• Influence of religion: The invention of the Human (Riverhead Books, 1999), argues that “Shakespeare seems too
wise to believe anything” political or religious.
• “death is the most serious punishment “ –
-The first one is the death of the body, or the departure of the body and the soul.
• >” lost all the nice things in the earth and be tortured in the hell forever/free from the bitter life, entering a
beautiful world and enjoying the happiness forever. “
• -death of the soul
• >chance to resurrect
• -eternal death
• >no chance of resurrection
• Lear’s suffering is not without compensation. He learned the truth and discovered himself through his suffering.
• The drama not only plays the role of moral teaching of punishing the evil and advocating the good, but also leads
the audience to think about means of “punishment” and “death” under the Christian culture. King Lear has
deepened the religious ideas in the play, and further heightened the Christian feelings, making the play shed the
eternal radiance similar to the Holy Bible.
 questions
• In the check-out line at your local grocery you are assaulted
by tabloid headlines blaring alien dogs, four-feet tall
walking frogs, and a host of other oddities. You give these
little credence, but most of us are influenced by advertising
claims. How deceptive is the written word? How do you
protect yourself from such deceptions? Describe a time
that you have been deceived by written words.
• -youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OKgUdQF-
Fg
• -picture
• -knowing too much
 Intro
• The practice of combining love and justice in the governance of relationships between parents and children is
crucial to the moral formation of the young. This balancing act also requires the most strenuous and careful
exercise by those who would be good parents of the very moral virtues that they are striving to cultivate in their
offspring. Moreover, the entire endeavor hangs on one of the oldest and most perplexing of all questions, the
question of whether, and how, human excellence can be taught.
• Most parents and children will, however, experience this large philosophical difficulty by living through a series of
more immediate and personally focused dilemmas. Can parents encourage, nurture, and praise excellence in
their children without at the same time making it seem as though love comes simply or mainly as the recognition
of achievement? Should parental love be contingent to any degree upon performance? Can children ever cease
their conflicting demands to be approved and appreciated for their merits and yet to be loved altogether
regardless of them? Not all of us are parents, but we have all been children, and we might well ask ourselves
whether our most “successful” efforts to make ourselves worthy of our parents’ love have ever been anything
but the hollowest of triumphs. “Do you love me for myself or for what I have been able to accomplish?” How
many of us have not, at some time or another, sought an answer to this question by devising tests of love for our
parents?
• When it comes to such questions, we all need the most profound guidance. Hence we must turn to the poets, for
in matters of this sort, we need a sentimental education, a course of instruction that engages the feelings and the
imagination along with reason. The very best poetry does not simply instruct us and move us; it instructs us by
moving us. For our purposes here, one of the poems that most movingly and most truly gathers up the great
themes of love and justice is Shakespeare’s King Lear. One character in particular”the Duke of Gloucester’s elder
son, Edgar”and especially one speech made by Edgar toward the end of Act V, provide an especially useful focus
for considering two related matters: first, the several difficulties involved in managing a union of love and justice
in relationships between parents and children; and second, the several ways in which the best dramatic literature
serves as a uniquely powerful resource for thinking through these and other matters of vital ethical importance.
• “Even so, we live from day to day, and we have seen from the greatly disturbing examples
of Lear and Edgar that justice is a necessary part not only of parental love but also of filial
love. Yes, parents must show justice in their dealings with their children, especially in that
part of the parental task that involves discipline, but children must also practice justice
toward their parents in that their characters are involved, along with blood and law, with
their parents’ love for them.”
• “But if the mingling of love and justice is necessary, is it necessarily tragic? This finally is the
great question Lear forces upon us. Edgar’s and Lear’s great suffering would seem to
suggest that the need to mingle justice and love in parenthood cannot help but lead to a
wide variety of tragic outcomes. Cordelia’s splendid example suggests that the tragic
outcomes can be prevented if and only if parental and filial love partake to some extent of
charity. This seems to me perhaps the most important lesson the play suggests to us.”
• “Unlike the imperfect reconciliation between Edgar and Gloucester, the one between
Cordelia and her father is almost unspeakably beautiful. Lear has become the very image of
patience and she the very image of charity. That all of this does nothing to prevent her fate
or her father’s is beside the point. The reconciliation takes place between the two of them,
not between them and the world.”
• Telling stories and seeing plays (presuming, of course, that these are the right stories and the
right plays at the right time) are far better ways toward understanding and even managing
these matters of love and justice than any number of other strategies often thought to be
superior for such purposes (therapy, life experiences, support groups, etc.). It is finally Edgar’s
telling of his and Gloucester’s pilgrimage together that moves his father to that point of joy and
grief (a combination of feelings very different from despair) that is fitting for one who has come
at last to see the world feelingly. Moreover, the story has an immediate and astonishing effect
upon the seemingly impervious and unredeemable Edmund: “This speech of yours hath moved
me, and shall perchance do good . . . ” (V, iii). Soon thereafter, the formative power of Edgar’s
brief tale prevails, at least temporarily, over Edmund’s animal nature. As Edmund faces his own
death, he strives to save Lear and Cordelia, and in this effort he vindicates the capacity of
narrative to move and change us. “I pant for life, some good I mean to do/ Despite of mine own
nature” (V, iii). Finally, our seeing Edgar’s story and the others in King Lear moves us to
understand the visions, wordless discernings, disguises, longings, refusals, blood-lusts, fears,
rivalries, hopes, blessings, mistakes, sorrows, apprehensions, and “touching” moments of grace
that are all a part of the lived experience of filial and parental love. Ethics may be finally a
matter of perception, of seeing the human world aright, and perception in matters of love and
justice just is a matter of seeing the world feelingly.
• Telling stories and seeing plays (presuming, of course, that these are the right stories and the
right plays at the right time) are far better ways toward understanding and even managing
these matters of love and justice than any number of other strategies often thought to be
superior for such purposes (therapy, life experiences, support groups, etc.). It is finally Edgar’s
telling of his and Gloucester’s pilgrimage together that moves his father to that point of joy and
grief (a combination of feelings very different from despair) that is fitting for one who has come
at last to see the world feelingly. Moreover, the story has an immediate and astonishing effect
upon the seemingly impervious and unredeemable Edmund: “This speech of yours hath moved
me, and shall perchance do good . . . ” (V, iii). Soon thereafter, the formative power of Edgar’s
brief tale prevails, at least temporarily, over Edmund’s animal nature. As Edmund faces his own
death, he strives to save Lear and Cordelia, and in this effort he vindicates the capacity of
narrative to move and change us. “I pant for life, some good I mean to do/ Despite of mine own
nature” (V, iii). Finally, our seeing Edgar’s story and the others in King Lear moves us to
understand the visions, wordless discernings, disguises, longings, refusals, blood-lusts, fears,
rivalries, hopes, blessings, mistakes, sorrows, apprehensions, and “touching” moments of grace
that are all a part of the lived experience of filial and parental love. Ethics may be finally a
matter of perception, of seeing the human world aright, and perception in matters of love and
justice just is a matter of seeing the world feelingly.
• And seeing the world feelingly may be the only way to grasp the
major lessons of Lear. Charity and grace, after all, defy reason, at
least the concept of reason that was prevalent among Shakespeare’s
contemporaries and that still prevails among many today. From
Luther to Hobbes, reason was understood to be a reckoning of sums
(Hobbes), a kind of calculation of merits and demerits, linked
invariably to some kind of rule or law (Luther). Reason always
reckons (Hobbes), and the law always condemns (Luther). Charity,
since it is contrary to reason under this description, cannot be both
authentically and fully conveyed by appeals to reason. It requires at
least image, example, story, and a receptive form of cognition that
sees the world feelingly in order to be comprehended and infused
within us.
 King Lear questions
• What are the strengths & weaknesses of each character in King Lear?
• Can a strength sometimes be a weakness and vice versa?
• The Fool acts as Lear’s conscience and despite the fact that the Fool is honest he
always tries to help Lear. In fact he is the only character who gets away with telling
Lear just how wrong he has been. He also tries to make Lear feel better by making
him laugh.
• Fool: Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
• Lear: No
• Fool: Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
• Lear: Why?
• Fool: Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters…
•
• Fool: If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’ld have thee beaten for being old before thy time.
• Lear: How’s that?
• Fool: Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
•
• What do you think the Fool is trying to tell Lear in these two examples?
 Sample essay
• .” King Lear's love for his daughter mainly Goneril
and Regan can be more related to Desdemona's love
for Othello because much the same as Desdemona
King Lear's unconditional love for Goneril and Regan
hazed his vision to the wicked plans hiding under
their angelic masks and impure flattery (A. Bradley). “
• -”unconditional love”
• -What can we compare between Othello and King
Lear?
 King Lear Journals
• http://www.gregteach.net/yahoo_site_admin/asse
ts/docs/Sample_Feminist_critique_1.125221535.
pdf
• https://a2englishlearningcommunity2010.wikispac
es.com/file/view/Disguised+and+deceived+in+
Lear.pdf
• http://web.csulb.edu/~dtsuyuki/portfolio/Writing/
Essays/Research%20paper%20on%
20Disguise.pdf
• http://www.firstthings.com/article/1993/10/king-l
ear-beyond-reason-love-and-justice-in-the-
family