King Lear Five Act Structure

Starter: Match the structural term with the correct definition

Structural term Definitions

1. Narrative perspective A. when a future event is hinted at

Term Definition
2. Sentence Forms B. In drama, a long speech made by a character while no
other characters are on stage
1 I
3. Exposition C. The words in a conversation 2 D
4. Soliloquy D. Simple, compound, complex, minor, declarative,
interrogative, exclamatory and imperative 3 G
5. Foreshadowing E. when events or things are very different to each
4 B
other
6. Foreboding F. the indication of a specific time, or of time passing 5 A
7. Dialogue G. when the narrator provides the reader with 6 H
information
8. Contrast H. when it is suggested that something bad will happen 7 C
9. Temporal marker I. the view from which the story is being told
8 E
9 F
On the next slide/in word/on paper:
What are the prologue, key conflict,
rising action, falling action and
denouement of the play

Denouement: the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of
the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.
Answers
• Prologue - a speech, often in verse, addressed to the audience by one or more of the actors at the opening of a play.
• Key conflict -The challenge main characters need to solve to achieve their goals. Traditionally, conflict is a major literary element of
narrative or dramatic structure that creates challenges in a story by adding uncertainty as to whether the goal will be
achieved.
• Rising actionincludes all decisions, characters' flaws, and background circumstances that together create turns and twists leading to a
-a series of relevant incidents that create suspense, interest, and tension in a narrative. In literary works, a rising action

climax.
• Falling action - the section of theconflict
plot following the climax, in which the tension stemming from the story's central
decreases and the story moves toward its conclusion.

• Denouementresolution
-is when the story reaches its outcome and is resolved for the audience. In a comedy the denouement will be the
of a problem, whereas in a tragedy the denouement is called a 'catastrophe', with an unhappy outcome for the
main characters.
 2. This is the first thing
1. This is the last thing Cordelia Cordelia says to her father when
says to her family before leaving they are reunited in Act 4.
for France. in Act 1 A. What is she saying?
1. What do you think she is B. How does this lead on from
saying? her last spoken words to her
2. What is being foreshadowed? family?

Time should unfold what O my dear father! Restoration

plighted cunning hides; hang
Who covers faults, at last Thy medicine on my lips, and let
what shame derides. this kiss
Well may you prosper! Repair those violent harms that
my two sisters
Have in thy reverence made!
 Answers
Time will tell what you’ve got up your sleeve. You can be deceitful in the short term, but eventually truth will come out. Have a good life.

The use of foreshadowing hints that in the future , all of Lear’s corruption and narcissism will unfold and result in something bad happening to him.

Oh, my dear father, please get better. May my kiss heal the wounds inflicted on you by my sisters—who should have respected and cherished you.

It links to the foreshadowing shown in the fist act as now Lear is actually seriously ill and the two of his daughters who confessed their love for him aren’t
there but Cordelia is.
1. How is Cordelia presented at the start of the play?
2. As the play unfolds and Cordelia is absent, how do readers feel?
3. What does Cordelia’s return and reunion with Lear bring hopes of?
4. How does Cordelia’s actions in raising an army to bring to her father’s
defense contrast with that of her sisters?
Answers
At the beginning , Cordelia is seen as disobedient and quite rebelious as she
resists her father's demands and asserts her own identity and leaves her father.
 Lear
Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones! 4. What is the effect of the
Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so that heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever. punctuation being used in this scene?
I know when one is dead, and when one lives; she’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
1. Why is Codelia’s death viewed as If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
the “promis’d end?” Why, then she lives.

Kent
Is this the promis’d end?

Edgar
Or image of that horror?
5. Lear says “you men,” and
Albany
“murderers, traitors,” what do you
Fall and cease.
think he has realised about his
society? What is Shakespeare
2. What is Albany suggesting? Lear
revealing in this scene?
This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so,
It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
That ever I felt.

Kent
(kneeling) O my good master!

Lear
Prithee, away.
6. How does the mood change in this
3. Why does Lear repeat “gone for Edgar scene?
ever?” ’tis noble Kent. Your friend. Complete the
analysis in the text
Lear
A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! boxes on this slide,
I might have sav’d her; now she’s gone for ever! or number them in
Cordelia, Cordelia! Stay a little. Ha!
What is’t thou say’st? her voice was ever soft, Word/on paper
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.
I kill’d the slave that was a-hanging thee.