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King Lear Research

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59 views

King Lear Research

Uploaded by

niaz.ibby007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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KING LEAR

What is the play King Lear all about?


- King Lear is a tragedy that is written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the
mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear relinquishes his power and land two of his
daughters. He becomes destitute and insane and a proscribed crux of political
machinations.
- Another way to summarise the tragedy is Lear, the aging King of Britain, decides
his kingdom evenly among his three daughters. First, however he puts his daughters
through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him. Goneril and Regan,
Lear’s older daughters, give their flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear’s youngest
and favourite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no words to describe how
much she loves her father. Lear flies into a rage and disowns Cordelia. The king of
France, who has courted Cordelia, says that he still wants to marry her even without
her land, and she accompanies him to France without her father’s blessing.

Lear quickly learns that he made a bad decision. Goneril and Regan swiftly begin to
undermine the little authority that Lear still holds. Unable to believe that his beloved
daughters are betraying him, Lear slowly goes insane. He flees his daughters’
houses to wander on a heath during a great thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool
and by Kent, a loyal nobleman in disguise.

Meanwhile, an elderly nobleman named Gloucester also experiences family


problems. His illegitimate son, Edmund, tricks him into believing that his legitimate
son, Edgar, is trying to kill him. Fleeing the manhunt that his father has set for him,
Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar and calls himself “Poor Tom.” Like Lear,
he heads out onto the heath.

When the loyal Gloucester realizes that Lear’s daughters have turned against their
father, he decides to help Lear despite the danger. Regan and her husband,
Cornwall, discover him helping Lear, accuse him of treason, blind him, and turn him
out to wander the countryside. He ends up being led by his disguised son, Edgar,
toward the city of Dover, where Lear has also been brought.

In Dover, a French army lands as part of an invasion led by Cordelia in an effort to


save her father. Edmund apparently becomes romantically entangled with both
Regan and Goneril, whose husband, Albany, is increasingly sympathetic to Lear’s
cause. Goneril and Edmund conspire to kill Albany.

What was the inspiration for King Lear?

- King Lear wasn’t inspired by a ruler of Shakespeare’s era, but by a legend of an


ancient king, Leir of Britain, who has said to have lived around the 8th century BCE,
according to the 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae.

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