King Lear
Many critics consider King Lear Shakespeare's greatest tragedy — the most devastating and philosophically searching drama in the language. An aged king divides his kingdom among his daughters based on flattery, is expelled into a storm, and goes mad before achieving terrible clarity. Nothing is mitigated; no comfort is offered.
At a Glance
- Genre: Tragedy
- Approximate date: c. 1605–1606
- Setting: Ancient Britain
- Source: Holinshed's Chronicles; an old play King Leir; Philip Sidney's Arcadia (Gloucester subplot)
- Acts: 5
Dramatis Personæ
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| LEAR | King of Britain; aged; abdicates; loses everything |
| GONERIL | Lear's eldest daughter; married to Albany; cruel |
| REGAN | Lear's second daughter; married to Cornwall; crueler |
| CORDELIA | Lear's youngest daughter; honest; banished; returns with French army; killed |
| DUKE OF ALBANY | Goneril's husband; eventually good |
| DUKE OF CORNWALL | Regan's husband; brutal; gouges out Gloucester's eyes; killed by a servant |
| KING OF FRANCE | Marries Cordelia despite her disinheritance |
| DUKE OF BURGUNDY | Refuses Cordelia when she lacks a dowry |
| EARL OF GLOUCESTER | Old nobleman; parallel to Lear; father of Edgar and Edmund |
| EDGAR | Gloucester's legitimate son; driven out; disguises as Poor Tom |
| EDMUND | Gloucester's illegitimate son; villain; manipulates both father and brothers |
| EARL OF KENT | Lear's loyal follower; banished; returns in disguise |
| FOOL | Lear's fool; tells painful truths; disappears mid-play |
| OSWALD | Steward to Goneril; unscrupulous; killed by Edgar |
| CURAN | A courtier |
| OLD MAN | Gloucester's tenant; leads the blinded Gloucester |
| A PHYSICIAN | Attends Cordelia |
| AN OFFICER | Employed by Edmund to hang Cordelia |
| SERVANTS TO CORNWALL | One rebels and is killed defending Gloucester |
| A HERALD |
Plot Summary
Act I: Lear announces he will divide his kingdom among his three daughters, with the largest share going to whoever loves him most. Goneril and Regan flatter him elaborately. Cordelia can only say the truth: she loves him as a daughter should, no more or less. Lear disinherits and banishes her. Kent protests; is banished. Edmund plots against Edgar (telling their father Edgar is planning patricide). Lear goes to live with Goneril; she immediately strips him of his knights. The Fool comments mercilessly on Lear's folly.
Act II: Edgar flees; takes the disguise of Poor Tom (a madman). Edmund is rewarded by Gloucester with the estate. Regan and Goneril unite against Lear; they strip him of all his knights. Lear, in a fury of wounded pride, rushes out into the storm.
Act III (The Storm): Lear rages on the heath in a great storm — the most powerful scene of suffering in Shakespeare. He begins to go mad. The Fool, Kent, and then Edgar (as Poor Tom) shelter with him. Gloucester, moved to pity, helps them. Edmund betrays Gloucester to Cornwall for sheltering Lear and corresponding with the French. Cornwall and Regan gouge out Gloucester's eyes: "Out, vile jelly!" A servant kills Cornwall; Regan kills the servant.
Act IV: The blinded Gloucester, guided by Old Man and then by Edgar (still disguised as Poor Tom), attempts suicide by jumping from Dover Cliffs — but Edgar tricks him into believing he has survived the fall. Cordelia's French army has arrived; she is reunited with the mad Lear. The mad king is tended and healed. Albany begins to turn against Goneril. Edmund has seduced both Goneril and Regan.
Act V: The battle: the French lose; Lear and Cordelia are captured. Edmund sends orders for them to be killed. Edgar fights Edmund (who has been challenged by Albany) and mortally wounds him. Edgar reveals himself; Gloucester dies of joy/grief. Goneril poisons Regan; Edmund confesses he ordered Cordelia's death. Too late: Cordelia is hanged. Lear enters carrying Cordelia's body. Edmund dies. Lear dies over Cordelia. Kent, Albany, and Edgar are left.
Key Themes
- Nothing — the word "nothing" runs through the play obsessively; Lear's kingdom is reduced to nothing
- Seeing and blindness — Gloucester must be blinded before he can "see" clearly; Lear achieves insight in madness
- Age, power, and dependence — the play's darkest insight: power cannot be given away and retained simultaneously
- Nature — as cosmic force (the storm), as maternal goddess (Lear's appeals), and as animal brutality (Goneril and Regan)
- The absence of justice — Cordelia dies innocently; the just are not rewarded; the play offers no consolation
Notable Quotations
"Nothing will come of nothing." *(Lear, I.i)*
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport." *(Gloucester, IV.i)*
"The weight of this sad time we must obey; / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say." *(Edgar, V.iii)*
"Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones!" *(Lear, V.iii)*
"Never, never, never, never, never." *(Lear, V.iii)*
LibriVox Recording
King Lear audiobook on LibriVox — Free public domain recording. (Multiple versions available)
Cross-references
- Tragedies — genre context; one of the four "great tragedies"
- Hamlet — the most ambitious pairing in the canon
- Macbeth — the destruction of a kingdom through its king's catastrophic choices
- The Tempest — Prospero as an older, luckier Lear who gets his kingdom back