King Lear

• How does Shakespeare open the play?

  • Disconnect between parents and their children
  • About to divide the kingdom - expectation that something bad is going to result from it
  • We hear from the old characters, but we dont hear the 'real' thoughts of the younger characters
• What would an audience think about the old characters in the play? (Gloucester and Lear)

  • Higher class characters portrayed badly: rude, crude, disrespectful, egoistical, vain.
  • They seem to expect their children to obey them without question. Gloucester has not shown much care for Edmund.
• How does Lear's emotional state change during the disowning of Cordelia?

  He goes from feeling betrayed and hurt to furious anger and blind rage.
• What does Lear's irrationality during the disowning of Cordelia suggest about his character?

  It suggests that he is easily moved and not in control of his emotions.
• What literary device is used in the long sentence building up to Lear's final promise?

  The long sentence builds tension and emphasizes his anger through plosive alliteration.
• What three things does Lear say he will give up in his anger?

  Paternal care, propinquity, and property of blood.
• What does Lear's swearing by the sun, the night, and the planets signify?


  It signifies the seriousness of his promise and seals Cordelia's fate.
• How does Lear's final statement about Cordelia being no better than a cannibal reflect irony?

  It is ironic because he is the one who has "eaten" his own daughter emotionally.
• Summarise Lear's new resolution (lines 131-139)

  • He will stay every month in turn with Goneril, Albany, Regan and Cornwall
  • He will keep 100 knights
  • He will still be named a king
  • He will go over to Albany and Cornwall "Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany"
  • He ends by giving them the crown which he had intended for Cordelia for them to "share" -This shows his irrationality and quick mood changes and lack of foresight.
• Summarise Lear's new resolution (lines 131-139)

  • He will stay every month in turn with Goneril, Albany, Regan and Cornwall
  • He will keep 100 knights
  • He will still be named a king
  • He will go over to Albany and Cornwall "Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany"