King Lear

William Shakespeare
 King Lear, Big Assignments:

1. Read the Play together and independently, as assigned.

2. Act Assignments:
a. Act 1V: Complete the attached study questions (10 each)
b. Act II: Write a 1-2 page essay about a theme you see
developing. Do NOT choose one of the themes from (c). Quote
Directly from the play, using MLA citation. (20 points) Due at
the end of Act II (Jan. 31st)

c. Act V: Choose one of the following topics. Write a 1-2 page

essay, quoting directly from the play, using MLA citation. (20
points.) Due at the end of Act V. (Feb. 16)
i. Theme:
1. Nothing is as it seems. How we perceive ourselves may
not be how we are perceived by others. How do we see
this idea played out in King Lear?
ii. Symbolism: How is blindness, both literal and
metaphorical, an important part of King Lear?

3. Quizzes (10 points each)

4. Creative rewrite & performance (20 points): Each group (2-3 people)
will rewrite ONE of the following scenes and act it out:
a. Act 2, scene 1
b. Act 2, scene 2
c. Act 2, scene 4
d. Act 3, scene 2
e. Act 3, scene 4
f. Act 3, scene 6
g. Act 4, scene 1
h. Act 4, scene 2
i. Act 4, scene 7
j. Act 5, scenes 1 & w
 *If students dress up and bring props they may earn extra credit*

5. Final Test will be in two parts: an AP-style essay question and a

short answer test.

King Lear: Once Upon a Time

By Michael Flachmann
Once upon a time, an old king had three children; he unwisely divided his kingdom
between his two ungrateful daughters, who eventually killed the third daughter and caused their
fathers death.
Within this simple, almost mythic narrative, the parable of King Lear reaches through the
centuries and invites modern audiences to consider a number of complex and intriguing themes
that are just as provocative today as they were four hundred years ago when Shakespeare wrote
his play (1605) and five hundred years before that when the ancient and well-known legend was
first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). Chief among
these recurring motifs are the relationship between parents and children, the virtue of suffering,
the need for reconciliation and forgiveness, the seductiveness of evil, the search for meaning and
wisdom in life, the second childhood of old age, and the indifference of the gods to human
misery.
Perhaps the plays most compelling theme, however, involves the symbolic journey taken
by its central character through the unfamiliar territory of the human heart. As in such medieval
morality plays as Everyman and Mankind, in which the protagonists pilgrimage along the road
to salvation is beset with temptations at every turn, the aged king moves through the literary
landscape of the play on three different allegorical levelsphysical, psychological, and spiritual
which will each be on display at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this summer in its production
of King Lear.
LEARS PHYSICAL PROGRESS. On the physical level, Lears progress through the
play begins with his abdication of the throne in the first scene and accelerates when he disowns
his good daughter, Cordelia, and is then rejected by Goneril and Regan, the two ungrateful
daughters to whom he has unwisely given his kingdom. Cast into the storm like a beggar, Lear
wanders through the barren heath accompanied only by a fool, a madman, and a faithful friend.
After railing angrily at the heavens and the cruelty of his children, the frail and exhausted king
falls asleep.
He awakens restored not only to his right wits, but also to the love of his devoted
daughter, Cordelia, who has returned from France to save him from her evil sisters. This joyful
reunion is short lived, however, since the two are soon captured by the sisters army and die
before help arrives.
 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL JOURNEY. Although Lears physical journey moves
tragically from the loss of his kingdom to the loss of his life, on the second level, his
psychological progress in the play charts a more optimistic upward path. Pampered and indulged
for over eighty years as a royal monarch, Lear has become separated from his own humanity. He
behaves with imperial disdain towards his subjects, including his own daughters, whom he treats
as if they were servants. Insulated from the world around him, Lear is rudely awakened to its
cruelty when he gives up his crown to Goneril and Regan, who then reject him because they no
longer have reason to indulge the irritating behavior of their aged and useless father.
When Lear is cast out into the storm, the tempest in the heavens echoes the tempest in his
mind. In his isolation, confusion, and anger, he must learn again how to be a human being; he
must regain his lost ability to empathize with all living creatures, no matter how wretched and
ignoble they seem. His psychological journey, therefore, takes him from being a king to being a
man, which ironically confers on him self-knowledge and insight lacking in his royal condition.
The layers of courtly clothing he strips off in the wilderness represent decades of kingship
encrusted with pride, self-indulgence, and arrogance that must be shed for him to emerge as an
unaccommodated man . . . a poor, bare, forked animal who has come to terms with his own
humanity.
This self-awareness gained through suffering enables Lear to reconcile with Cordelia
not as a king condescending to his subject, but as a father embracing his devoted daughter.
Awakened from his restorative sleep, he looks deeply into her eyes and discovers his proper
place in the world around him: as I am a man, I think this lady / To be my child, Cordelia.
Lears psychological journey in the play has finally made him worthy of Cordelias
unconditional love, which he could only experience and appreciate as a man, not as a king.
At the same time, this journey has provided a dramatic surrogate through whose
redemption the audience gains insight into its own moral and ethical condition. We suffer greatly
with Lear; and when he begins to know himself, we are edified by our self-knowledge, which
follows and parallels his own.
FROM PURGATORY TO A HEAVENLY REUNION. On the third and final level,
Lears progress takes him on a spiritual journey through death and purgatory, which concludes in
a heavenly reunion with the beatific Cordelia. When Lear gives up his throne at the outset of the
play, he dies as a king so that he can be reborn as a man. His agony in the storm which follows
this death is purgatorial in nature because it punishes him for his sins and also purifies him for
the eventual reunion with his daughter, whom he describes in celestial terms after awakening
from his sleep: You do me wrong to take me out o th grave. / Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am
bound / Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears / Do scald like molten lead. Lears
purgatorial torment, complete with imagined instruments of torture, has so thoroughly cleansed
his spirit that he can finally experience, at the very end of his life, the regenerative love of his
angelic Cordelia.
Through tragic irony, this sweet and long-awaited moment of heavenly reconciliation is
followed immediately by the cruel deaths of both Lear and Cordelia. Shakespeare has been
careful, however, to counterbalance defeat on the physical level with victory on the
psychological and spiritual realms. Lear dies, but only after he has gained wisdom through
suffering and heavenly compassion through the redemptive grace of Cordelia.
 Our journey as spectators has been productive, just as this old mans progress through the
play has been. Most people go through life without ever truly knowing themselves or being
assured of eternal bliss. As a result of following in Lears footsteps, we may have moved a little
closer to each of these distant goals.
 King Lear Act 1
Scene 1
1. Explain briefly why King Lear has called his family together in the first scene. Identify
the characters and their relationships to each other.

2. Why does Lear favor Gonerils and Regans professions of love over Cordelia? How is
this favoritism related to the exiling of Kent?

3. Why does the Duke of Burgundy reject the offer of Cordelias hand in marriage? Who
agrees to marry her and why?

Scene 2
1. Why does Edmund wish to overthrow Edgars claim to his fathers title?

2. What is in the letter Edmund is supposedly hiding from his father? What is
Gloucesters reaction to the letter?

3. What does Edmund tell Edgar about his father?

Scene 3
1. In what manner has Lear offended Goneril and her household?

2. What does Goneril instruct Oswald to do in order to anger the king?

Scene 4
1. The Fool tells Lear that he himself is a fool. Why is Lear a fool?

2. How many of Lears followers does Goneril take from him?

Scene 5
1. How does Lear feel about Cordelia at this point in the play? (Line 24)
King Lear Act II
Scene 1
1. Edmunds deception: What lies does he tell to get Edgar to leave the casle? How does he
convince Gloucester that Edgar is dangerous?

2. Regan and Cornwall suddenly show up at Gloucesters castle and are also pulled into
Edmunds design. Regan asks if Edgar was part of an unsavory group. Which group?
What is Edmunds response?

3. At the end of the scene, Regan says, You know not why we came to visit you
(II.i.l39). Why have Regan and her husband come to Gloucesters caster?

Scene 2
1. Kent and Oswald both show up at Gloucesters at the same time. What happens when
they meet? Why are they both there?

2. Cornwall punishes which character, how, and why? What is Gloucesters reaction to the
punishment?

Scene 3
1. What are Edgars reasons for playing the part of Poor Tom?
Scene 4
1. What is Regans advice to her father in lines 165-171? What are the reasons Lear gives
Regan for not returning to Gonerils home?

2. What happens at the end of the act?

King Lear Act III

Scene 1
1. What does Kent tell the Gentleman about Albany and Cornwall? What does he mean
when he says that France has secret feet in some of our best ports: (3.1.36-37)?
 2. What object does Kent give the Gentleman, and why?
Scene 2
1. How does Lear link the storm to the treatment he has received form Regan and Goneril?

2. What does Lear mean when he says, I am a man more sinned against than sinning
(3.2.62-63)?

Scene 3
1. Gloucester mentions a division to Edmund. Between whom?

2. What does Gloucester lock in his closet, and why is it important?

3. At the end of the scene, what are Edmunds plans?

Scene 4
1. During the storm, Lears attitude toward the less fortunate changes. Give an example of
that. (32-41)

2. What does Lear think caused Poor Toms Misery?

Scene 5
1. What information does Edmund give Cornwall, and how is he rewarded?
Scene 6
1. Describe the trial in the hovel. Who is on trial? What objects represent them? What is
Lears state of mind?

2. Gloucester asks Kent to help Lear in what way?

Scene 7
1. What news does Cornwall give Goneril at the beginning of the scene?

2. Gloucester is called a traitor by Cornwall. Why?

3. What punishment does Cornwall inflict on Gloucester, and what are the actions of
Cornwalls Servant?

King Lear Act IV

Scene 1
 1. Gloucester, so cruelly blinded, tells the Old Man, a tenant of Gloucesters, to leave him.
He comments on his blindness by saying, I stumbled when I saw (4.1.20). What does
he mean?

2. As flies to wanton boys are we to th gods;/ They kill us for their sport, (4.1.41-42) says
Gloucester. What is his view on how events in Life are played out?

3.
Scene 2
1. Goneril sends Edmund back to Cornwall. But before he leaves, we see a change in their
relationship. Indicate the line that shows this change.

2. What is Albanys response to the actions taken against Lear?

3. A messenger arrives with the news of Cornwalls death. Goneril says, In one way I like
this well./ But being widow and my Gloucester with her/ May all the building in my
fancy pluck/ Upon my hateful life (4.2.102-105). Why is she both pleased and unhappy
with the death of Cornwall?

Scene 3. Kent talks to the Gentleman about the difference between Cordelia and her sisters, and
blames it on what?

Scene 4. Cordelia orders out a search party for Lear. What condition does she believe he is in?

Scene 5. What are Regans plans regarding Edmund?

Scene 6
1. Edgar pretends to help Gloucester in his attempt to commit suicide. How does he do
this? Who does Edgar say saved Gloucester?

2. Oswald enters after Lear runs off, and sees Gloucester. What happens next? Another
mysterious letter! What does it say?

Scene 7. Lear has been caught by those who have tried to guard him. He sleeps, and Cordelia
watches over him. When he awakes, there is a reconciliation scene that has been described by
Isaac Asimov in this way: [N]owhere in Shakespeare, and I believe, nowhere in literature, is
the human heart so skillfully and ruthlessly torn in sympathy with what it sees and hears
(Asimovs Guide to Shakespeare 46). Choose one line from Cordelia and one line from Lear that
proves Asimovs point.
 King Lear Act V
Scene 1
1. Edmund, now Earl of Gloucester, heads up the dead Cornwalls troops with his widow,
Regan. Choose a line for both Regan and Goneril that sums up how they feel about
Edmund.

2. Edgar, in disguise as a peasant, approaches Albany. What does he tell him?

3. In Edmunds soliloquy at the end of the scene, he sets out his plans for Regan and
Goneril, for Albany, for Cordelia and Lear. What plans does he have for each?

a. Regan and Goneril:

b. Albany:
c. Cordelia and Lear:
Scene 2. Edgar tells Gloucester that the French army has lost, and that Lear and Cordelia have
been taken. He tries to get Gloucester to flee with him. What is Gloucesters response?

Scene 3
1. The captured Cordelia wants to see her sisters, presumably to plead for Lears release.
Why does Lear indicate that he would rather go to prison?

2. What are the instructions Edmund hands the Captain?

3. Albany arrives shortly afterward, and demands to see the prisoners (Cordelia and Lear),
and is put off by Edmund. In the meantime, Regan and Goneril are having a conversation
(5.3.77-97) about Edmund. Chose one line or two for each of them that sums it up.

4. Albany says he is arresting Edmund for treason. Why?

5. Edmund has the right of trial by combat. If no one shows as champion to call him out,
then Albany will handle the duel (having already thrown down his glove). But Edgar
 shows upin disguise again, this time in a full suit of armor. Edgar tells Edmund he has
been false toto whom?

6. When Edgar identifies himself to the dying Edmund, what is Edmunds response
regarding karma?

7. What has become of Gloucester (the elder)? Of Regan? Of Goneril? Be Specific

8. When Edmund sees Regan and Goneril again, how does he respond regarding love?

9. As Edgar finishes his tale, Edmund says, some good I mean to do,/ Despite of mine own
nature (5.3.291-292_. What does he do?

10. In Hollinsheds Chronicles, Cordelias forces won, and placed Lear back on the British
thrown for a final two years as ruler. Describe the last scene with Lear and Cordelia as
Shakespeare writes it.