King Lear: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:13, 15 October 2004

Revision as of 16:43, 17 October 2004

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*'''King Lear''' is [[ruler]] of Britain. He's a [[patriarchal]] figure whose misjudgement of his [[daughter]]sdaughters brings about his downfall.

*'''Goneril''' is Lear's treacherous eldest [[daughter]] and [[wife]] to the [[Duke of Albany]].

*'''Regan''' is Lear's second [[daughter]], and [[wife]] to the [[Duke of Cornwall]].

*'''Cordelia''' (poss. "heart of a lion" [[#Notes|¹]]) is Lear's youngest [[daughter]].

*'''The Duke of Albany'''[[#Notes|²]] is Goneril's husband. Goneril scorns him for his "milky gentleness." He turns against his [[wife]] later in the [[play]].

*'''The Duke of Cornwall'''[[#Notes|²]] is Regan's husband. He has the [[Earl of Kent]] put in the [[stocks]], leaves Lear out on the [[heath]] during a storm, and gouges out Gloucester's eyes. After his attack on Gloucester, one of his servants attacks and mortally wounds him.

*'''The Earl of Gloucester'''[[#Notes|²]] is Edgar's father, and the father of the illegitimate son, Edmund. Edmund deceives him against Edgar, and Edgar flees, taking on the disguise of Tom of [[Bedlam]].

*'''The Earl of Kent'''[[#Notes|²]] is always faithful to Lear, but he is [[Exile#Personal exile|banished]] by the king after he protests against Lear's treatment of Cordelia. He takes on a disguise and serves the king without letting him know his true identity.

*'''Edmund''' is Gloucester's illegitimate son. He works with Goneril and Regan to further his ambitions.

*'''Edgar''' is the legitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester. Disguised as Tom of Bedlam, he helps his [[blindness|blind]] father. At the end of the play, he takes rule of the kingdom.

*'''Oswald''' is Goneril's servant, and is described as "a serviceable villain." He tries to murder Gloucester, but is instead murdered by Edgar.

*'''The [[Court jester|Fool]]''' is a jester who is devoted to Lear and Cordelia. He appears in Act I, scene four, and disappears in Act III, scene six, with no suggestion of what his destiny would be. It has been suggested that Cordelia never left England but went into disguise as Lear's Fool, unbeknown to Lear, and it wasn't until after she died and Lear is holding her dead body that he realizes that she has been his Fool, pronouncing, "And my poor Fool is [[hanging|hanged]]...."

==[[Plot]]==