William Shakespeare

1
William Shakespeares King Lear
2
Date of Composition and Source

• Most difficult play to pin down
• Written after Hamlet and Othello
• Winter of 1605-1606
• Leir a folk legend king who never actually
  existed
• Published during his life time

3
Lear and European History

• One of the few plays to take place in Britain
  (except Histories)
• Similar to other tragedies- nobility
• Believed to be during the Hundred Years War
  (1337-1453)
• France loses the battle

4
The Hundred Years War What was it?

• long struggle between England and France over the
  throne of France.
•  
• lasted from 1337 to 1453
•  
• success see-saws back and forth
•  
• 1415 - King Henry V of England conquers large
  parts of France wins extraordinary concessions
•  
• 1422 - France takes control again
•  
• Joan of Arc (a young mystic) leads the final
  charge to win the throne back for France

5
The Plot and Subplot Two Parallel Stories

• Lear and his daughters Main Plot
• Edgar and his father and brother subplot
• Parallel stories their closeness in plot and
  direction render them mirrors of each other
• Both Lear and Gloucester have faith in the wrong
  child and reject the right one
• Hook begins in media res (in the middle of
  things) Kent, Gloucester (Gloss ter), and Edmund
  enter stage already in conversation

6
Aristotelian Hamartia

• Poetics tragic hero is one who is guilty of
  hamartia, and perhaps hubris
• Hamartia error of judgment
• Hubris excessive pride
• Lear is guilty of both
• Existential Hero architect of his own ruin
• Fall from high to low

7
Characters

• King Lear-Aging King of Britain
• Cordelia-Lears youngest daughter, disowned for
  refusing to flatter him
• Kent-Nobleman who is loyal to Lear, but outspoken
• Gloucester-Nobleman to Lear, suffers a parallel
  fate
• Edgar-Gloucesters older legitimate son
• Fool- Lears court jester who gives important
  advice

8
Characters- Evil

• Edmund-Gloucesters Bastard Son who resents his
  position cunning in his schemes
• Regan (wife of Cornwall) and Goneril (wife of
  Albany)- Lears daughters who are interested in
  power and do not care about their father