King Lear

My English class has begun to read Shakespeare's "King Lear". This play follows two plot lines; the first being about Lear, the aging king of Britain, who decided to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom among his three daughters. First, he puts his daughters through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him. Goneril and Regan, Lear’s elder daughters, give their father flattering answers. Cordelia, however (Lear’s youngest and favorite daughter), gives her father a different answer; she tells him that she loves him because he is her father, and she could not love him more than that. Sadly, King Lear flies into a rage, disowns Cordelia, and leaves her without a dowry. The King of France, who has courted Cordelia, said that he would still marry her even without her land, and she accompanied him to France, without her father’s blessing.

Lear, however, learned that he made a bad decision. Goneril and Regan swiftly began to undermine the little authority that Lear had left. Unable to believe that his beloved daughters would betray him, Lear slowly goes insane. He fled his daughters’ houses to wander on a heath during a great thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool and by Kent, a loyal nobleman in disguise.

The second plot line describes an elderly nobleman named Gloucester. His illegitimate son, Edmund, tricks him into believing that his legitimate son, Edgar, is trying to kill him. Fleeing the manhunt that his father has set for him, Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar and calls himself “Poor Tom.”

It is obvious in the beginning of the play that King Lear is an insecure man. This is evident because he needed to be reassured of his importance and of his daughters' love. Also, it is clear that King Lear does not want/need his servants for their services, but because they represent his authority and importance.

Additionally, I felt that it was heart- warming when the King of France agreed to marry Cordelia even though her father had banished her, and left her without land or a dowry.