Summary
Summary of The Tragedy of King Lear
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Two families reveal the cost of power
A king and his three daughters stand at the centre of Shakespeare's play, but their broken family is not the only one we follow. Beside them is a father with two sons, whose story echoes the king's mistakes. Shakespeare brings these families together to explore love, power, and what remains when a person loses everything. The action begins with a ruler who wants to give away his kingdom while still being assured of his children's love.
Key idea 2
Lear mistakes praise for love
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Key idea 3
Loyalty survives rejection and exile
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Key idea 4
Gloucester repeats Lear's mistake
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Key idea 5
A crown cannot preserve Lear's dignity
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Key idea 6
Exposure opens Lear's eyes to suffering
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Key idea 7
Loss changes what people can see
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Key idea 8
Truth does not depend on status
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Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love Shakespeare's dark family drama, with power, madness, betrayal and loyalty tested by truth, and anyone preparing to read, watch or study the play.
What this book is
The Tragedy of King Lear is a play by William Shakespeare, written around 1605 and first performed in the early years of the reign of James the First. It draws on an old British legend of a king and his three daughters, which Shakespeare had met in chronicles and in an earlier stage play. He changed the tale and added a second story of a father and two sons. The result is a play about family, power, and what a person is when everything is taken away.
In about nine minutes you will hear how the play unfolds. You will meet the old king who gives away his kingdom, the daughters who answer him in very different ways, and the loyal servants who pay for telling the truth. You will also hear how the play is built, what its storm means, and what to watch for on the page or the stage. Let us begin with the scene that sets everything moving, a game of love played for a kingdom.
In this summary
- 1A king trades his crown for flatteryFree
- 2Truth-tellers are punished, flatterers rewarded
- 3A second family breaks in parallel
- 4Lear learns what his daughters really are
- 5The storm on the heath strips everyone bare
- 6What the play is about and how it is told
Key point 1 of 6
A king trades his crown for flattery
The play opens at the court of King Lear of Britain. He is old and tired of ruling, and he has decided to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. Before he does so, he asks each to say how much she loves him. The one who speaks best will receive the richest share.
Goneril and Regan, who are already married to the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall, answer with huge speeches. They say they love their father more than words, more than sight, more than life. Lear is delighted and hands each a large portion of the land. The speeches are plainly hollow, but Lear wants to hear them, and he rewards them.
Then it is the turn of Cordelia, the youngest and the one he loves best. She is disgusted by the show her sisters have made. She says only that she loves him as a daughter should, according to her bond, no more and no less. Lear, who expected the finest speech of all, cannot bear it.
His anger grows quickly. He tells her that nothing will come of nothing, and he gives her a chance to speak again, but she will not bend her feelings into pretty words. Lear cuts her off from his love and from any share of the kingdom. The scene shows a man who confuses loud praise with true love, and it sets up the question the whole play will ask. What is love worth when it is only spoken?
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Check yourself
What mistake does Lear make when dividing his kingdom?
Right. “The scene shows a man who confuses loud praise with true love, and it sets up the question the whole play will ask.”Not quite. “The scene shows a man who confuses loud praise with true love, and it sets up the question the whole play will ask.”
How does Gloucester's story mirror Lear's?
Right. “In both, a father misjudges his children, trusting the false child and casting out the true one.”Not quite. “In both, a father misjudges his children, trusting the false child and casting out the true one.”
What begins to change in Lear during the storm?
Right. “For the first time he feels pity for the poor who live in this weather without shelter, and he wonders how little he ever thought about them as king.”Not quite. “For the first time he feels pity for the poor who live in this weather without shelter, and he wonders how little he ever thought about them as king.”
