1. King Lear

3. Act 1 Scene 1
Lear divests himself of the cares of the state using the love test.
Cordelia and Kent are banished for displeasing him.
The kingdom is divided between Gonerill and Regan.
Context ….
Inheritance issues were a matter of national concern for Shakespeare’s audience in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; Elizabeth 1 was unmarried and childless.
In Shakespeare’s day ‘thou’ was the pronoun used to address close friends and children. ‘You’ was the respectful form.

4. Key themes and ideas… RESPOND Inheritance and property Favouritism
Family relationships
Power
Appearance and reality
RESPOND

6. Act 1 Scene 1 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
1)How does Shakespeare establish a mood of uncertainty in the opening six lines of the play?
2)Edmund is notably silent in this scene; what do you think this suggests?
3)In what way could Lear’s behaviour be seen as foolish and egotistical?
4)What impressions do you have of the three sisters?
5)Is it possible to feel sympathy for Lear in this scene?

7. Act 1 Scene 1 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
1)How does Shakespeare establish a mood of uncertainty in the opening six lines of the play?
2)Edmund is notably silent in this scene; what do you think this suggests?
3)In what way could Lear’s behaviour be seen as foolish and egotistical?
4)What impressions do you have of the three sisters?
5)Is it possible to feel sympathy for Lear in this scene?

8. Act 1 Scene 2
Edmund makes his father Gloucester believe that Edgar seeks his life.
Context
Edmund is a victim of the law of primogeniture, a traditional method of passing on wealth and property. Primogeniture meant that the first born son inherited the family fortune and his father’s titles. As an illegitimate son, Edmund is entitled to nothing.
Gloucester’s concerns about breaches in nature reflect Elizabethan and Jacobean beliefs about witchcraft and magic.

9. Key themes and ideas… RESPOND Inheritance and property Favouritism
Family relationships
Power
Appearance and reality
RESPOND

10. Act 1 Scene 2 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
1) In what way do Gloucester’s actions mirror those of Lear in Scene 1?
2)How is Edmund presented to the audience in this scene?

11. Act 1 Scene 3
Gonerill complains to her steward Oswald about Lear and his followers.
How seriously should we take Gonerill’s complaints about Lear and his knights? Is she justified? Remember that Gonerill and Regan have been scheming and letters have been exchanged.
What do you think about Gonerill’s tone in this scene?

12. Act 1 Scene 4 Lear and Gonerill clash. Lear leaves to stay with Regan
Context
In Shakespeare’s playhouse, the Fool would have addressed the audience from the downstage area. This would have encouraged the audience to identify with his point of view.
The theatrical convention of the inpenetrable disguise was frequently used in Jacobean drama. Audiences accepted that characters would not recognise someone in disguise. There are many example of important characters who adopt a disguise in Shakespeare’s plays. In King Lear Edgar and Kent are forced to conceal their identities to preserve their lives.

13. Key themes and ideas… RESPOND Family relationships Power and Authority
Appearance and reality
RESPOND

14. Act 1 Scene 4 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
1) How does this scene reveal Lear’s loss of control and power? 2) Why is the dismissal of Lear’s knights significant? 3) Gonerill and Albany’s responses to Lear are markedly different. In what way could this be significant?
Homework LP3/2
Complete responses to all questions.
Begin a detailed timeline of events. Decide yourself how you want to present it.
Colour code references to madness, blindness and nature.

15. Act 1 Scene 5
Lear sends a letter to Regan
He fears he is going mad
Context
Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists often employed minor characters to reveal important information or ideas. The Fool fits into this tradition because he offers a commentary on significant events whenever he is on stage.

16. Act 1 Scene 5 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
Extended response
How does Shakespeare reveal Lear to the audience in this scene?
Consider:
His isolation
His fragile mental state
His relationship with his daughters
His blindness
RESPOND

21. Act 2 Scene 1 Edmund persuades Edgar to flee
Gloucester issues orders to have Edgar hunted down
Regan and Cornwall arrive at Gloucester’s castle
Context
As well as being discontented, Edmund is also Machiavellian. Shakespeare’s contemporaries misunderstood the works of the influential Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli. They believed that Machiavelli proposed that rulers should behave in immoral and corrupt ways. Edmund’s Machiavellian, immoral practices include his deception, betrayal and sexual misconduct.

22. Act 2 Scene 1
Write a bullet point summary of how Edmund succeeds in deceiving both Gloucester and Edgar. Refer back to Act 1 Scene 2.

23. What are your impressions of Regan and Cornwall in this scene?

24. The sub-plot and the main plot
Using detail from the text to support, explain how Gloucester’s experience is similar to that of Lear.

25. Act 2 Scene 2
Kent quarrels with Oswald and challenges him to a fight.
He is punished by Cornwall who puts him in the stocks.
Context
Laurence Olivier’s performance of King Lear which was televised in 1980 emphasises the pre-Christian setting of the play. It opens within the stone circle of Stonehenge. Lear enters, learning heavily on his favourite daughter, as the rest of the court prostrate themselves before him.

26. Act 2 Scene 2 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
What do you think is the dramatic impact of Kent’s insults to Oswald at the start of the scene?
What impressions do you have of Regan and Cornwall as a consequence of this scene?
Kent has received a letter from Cordelia. What does it say? In what way could this be significant?

27. Act 2 Scene 2 Use precise detail to support your responses and consider Shakespeare’s use of language.
What do you think is the dramatic impact of Kent’s insults to Oswald at the start of the scene?
What impressions do you have of Regan and Cornwall as a consequence of this scene?
Kent has received a letter from Cordelia. What does it say? In what way could this be significant?

28. LP3/4 Homework Update you timeline to the end of Act 2 Scene 2.
Read ahead in the play.
Ensure that all colour coding and annotation is up to date in your texts.
Read and highlight notes on Shakespeare’s life and theatre.
Complete questions on Act 2 Scene 2.

29. Act 2 Scene 3 Edgar disguises himself as the mad beggar, Poor Tom.
Context
The audience is left in no doubt as to the difficulties Edgar will face. The fact that he chooses to disguise himself as a social outcast reveals his desperation and the danger he is in. In Shakespeare’s day ‘Bedlam’ hospital housed the mentally ill. When they were released, Bedlam inmates were allowed to go begging for survival; this is what Edgar has been reduced to by his brother and his father. Edgar’s situation mirrors Lear’s.

30. Act 2 Scene 4 Kent is found in the stock by Lear.
Lear tries to complain to Regan about Gonerill.
The sisters reduce his train.
Angry and distressed, Lear rushes out into the storm.

31. Impressions of Gonerill and Regan?

32. Impressions of Lear?

33. Using detail from the text
Using detail from the text. Explain how Shakespeare reveals Gonerill and Regan to the audience in this scene.

34. Act 3 Scene 1
Out on the heath, Kent and the gentleman search for Lear.
Kent explains that France is preparing to invade England.
Act 3 occurs in swift short scenes to allow us to see Lear’s dramatic descent into madness. We also learn what happens to Lear’s mirror image Gloucester. There is a spiralling downwards ofr both characters. The Gentleman’s descriptions of Lear on the heath prepare us for the sight of the lunatic king in the next scene.

35. Act 3 Scene 2
Increasingly mad, Lear rants in the storm.
The Fool and Kent try to soothe him.
We see a new side to Lear when he expresses concern for the fool and identifies with his suffering.
Consider how ideas of justice are established in this scene ….
On the Renaissance stage, the sound of thunder was created in one of two ways; either by rolling a bullet on a sheet of metal or by beating a drum.

36. Act 3 Scene 2
Using detail from the text to support your response, explain how the audience will recognise a change in Lear in this scene.

37. Act 3 Scene 3 Gloucester tells Edmund he intends to help Lear.
Edmund decides to betray his father to Cornwall.
Edmund now has his sights set on his father’s title. He decides to betray his father without any hesitation. Gloucester’s fretting mirrors that of the audience as we sense the very grave danger that he is in. Evil appears to triumph and good intentions appear to be doomed.

38. Act 3 Scene 4 Lear continues to rant on the heath.
Poor Tom is found in the hovel.
Gloucester appears during the confusion.
This is very much as scene of isolation and suffering. Each character is oppressed by his own concerns.
In what sense do you think that Lear is learning compassion?
Does this scene, in your opinion, offer any hope?

39. Act 3 Scene 5 Edmund betrays Gloucester.
Cornwall has been given the letter which contains information about the French invasion and intends to punish Gloucester.
What do you observe about Cornwall’s tone in this scene?
What similarities do you notice between Cornwall and Edmund?

40. Act 3 Scene 6
Inside the hovel, Lear conducts a trial of Goneril and Regan.
Gloucester brings a coach to transport Lear to safety at Dover.
What do you notice about Lear’s judgement in this scene? How does his madness appear to ‘helping’ him?

41. Act 3 Scene 7
Cornwall and Regan take out their horrible revenge on Gloucester.
Gloucester’s physical torture matches Lear’s mental anguish. Look closely at the many references to sight and blindness in this scene.
Once again, can you detect any signs of hope?

42. Homework LP4/1
Using detail from Act 3, explain what changes you note in Lear’s character. How does he differ from the Lear we met in Act 1?
500 words.

43. Act 4 Scene 1
Edgar comes across his blind, suicidal father and starts to lead him towards Dover.
How is Gloucester presented in this scene? In what way does Gloucester’s attitude reflect that of Lear?

45. Act 4 Scene 2 Goneril and Edmund return to Goneril’s residence.
Albany accuses Goneril of cruelty to her father. He also learns of the blinding of Gloucester.
Why is the change in Albany’s character important to the plot? What impact does this have on the audience?

47. Act 4 Scene 3
Kent and the Gentleman speak of Cordelia and how Lear is too ashamed to see her.
Note the change in Lear who is now sometime ‘in his better tune’ but also so ashamed of his ‘unkindness’.
The scene prepares the audience for Cordelia’s return… she is described as passionate and loving; she is the epitome of Christian femininity.
The audience are made aware that the reconciliation between Lear and Cordelia will be painful.
The theme of blindness is prevalent …Lear has started to regain his wits but his renewed clarity of vision brings with it distress and regret.

48. Act 4 Scene 4
Cordelia sends her soldiers to search for Lear who is still wandering around outside.
She expresses deep concern for her father.
What is the significance of Lear’s crown of weeds?
‘O dear father, it is thy business I go about.’ How could Cordelia be considered a Christ like figure?
What similarities do you note between Cordelia and Edgar?

49. Act 4 Scene 5
Regan interrogates Oswald about the letter he is carrying from Goneril to Edmund.
Consider how the characterisation of Regan contrasts sharply with that of Cordelia in the previous scene.
Explore how Regan’s language reflects the materialistic desires of her character.
Note how the good characters share the same aims and appear to be gathering strength in contrast with Goneril and Regan who are now divided by their rivalry in love.

50. Act 4 Scene 6 Gloucester tries to commit suicide at Dover.
Lear and Gloucester meet for the last time.
Edgar saves Gloucester’s life when Oswald threatens him.
Context: The virtuous character still address Lear respectfully as their sovereign. Critics have argued that this could be proof that Shakespeare does not seek to undermine conventional ideas about kingship in this play.
Consider Lear’s obsession with social and moral justice in this scene.
Both Lear and Gloucester have achieved wisdom and understanding through suffering.
Consider Shakespeare’s characterisation of Edgar in this scene.

51. Act 4 Scene 7 Lear and Cordelia are reunited and reconciled
Context:
Many would argue that the tragedy of this play is that wisdom comes too late.
Lear and Cordelia are reunited and reconciled
A scene of pathos and renewal. Sleep and music were understood to have powerful healing properties.
Sense of restoration is heightened when the characters kneel before Lear.
Lear’s lines are filled with self pity and it could be argues that we see him as a victim in this scene.
Look at how his language has altered – he no longer uses the royal ‘we’.

52. Act 5 Scene 1
Regan questions Edmund about his feelings for Goneril.
Edgar gives Albany the letter which reveal Edmund and Goneril’s plot.
Edmund says he will show Lear and Cordelia no mercy after the battle.
To consider … is Edmund the wittiest and most attractive villains?
What are Edmund’s real feelings towards matrimony? Is he only loyal to himself do you think?
How does Shakespeare build uneasiness and urgency in this scene?

53. Act 5 Scene 2
The French forces are defeated in battle.
Edgar leads Gloucester to safety for he last time.
The battle itself is not the dramatic focus. Shakespeare is most interested in its consequences.
‘Men must endure
Their going hence even as their coming hither
Ripeness is all.’
How do Edgar’s lines prepare the audience for what is to come in the final scene?

54. Act 5 Scene 3
Lear and Cordelia are sent away to prison.
Edmund sends a death warrant after them.
Albany accuses Goneril and Edmund of treason and Edgar appears to challenge Edmund.
Edmund is fatally wounded in the fight.
Goneril poisons Regan and stabs herself.
Lear carries in the dead body of Cordelia and dies, mourning her.
Context:
There are many examples of revengers in Renaissance drama. Many are dubious figures but Edgar is a benign revenger, and upright figure who is driven to set things right.

55. Act 5 Scene 3
Context:
Some critics feel that the final scene ends on a faintly optimistic note. Edgar was the name of the king who united England and Scotland so if Gloucester’s son is now in charge perhaps reunification of Lear’s battered kingdom is now possible.
Is it possible to argue that Edmund is responsible for the death’s of the whole royal family as well as his father?
What is the justification for the deaths of Lear and Cordelia?
In what ways is the final scene an effective ending to a tragedy?