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King Lear Full Play Summary. Lear, the aging king of Britain, decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him.
Overview. King Lear by William Shakespeare, written around 1605-1606, stands as one of the Bard’s most tragic and profound works. Set in ancient Britain, the play tells the story of King Lear, who, in a moment of tragic folly, decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters based on their expressions of love for him.
Get all the key plot points of William Shakespeare's King Lear on one page. From the creators of SparkNotes.
Scene 1. King Lear divides his land between his daughters based on how much each daughter loves him. Goneril and Regan lie and exaggerate. Lear casts out Cordelia. Scene 2. Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester, plots to ruin Edgar, who is Gloucester’s legitimate son.
King Lear is a play about blindness – blindness to others’ motivations, blindness to one’s own true nature, blindness to the emptiness of power and privilege, and blindness to the importance of selfless love. Lear’s only desire is to enjoy a comfortable, carefree old age, but he fails to see the role his absolute power has played in ...
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King Lear is a play written around 1606 by the English playwright William Shakespeare. Widely considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, King Lear tells the story of a king who goes mad after bequeathing his fortune and power to his daughters. It is loosely based on the myth of Leir of Britain, a legendary monarch said to have ruled ...
