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King Lear (BBC Radio)

by William Shakespeare, Cyril Cusack, Alec Guinness

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 82,282 ratings · 1,421 reviews

A king foolishly divides his kingdom between his scheming two oldest daughters and estranges himself from the daughter who loves him. So begins this profoundly moving and disturbing tragedy that, perhaps more than any other work in literature, challenges the notion of a coherent and just universe. The king and others pay dearly for their shortcomings–as madness, murder, an...more

Audio Cassette, Abridged

Published September 3rd 1996 by Random House Publishing Group

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Aug 14, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, 2012, in-by-of-england, in-theater

I've never felt less able to respond to one of Shakespeare's plays than I do right now. Does that always happen at some point? You come to a work that is more than you can really take in and it just leaves you sitting there, having turned the last page and not knowing what do next. My usual reaction to Shakespeare is energized! It's up and excited and ready to write and talk and argue and analyze and -- and anything but just sit and look at a big blank text box and wonder what on earth one is su...more I've never felt less able to respond to one of Shakespeare's plays than I do right now. Does that always happen at some point? You come to a work that is more than you can really take in and it just leaves you sitting there, having turned the last page and not knowing what do next. My usual reaction to Shakespeare is energized! It's up and excited and ready to write and talk and argue and analyze and -- and anything but just sit and look at a big blank text box and wonder what on earth one is supposed to do with it.

I think it's the idea of writing Lear is that scares me. It's easy to have theories about Hamlet, everyone does. It's fun to rag on Falstaff, that fool. But here, with Lear, fool is a big word and it's weighing on me, how I might use it wisely, and not show my youthful ignorance by playing too lightly with it, or these characters.

Lear is a fool. He is a foolish old man who would believe those that lie easily because they tell him what he wants to hear. He would believe in words rather than people's actions. He would deny truth as if it were possible to do so. And so in the first scene we are already asking ourselves, why fear truth? What has happened to you that you would cast aside true love in favor of cloying words?

Power has happened. We, the audience, the readers, who often are so powerless, forget what it is like to live with power. It changes the way we think. It doesn't just corrupt, it changes how we perceive the world and we don't even realize it. Most people never have the opportunity to see their privileges from the outside, nor do they have the opportunity to step into a different level of privilege from that in which they're born unless they have a significant change in financial status or become seriously ill or, and this happens to all of us eventually, they grow old. But when they do, as Lear does here, it can be an overwhelming experience, a madness inducing experience...and in this brilliant, brilliant play, we see it happening all over the place, not just with Lear himself. Cordelia and Kent, from the beginning lose their privileges. What does it do to them? Edgar -- with every character who comes down in status, we are given an incredible opportunity to watch what it does to them. Can they accept it? Does it change them? Is this their true nature? Is it a given that Lear, who has the largest change, is not going to be able to handle it?

I don't know. I thought Lear mad from the beginning, that he was like some Hollywood starlet or model, surrounded by people who would only tell him yes. He had long ago lost his hold on reality because he was never exposed to it.

I loved the juxtapositions here. We watch the decline and fall as others rise, and since it's a royal tragedy, we see them topple as well. It reminded me a lot of Richard II into King Henry IV Part 1. The privileged are more like bowling pins than they realize until they stand on a battle field. So many clever cautions in this work for the elites in the audience at the first performances. I'd like to imagine them squirming, of course, but I hardly think they were. It is difficult to see privilege when one has it, even when we are taught to look for it.

So, yeah, um, yeah. That's what I've got for this staggering work. It was really good. I liked it a lot. (less)

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Mar 12, 2010 Bram rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, the-bard

In a world where every king must give up his crown, where tragedies end in death and all comes to dust, this is a hopeful tale. This hope won’t appear in a plot summary or in the morbid sum of deaths by play’s end, and yet there are key moments of reconciliation for both of the aged, long-suffering characters. After experiencing little but anguish for much of the play, Lear and Gloucester are granted a reprieve from the darkest of fates. Granted, these 11th hour reprieves are short-lived, but in...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brit-lit, theatre, favorites, shakespeare, wits-and-fools, owned, 1500-1700, great-and-terrible-men, grand-opera

As the bright red firament of stars above might give away, I really responded to this play. I may have done so in both negative and positive ways, but this story made a really lasting impression on me. It did for me what Macbeth could not- gave me genuinely tragic characters who earned the tears and compassion that I gave for them by the end of the journey.

Thinking about it in retrospect, a useful guide for King Lear is provided by another of Shakespeare's characters, Jacques, and his Ages of Ma...more As the bright red firament of stars above might give away, I really responded to this play. I may have done so in both negative and positive ways, but this story made a really lasting impression on me. It did for me what Macbeth could not- gave me genuinely tragic characters who earned the tears and compassion that I gave for them by the end of the journey.

Thinking about it in retrospect, a useful guide for King Lear is provided by another of Shakespeare's characters, Jacques, and his Ages of Man speech from As You Like It, the bit that ends in "second childishness":

"The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness..."

King Lear's story takes place in these tragic, declining last two ages of man. As the description of the sixth age suggests, King Lear starts off a figure easy to ridicule. A selfish, rather self centered old man, used to a life full of power, with all the sycophants and alternate reality that that entails, now wants to retire, expressed in a way that manages to make it seem even more selfish than it really should be: "shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death.". In other words, time to man-child it up, some serious Will Ferrell style! He goes to to demand that his children fawn all over him one last time before he gives up his power to them- if you take that for a flicker of recognition that he might have to store it up after that given that there are other people to suck up to now, think again- and then makes his last act of power disowning and rejecting the only child who understands what love is. Her bitchy older sisters take over, and things fall out about as you would expect after that from a strict main plot perspective. King Lear and his serious lack of foresight get fucked over by both of his power hungry daughters, who then start to turn on each other, one insufficiently evil husband, and anyone else around them who might be termed a decent human being- all this would make it so easy to just scream "YOU FOOL!" and dismiss the whole mess.

But I can't- because I recognize the truth of all of it, and the heartbreakingly, unbelievably amazing way that Shakespeare was able to draw the psychology of this aging man. Does he have faults? Of course he does, scads, but if you think about those faults, what could be more understandable? Anyway, I'll get to the meat of it:

There's so much to deal with in here, about family, power, government, class and gender, but here I'll focus on my favorite thing about the play: the ideas about perception. I loved the agonizing depiction of what can happen when you create an unrealistic world for yourself, and then suddenly, the real world interferes with it. If you think about it, all the trouble starts and continues and ultimately snowballs into that clusterfuck of a tragic ending because everyone refuses to play the roles given to them: Cordelia starts it all with her refusal to be a dutiful daughter in just precisely the way her father wishes her to express it. She doesn't even refuse the essence of the role- she just does not embody his vision of it. The sisters continue it with their refusal to actually be what King Lear wanted them to be- his ever loving dutiful and sycophantic fawning young women, his illusion of his youthful attractivenss come to life. Both sisters choose power, they choose agency, they seize what is given to them with both hands. And in some ways, the audience can understand this, at least at first- it is hard for Lear to let go of his power, the next generation has to be clear about the change of command. Kent is not the ideal (in Lear's mind) courtier for one moment, daring to question the King, and he is banished. Edgar appears not to be an ideal son, Gloucester tries to have him chased down, likewise. Edmund, (in what starts out as a very tragic, relatable way) refuses to be merely the bastard son, and his ambition to be more nearly destroys his family. It gets to the poignant point where people can't recognize their close relatives standing right in front of them because they are not who they expect them to be, and in Gloucester's case, the inability to see becomes quite literal. It was so painful, I found myself misting up and crying as half the cast realizes what they've been missing right under their very noses, and the other half finally, desperately- and at great cost to their soul or body (even to the point of death)- makes them see it. King Lear's journey is especially poignant, of course. He's having his entire world destroyed not long before he could have left it, in utterly blissful ignorance, never knowing a single truth about the world. A fool, but a happy fool, and who, in compassion, would have wished otherwise upon him?

But he does learn, while also being punished for the life he's lead, and that redeems it for me. Is some of it in madness? Yes, of course it is. Because for a man of that age, suddenly seeing everything he never did before, of course he would have to find sense in madness and believe himself out of his mind in order to make some sense of a world he thought he knew. He does learn, though, I have to reiterate that- he learns what his two older daughters are, what Cordelia is, he learns what love and loyalty really mean, and ultimately, he learns what a selfish fucking bastard he's been. The speech where he speaks of the poor wretches who always have to weather storms- he's finally given up the selfishness that utterly ruined his life. And if this feels inadequate, he is punished by the deaths of all of his children, the loss of his sanity and his health, and ultimately by his death. What bigger price do you want the man to pay? He ends just as Jacques would mercilessly predict, in:

"...mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."(less)

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Apr 05, 2009 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-20

This is where Shakespeare takes off the gloves. He brings us right to the edge of the abyss, then kicks us over that edge. King Lear is the most devastating by far of the Shakespeare tragedies -- this is a play which leaves the reader shattered as the curtain falls.

The play has a kind of primal power, which I find hard to explain. The plot is fairly typically Shakespeare, perhaps a little more complicated than usual, mixing elements taken from legend and from the historical record. At the outse...more

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May 27, 2012 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love this play. It is my favourite of all of 'em.

Upon re-reading, I'm struck by the observation that the King of France is the smartest man here. The only one whose actions show any kind of foresight. "She is herself a dowry...". Although he got sloppy seconds and his calculated risk didn't pay off, he saw the writing on the wall from Act 1, Scene 1. He knew them skanky beyotches, G & R, would do themselves in and that Lear would lose his shit when he realized what he'd done. And he'd have...more

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Apr 09, 2009 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: why-not-call-it-poetry, life-is-shakespeare

I was lucky enough to be living in Stockholm when Ingmar Bergman staged Lear at the Swedish National Theatre in the late 80s, and I saw it twice. Bergman's take on the play was very interesting and unusual; he interpreted it as fundamentally optimistic.

Obviously, you're wondering why, and in the hands of a lesser director it would probably just have been a piece of unnecessary perversity. Bergman's reasoning was, in fact, not bizarre. He saw the key scene of the play as the reconciliation betwee...more

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Oct 21, 2011 Hayat الياقوت rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

لم يسعفني الوقت لقراءة المسرحية الأصلية، فجاء -كامل الكيلاني- رحمه الله بملخص بديع لها.
الجميل أنه صاغ بعض الفقرات على شكل أبيات شعرية ممتازة وتوصل المعنى.

جميل جدا للصغار، وأجمل للكبار الذين لا يملكون الوقت.

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Oct 03, 2012 Genevieve Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

I enjoyed reading "Midsummer Nights Dream " as a 4 year old child. I actually could reada bit . The pictures were quaint , and pretty in the old book I found in my Grandparents library, i thought i had read the book.

Could a precoscious child read Shakespeare? Could a child even begin to grasp the subtlety, the complexity, the droll, often silly, or vulgar humour, the gut-wrenching tragedy? Could a child see the foreshadowing , the irony . Could a child see the racous, the adult love and lust,...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Samantha Maloney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is by far my favorite Shakespearean tragedy. The word play is phenomenal, and there was never a dull moment. I would recommend this to newcomers and experienced Shakespeareans alike.

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Feb 24, 2009 Paul Dinger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shakespeare goes to the Ancient Sophocles for this play. King Lear is just like the lost Oedipus as his foolishness makes him blind and causes him to wonder like Oedipus while war unfolds all around him. Only instead of Oedipus' loving daughters, Lears are snakes who fight over his land and plot to kill each other and daddy. There's even Edmund who plays everyone like a fiddle and madtom bedlam and a real blinding. Lear's foolishness is that he can rest on his laurels and give up his crown peace...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For as famous as this tragedy is, I was surprised to discover, upon reading it for the first time, that it is sorely lacking what I personally consider one of the most important elements of a tragic play: the arousal of pity in the audience. I think Aristotle had it right when he wrote that a tragedy should include "incidents arousing pity and fear," because only then are the emotions of the reader (or viewer) reached in such a way as to give the work any kind of dramatic power. The problem with...more

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Oct 05, 2012 John David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama

I don’t really know what to say about King Lear, or anything by Shakespeare, really. A summary would be redundant and out of place. So would gushing about the stunning beauty of the poetry, or how this is some of the greatest writing in the history of the English language, or any language.

Only one thing comes to mind when I think of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Think what you will of Harold Bloom (and there are certainly many opinions about him), I always think, more than anything else, of the...more

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Sep 07, 2008 M.C. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-2009

In his more renowned tragedy "King Lear", William Shakespeare weaves a tale of royal treachery and ignorance.

Set in late Medieval England, the play unveils with a meeting between British monarch King Lear and his three daughters. In his attempt to retreat from royal power, King Lear decides to cede to the daughter who best professes her love to him his wealth. Though by her unyielding conscience, Cordelia, the daughter whom Lear favored most, refuses to profess her love in elegant rhetoric for...more

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Aug 04, 2008 Melissa Rudder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: master-s-exam

I think this was my second time reading Shakespeare's King Lear. When I started it, I couldn't decide if I had read it one time already, or three, which seems like a pretty weird mix-up. I think it was one. Though I saw it in Stratford, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was an inspiring and amazing production.

I think the oft-repeated maxim that Shakespeare's plays are best seen and not read is most true for his sex jokes and for King Lear. Because, in seeing King Lear, I felt fo...more

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Aug 12, 2007 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Shakespeare fans

Recommended to Rachel by: Shakespeare Goal, College Course, High School Class

Shelves: 2-loved-it

When my A.P. English teacher, Mr. Anderson, asked me if I had read King Lear, I replied something like "Yeah, and I can't believe I have to read that piece of trash again." I think it was the one time he was disappointed in me... Well, after having read it the second time for Mr. Anderson and again in college, I have finally come to appreciate the work that is King Lear...and I now wonder why I had a problem with it in the first place. Filled with political and familial discord, this play delves...more

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Oct 02, 2009 Ahmad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, fiction, movie, script, drama

لیر شاه، پادشاه کهنسال انگلستان، قلمرو خویش به دو دختر ناسپاس و چاپلوس خود می بخشد، دختر کهتر را که از چرب زبانی و مداهنه پرهیز دارد، محروم می کند، از آن پس دو دختر چنان با پدر پیر خویش، رفتار می کنند که لیر دیوانه می شود. سر به بیابان می گذارد. این قسمت از نمایشنامه، پرتو درخشان نبوغ شکسپیر است. سرانجام لیر دیوانه، جسد بیجان دختر کهتر را، که به دست گماشتگان خواهرانش از پای در آمده، در آغوش می گیرد و از رنج زندگی رها می شود. ا.ش

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Dec 12, 2007 Briynne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the three daughters of King Lear, and I love this play. The irony, and ultimate tragedy, of this play is that the King cannot spot love when he sees it. He falls for the false affection and fawning of his mercenary elder daughters Goneril and Regan, and misses the quiet, honest love and duty of his youngest, Cordelia. The sisters are all married to powerful men; Goneril and Regan to dukes eager to sieze control of the kingdom Lear divides between them, and Cordelia to the French king who...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Io rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: theater

L'amore, l'amore come trait d'union di microscopici rapporti.
Amore filiale, amore del potere, amore carnale, amore.
E la parola. Parola sibillina, parola urlata, parola scritta, parola non detta.
Quando questi due elementi prendono strade diverse dirompente si staglia la tragedia dell'uomo. Solo così comprendo il monito disperato e inascoltato di Shakespeare quando, per bocca di Edgard afferma che noi dobbiamo "dire ciò che sentiamo e non quello che conviene dire”.

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May 19, 2008 Elizabeth added it · review of another edition

Recommended to Elizabeth by: Sara

the byline for these editions are "the page becomes the stage." King Lear has never been numbered among my favorites; I can never remember the plot; but how tremendously these quirky, disturbing illustrations guided me through the text this time. All the references to sight and blindness, nature and kingship, kept leaping out with great clarity. I also found David Gibson's brief introduction to the play to be very useful and enlightening. I'm really burning to see this as an actual production no...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My all-time favorite Shakespeare play. Had a great time teaching it last year, and it's a real testament to the play's universal appeal that a bunch of 17 year olds can empathize so strongly with the aged Lear. I cannot read the last scene without crying, no matter where I am. I'm getting a little misty eyed just thinking about it. "thou'lt come again never never never...". Just heartbreaking and totally unredemptive at the end as well. Also the best and strongest of all the subplots in any of h...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Stevie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: great-books, secular

It was interesting but I didn't like it as much as some other plays by Shakespeare.

Poignant Quotes:

Edmund - "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behavior, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villians on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Christina Venuti rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh William, your brilliance is locked away in your prose and I have yet to find the key. I don't get you..or your freakin' iambic pentameter. And I really wish I did, because I love every story you have ever told. It is beyond frustrating!! When I was little, like six or seven, my dad use to tell me and my sister this story. Of course not in full with all the drama, death, and infidelity - but he told us enough that I think we understood the lesson. Only I didn't realize until recently that I ha...more

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Feb 27, 2013 PriscillaC added it · review of another edition

(This review may spoil some parts of the book.)

Being a huge fan of William Shakespeare and his excellent plays that he wrote, I was once again amazed by this book: "King Lear." This book was basically about the tragedy of King Lear and his third daughter's love towards him. Because King Lear was too obsessed with wealth and power, he was becoming a more illogical and unreasonable person. So one day, when he was just testing his three daughters' love towards him, he was tricked and deceived by hi...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Iceman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Escrito entre 1603 e 1606, sendo levado pela primeira vez à cena em Dezembro de 1606, o Rei Lear é considerado uma das obras mais importantes de Shakespeare e é aquela que é mais lida e representada na Grã-Bretanha, até a 1ª fase da série “Black Adder” é inspirada nesta obra.
Poder, traição, vingança e amores, são os temas principais desta obra, focada num velho rei que faz doações de todos os seus domínios às suas 3 filhas tendo, contudo, como condição que todas elas no momento de receber essa d...more Escrito entre 1603 e 1606, sendo levado pela primeira vez à cena em Dezembro de 1606, o Rei Lear é considerado uma das obras mais importantes de Shakespeare e é aquela que é mais lida e representada na Grã-Bretanha, até a 1ª fase da série “Black Adder” é inspirada nesta obra.
Poder, traição, vingança e amores, são os temas principais desta obra, focada num velho rei que faz doações de todos os seus domínios às suas 3 filhas tendo, contudo, como condição que todas elas no momento de receber essa doação, dissessem palavras bajuladoras ao rei. Porém uma delas recusa-se a ser hipócrita e, num acesso de fúria e loucura, Lear renega essa filha (Cordélia), deserdando-a e dividindo então o reino pelas outras duas.
Os conselheiros de Lear tentam alertá-lo para a terrível injustiça que ele acaba de cometer mas, e à boa maneira medieval, Lear não lhes dá ouvidos e com o orgulho ferido expulsa Cordélia do seu reino.
Uma vez na posse das terras, as duas filhas (Goreil e Regane) logo encetam uma série de contactos a fim de usurpar o reino de Lear e é neste contexto de vilanias e traições, de combinações secretas e de vis acções que se desenvolve toda esta famosa peça de Shakespeare.
Tal como sucedeu em praticamente todas as suas obras, para não dizer mesmo em todas, Shakespeare não foi o criador do trama de Rei Lear. Obras como “Romeu e Julieta”, “Hamlet”, “Mcbeth”, já eram bem conhecidas na época de Shakespeare, no entanto o que Shakespeare fez não se tratou de plágio. Shakespeare teve o génio de “pegar” nessas histórias e de as tirar do circulo do folclore local, empregando a sua pena para escrever ou rescrever obras fenomenais. Ou seja, ele “pegou” em historiazecas e rescreveu-as mantendo, contudo, o fulcro original.
A história do Rei Lear surge pela primeira vez em latim na “História Britonum de Geoffrey os Monmouth” em 1135. daí para a frente, são várias as versões de “Lear”, sempre tendo como trama principal o rei louco e as suas filhas. Assim constata-se que Shakespeare teve acesso a uma enorme bibliografia que o ajudou a elaborar a sua obra, no entanto e pelos textos anteriores, Shakespeare deu-lhe nova forma, e porquê? Simplesmente porque deixou o fulcro da história intocável mas introduziu velhas lendas britânicas, colocou o seu ideal de justiça e inclusive narrou factos astronómicos verificados naquela época (1603-1606).
Este Rei Lear torna-se assim mais de que uma mera peça teatral. Para além de expor muito do pensamento da Renascença, esta, assim como todas as peças de Shakespeare, é um retracto da Inglaterra medieval com todos os tramas que caracterizavam aquelas épocas.
Pessoalmente e tendo já lido praticamente toda a obra de Shakespeare, que considero o primeiro mestre da literatura moderna, aquele que serviu e serve de escola para muitos escritores, esta peça não é das que mais aprecio.
Não tem a força e o carácter de Macbeth, Othello ou Hamlet. Não tem a ternura e o tom trágico de Romeu e Julieta. Os tramas das peças mencionadas empolgam, fazem-nos vibrar, deliciam-nos. Este Rei Lear, embora seja marcado por traições e encontros conspiratórios, não tem a força dos diálogos de outras peças e parece-me também que faltam excertos que interliguem alguns dos actos, pois há acontecimentos que se sucedem um pouco sem nexo e de uma forma precipitada.
Esta não é das melhores obras de Shakespeare, pessoalmente prefiro Mcbeth, Hamlet e Othello.(less)

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Oct 24, 2012 Trisha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

It is a tragic tale of scheming and vying for political position within a family. There is the King, his three daughters, their husbands, and a "bastard" who is trying to frame his half-brother/legitimate heir, so that he will come to power. Two of three daughters turn against the King while he wrongly casts out the third. It seems like the treachery of his daughters and the loss of the third daughter drives him insane. There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on "the young" over throwing "the old"....more

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Sep 25, 2012 Jimmy added it · review of another edition

Earl of Kent. A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud,
shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy,
worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson,
glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; 1090
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of
good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave,
beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch;
one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny th...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Yi Wang rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-2013-advisory-booksheive

In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” There are always evil and virtue in the world. People often hope for justice from society, such as punishment for evils, and they eulogize virtues. However, this statement was not entirely true in the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. The play King Lear portrayed a cruel and unjust society in which the people were suffering. In this play, the main character, King Lear, constantly asked for help from G...more In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” There are always evil and virtue in the world. People often hope for justice from society, such as punishment for evils, and they eulogize virtues. However, this statement was not entirely true in the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. The play King Lear portrayed a cruel and unjust society in which the people were suffering. In this play, the main character, King Lear, constantly asked for help from God, but he was rarely answered. Shakespeare suggests the world is often injust because justice is often nonexistent; the evils were punished, but the virtues died along with the evils.
King Lear believes that justice only exists when people treat each other in a just way. When King Lear was in power he never realized justice in his kingdom. But after he gave his land to the other two daughters, who didn’t really love him, the daughters treated him terribly, and sent him outside to be homeless in the storm. “That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you from seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en too little care of this (3.4.4)!” After the betrayal of his two daughters, and after being sick and homeless in the storm, King Lear realizes he had not done anything for the homeless problem in his kingdom, when he had had the power to fix the problem. “Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just (3.4.4).” King Lear suggests because humans live in an unjust world, this made heaven more just than the Earth; everyone in heaven treats each others in a just way. Justice exists when people behave in a just way towards each other. For example, if King Lear had fixed the homeless problem in his kingdom, he would not have been homeless.
Further, King Lear’s search for justice is successful to only a very small degree because justice does not really exist in this play. At first, he never thinks about searching for justice, because he thinks he has the authority of justice. But after experiencing all the hardships, King Lear starts to search for justice for his beloved daughter, Cordelia. King Lear changes his values from power and authority to cherishing Cordelia the most. However, Cordelia dies at the end of the story. This is strong evidence that justice often does not exist in this play; although the evil got punished, the virtue died along with the evil in the unjust world. God or justice did not protect virtue, and King Lear cannot do anything but hold Cordelia’s died body in his arms.
The significance of the search for justice in an injust world seems unsuccessful and it results in a cruel society. When the other two daughters betray King Lear by forcing him to leave, and he is sick and homeless during the storm, King Lear seen himself as the victim of injustice. He searches for justice and help from God, but God rarely answers him. When the old, sick King Lear finally meets his daughter Cordelia, she wants to help her father to get back his power, but again justice is not on their side. The French troops lose to the British troops, both Cordelia and King Lear are captured, and later both Cordelia and King Lear die. The cruelty and the picture of suffering in the play make the world seem terribly unjust.
Finally, King Lear’s search for justice was not fully successful. Even during his process of searching for justice, he found his true value, Cordelia. However, because of the crudeness in the play, the existence of justice in the world was being questioned. If justice really exists, why is justice so brutal? There is justice of punishment for the evils, such as Edmund. But there why isn’t there justice for the death of virtue, such as Cordelia and King Lear? There are both “good” and “bad” sides of the story, but it is difficult see which one triumphs in the end.

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Aug 31, 2012 Joanna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Last year, in the Spring, I took my Shakespeare class. As an English major, with emphasis in British Classic Literature, it was a personal requirement for me, even though I was terrified to tackle The Bard. We had a brilliant professor, however, who knows more than anyone I've ever met on the subject; and in that accelerated class, I believe we covered about nine of Shakespeare's plays. King Lear had the greatest impact on me. The folly of what we do to those we love, in hoping to induce them to...more

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May 28, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’ve read some great interpretations of King Lear. It’s an allegory of Reason’s descent to immorality. It’s about accepting death. It’s a Freudian tale of seeking a maternal bond. However, as I read the play, I kept coming back to Sophocles. Shakespeare creates an English Oedipus.

It’s not a direct connection. Lear is not necessarily Oedipus nor is Cordelia another Antigone. The similarities are diffused throughout the play. Gloucester’s blinding and being led by Edgar is reminiscent of Antigone...more

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May 23, 2012 Nicole Green rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

King Lear has to be Shakespeare's most tragic of the tragedies. Not only does it follow the rule that everyone dies at the end (sorry to ruin the ending, but it is a major plot point in all of his tragedies and you were bound to figure this out as time went on), but there are so many other elements of tragedy, jealousy, misunderstandings, and more that make it one of Shakespeare's greatest plays.

King Lear is one of the tragedies that focuses not only on the main character, King Lear, but on othe...more

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been tr...more William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day. It is an interesting idea that English writer is so closely identified with the Patron Saint of England!

At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

According to historians, Shakespeare write 37 plays and 154 sonnets throughout the span of his life. Shakespeare's writing average was 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. There have been plays and sonnets contributed to Shakespeare that were not authentically written by the great master of language and literature.
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Quotes from King Lear

“Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.” — 153 people liked it

“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.” — 93 people liked it

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