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King Lear

by William Shakespeare

3.85 · rating details · 39,607 ratings · 983 reviews

An edition of Shakespeare's tragedy, including discussion of its plot, themes, characters, language, production, and author.

384 pages

Published August 23rd 2011 by Washington Square Press (first published 1608)

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Mar 12, 2010

Bram rated it

· 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...more

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Apr 05, 2009

David rated it

· 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....more

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Apr 09, 2009

Manny rated it

Shelves: why-not-call-it-poetry

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 reconcili...more

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May 26, 2008

Amelia rated it

Shelves: classics, plays

Spoiler I suppose...

Well, I expected to hate it...being one of the tragedies, I didn't. I actually really loved it. (Thank you Comrade D!)Other than Cordelia, I was comletely fine with everyone who died. I did have to laugh that there were only three main characters alive at the end though!

I found one aspect rather annoyingly unrealistic, the fact that Lear seemed to be homeless without the favor of at least one of his two elder daughters. Kings have many a castle...y...more

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Jun 02, 2009

Kelly rated it

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 upon me. It did for me what Macbeth could not- gave me geniunely tragic characters who earn 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 hi...moreAs 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 upon me. It did for me what Macbeth could not- gave me geniunely tragic characters who earn 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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Feb 24, 2009

Paul Dinger rated it

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 p...more

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Sep 07, 2008

M.C. rated it

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...more

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Aug 04, 2008

Melissa Rudder rated it

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...more

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Aug 12, 2007

Rachel rated it

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 p...more

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Oct 02, 2009

Ahmad rated it

· 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

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 w...more

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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...more

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Jan 17, 2008

Paul rated it

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 subpl...more

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Aug 01, 2011

Janet added it

I loved this play - which feels a bit wrong since it’s such a tragic story!

Cordelia is banished for refusing to flatter her father, and after the Earl of Kent criticises Lear for this action, he is quickly banished too. Lear announces that he will live alternatively with Gonerill and Regan, but the two sisters quickly show their true colours and greed takes over as they divest Lear of his staff and authority.

Realising too late that he has made a terrible mistake, Lear leaves and goes off into...more

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Feb 08, 2009

Stevie rated it

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...more

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Dec 22, 2011

Ensiform rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Edited by Andrew D. Hadfield. The aging king demands his three daughters express how much they love him; when Cordelia, the youngest, says she cannot put her love into words on command, he becomes enraged and cuts her off, dividing his kingdom between Goneril and Regan, the other two sisters, who are eager to flatter. Deaf to his advisers until too late, the king realizes his daughters now have the power to scheme against him and each other. Meanwhile, the lord Gloucester’s bastard son frames...moreEdited by Andrew D. Hadfield. The aging king demands his three daughters express how much they love him; when Cordelia, the youngest, says she cannot put her love into words on command, he becomes enraged and cuts her off, dividing his kingdom between Goneril and Regan, the other two sisters, who are eager to flatter. Deaf to his advisers until too late, the king realizes his daughters now have the power to scheme against him and each other. Meanwhile, the lord Gloucester’s bastard son frames his legally-born brother, allying himself with Goneril and against his father.

Along with “The Tempest” and “Hamlet,” this is Shakespeare’s masterpiece. The intelligently edited Barnes & Noble edition makes the reading remarkably easy; the text is peppered with annotations and definitions of obscure words, while essays and timelines put some possible interpretations of the action into historical context (for example, is the play a criticism of King James?). The great strength of all the Shakespearean plays, of course, is the language --- the poetic, inimitable, rich, image-laden language, which everyone from king to steward uses in lengthy declamations. In “King Lear,” this is exemplified in outraged curses upon ungrateful daughters, appeals to personified nature, extended eye-based imagery, tragicomic lunatic ramblings, and some of the most ornate extended insults in the canon (as when disguised Kent rips into the cowardly steward Oswald). Plot-wise, the play confounds its audience, with unusual scenes such as Edgar leading his blind father to what he thinks is a cliff and letting him attempt to jump. Especially disconcerting is the way in which happy endings keep being snatched away and replaced with new horrors: as Gloucester regains his will to live, Lear goes mad; Lear is reconciled with Cordelia, but France loses the war; the two are even content as prisoners, but Cordelia dies; Albany is ready to cede the kingdom, but no one is left. Right up to the final lines, expectations are dashed, tragedy reigns, and the power of the drama never slackens.

[read twice](less)

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Nov 17, 2011

Saeed rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: plays

لیر:
فکر می‌کنی لطمه‌های این توفان ستیزه‌خو بر پوست‌مان اهمیت بسیار دارد؟ برای تو چنین است. ولی، در جایی که درد بزرگ‌تری ریشه دوانده، درد کوچک‌تر به زحمت احساس می‌شود. تو از پیش یک خرس می‌گریزی، ولی در این گریز اگر پاهایت تو را به کام دریای خروشان بکشاند، به دهان خرس پناه می‌بری. جان که در آسایش باشد، تن زود رنج می‌شود. توفانی که در جان می‌است هر گونه احساس را جز آن یکی که بر قلبم ضربه می‌کوبد از اندام‌های حسی‌ام سلب می‌کند. ناسپاسی فرزند! این آیا به آن نمی‌ماند که دهانم دستم را که برای رسان...more

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Oct 24, 2011

Amanda Ball rated it

This was a great book, great plot and plots with in the plot. Many different yet relative topics, like betrayal, loyalty, jealousy, love, cruelty, etc... It kept you wanting to read more and wanting to find out what happens next most of the time. An attention grabber.
My favorite part of the book would have to be the ending, when everything comes together and yet falls apart at the same time. When they figure out the people behind the betrayals and the loyal friend is unvei...more This was a great book, great plot and plots with in the plot. Many different yet relative topics, like betrayal, loyalty, jealousy, love, cruelty, etc... It kept you wanting to read more and wanting to find out what happens next most of the time. An attention grabber.
My favorite part of the book would have to be the ending, when everything comes together and yet falls apart at the same time. When they figure out the people behind the betrayals and the loyal friend is unveiled. When a character would rather die, than bring this truth out in public or go on trial. It brings out different feelings and tones in the book.
I would have to say my least favorite part of the book would have to be some of the characters, Edmund, Regan, Goneril, and possibly a few others because of their actions and thoughts. Yet without these kinds of characters you wouldn't have the best story. There are some characters I didn't 'like' or weren't the 'good' guys at the beginning of the story, but as it unfolded you could see more of who they were and it changes your perspective.
Quotes:
"The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath born most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long."
The finale of the Shakespeare's tragedy's always has a line at the end that really concludes the whole thing and just finishes it off. This quote is said after they figure out all the causes of their problems and after many of the people who caused it and who were affected by it had died. After someone dies you never know quite what to say to the people affected by it, sometimes even when you have gone through it as well. You just let your thoughts out for better or for worse. But this quote leaves a mark.
"Nothing, my lord."
The sentence that puts the whole book into play. Cordelia is so "humble" that she won't say anything that she's not, unlike her sisters. But this humble sentence wasn't good enough for her father, King Lear, upsetting him and then her sisters because of jealousy. This sets the whole story spinning into action.

I would recommend this book, even if you don't think you're a Shakespearean type of readier it's a keeper and will pull you in! Exciting!(less)

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Oct 04, 2011

Lady Jane rated it

This play is about a king who was starting to feel old and tired, and endeavored to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters. All he required of them in return was to express their love for him. So the two eldest daughters, being the Machiavels that they are, promise him the moon and the stars. The youngest daughter, who in the end proved to love him the most, replies in a nonchalant manner that she cannot compete with her sisters' expressions of love, and henceforth, she haughtily asserte...moreThis play is about a king who was starting to feel old and tired, and endeavored to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters. All he required of them in return was to express their love for him. So the two eldest daughters, being the Machiavels that they are, promise him the moon and the stars. The youngest daughter, who in the end proved to love him the most, replies in a nonchalant manner that she cannot compete with her sisters' expressions of love, and henceforth, she haughtily assertes, "I cannot heave/ My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty/ According to my bond; not more, not less" (1.1:90-92). The king her father rightfully asks in dismay, "So young, and so untender?" (1.1:105), to which she insolently replied, "So young, my lord, and true" (1.1:106).

The girl is obviously very philosophical. However, she overdoes it in the philosophy department, for she undermines the power that language can give a person to release the contents of their heart. I understand Cordelia, though. She is trying to prove a point to her father. She seeks to make him understand that love does not require poetic speeches; that love is just love regardless. The king, however, being older and irrational like most typical parents, does not understand it that way, and personally, I can see it from his side as well. Really, is it that difficult to use language to describe her love to her father? Now, as everyone who knows me is aware, I am the type of person who would rather lose a job over giving false flattery to undeserving employers. However, I believe that when a person's love and/or admiration is as true as Cordelia's love for her father, there is nothing wrong with using metaphors and poetic sentiments to describe it. I am also one of the strongest advocates against hypocrisy and "sweet-talking" for motives other than expressing that which our sweet words convey. This is why I really dislike Goneril and Regan, King Lear's eldest daughters-- because they use the power of language and persuasion for the wrong reasons, which is merely to obtain a piece of their father's kingdom. So indeed, I do agree that actions speak louder than words-- HOWEVER, when actions are accompanied by beautiful words, the result is simply wonderful.

In the end Cordelia proves to love her father more than the two daughters who keep his kingdom and end up overthrowing King Lear. Cordelia forgives Lear and helps him when he was shunned by his two ungrateful daughters who threw him out naked in the storm. But why oh why was she so stubborn in the beginning? Why could she not simply express the love that she has for him? Just to adhere to some useless philosophy? To prove a point? -- and prove a point she did! Due to her unwillingness to do something as simple as describe her love for her father, the king assumed she must not love him and she lost her part of the kingdom. So she ends up marrying France and became the queen of this wonderful country, but property is not the issue. The issue is that she was thrown out of her own kingdom due to her philosophical stubbornness, and the kingdom is left to the two daughters who knew nothing about love and only cared about money and property. I think it was very irresponsible of Cordelia to act that way. If only she had expressed her love for her father, he would have never disowned her and she would have stuck around in the kingdom and never allow her father to be mistreated by his bad daughters. But no, the girl just had to prove her point and cause all that conflict.

In conclusion, using beautiful speeches and poetic sentiments is wrong if the words are not meant. However, in the above circumstance and in relationships, it is very important to tell the person how one feels since people are not psychic. It is a cold and cynical world we live in, in which people are narcissistic and have trouble expressing emotion. However, to be loved is a very human need, especially when it is complemented by actions that prove our words. Therefore, since Cordelia really loves her father, she should've just told him! She should've made use of the beautiful metaphors and similes that our language offers to convey her feelings!
(less)

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Sep 14, 2011

Ryan Steele rated it

I've never read that much Shakespeare, and I've never been as big of a fan of his as most writers seem to be. However, I did enjoy King Lear, in which a King is growing old and attempts to divide up his kingdom, while betrayal and murder ensue. One of the aspects of the story that spoke most to me was the use of the fool as the only sensical character. It's an interesting tactic to use one character as the voice of reason, but also to have that character be the one considered to be a bit slow. I...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Brenda rated it

This has to be the most depressing Shakespeare play I have read. All of his plays usually have some sort of comic relief at one point, but this play was tragic. King Lear is about him and one of his three daughters, Cordelia. Everything goes well until the King's daughters have to state how much they love their father. Cordelia's sisters are able to do this at ease, but obviously show no real affection to their father. When Cordeila goes up to talk about her love to her father, she tells them th...more

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Jul 23, 2011

David Sarkies rated it

Shelves: tragedy

This is by far and away my favourite Shakespeare play. It is a very dark and brooding play that is not only incredibly violent, but also ends very badly for most of the main characters. King Lear is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies (along with the Scottish Play and Hamlet) though I find that Hamlet is a lot tighter and the plots are a lot more intertwined than King Lear.
What I mean by this is that there are, I'll say two, plots running side by side and then merge at the end of the pla...more This is by far and away my favourite Shakespeare play. It is a very dark and brooding play that is not only incredibly violent, but also ends very badly for most of the main characters. King Lear is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies (along with the Scottish Play and Hamlet) though I find that Hamlet is a lot tighter and the plots are a lot more intertwined than King Lear.
What I mean by this is that there are, I'll say two, plots running side by side and then merge at the end of the play. It is noticable that both of these plots deal with the same theme, and that is of love. This first plot is King Lear and the second involves Edgar, his bastard half-brother Edmund, and their father Glouscester. Lear believes that he has become too old to be a king and decides to divide his kingdom between his daughters, and the biggest portion will go to the one who loves him the most. Two of the daughters put on a song and dance about how much they love him, while the third, who truly loves him, can only be honest. Lear is angered at what he considers a pathetic response, and banishes her from the Kingdom, and divides it between his remaining two daughters. Lord Kent rebukes Lear for this, and Lear banishes him as well.
The Edgar/Edmund plot involves the villain Edmund, who is bitter at being a0 bastard and schemes to destroy his legitimate brother and take his place. He deceives his father, and Edgar flees to the moors where he disguises himself as Mad Tom, and then brands his father as a traitor (the King of France is landing an army in England to restore Lear's third daughter, Cordielia, to the throne, particularly since her sisters have stripped Lear of his kingdom, and then his dignity, and banished him to the moors).
As mentioned, the theme of this play is about love. King Lear simply wants to be loved, but does not understand that love is defined by actions not words. This is very clear with Lord Kent who, despite being banished, disguises himself and returns to serve Lear, and despite Lear being stripped of his authority, still recognises him as the true King of England. It is interesting to note that at the close of the play, once Lear has died and is offered the crown, he refuses him, and hands it to Edgar, who has been vindicated. We see a similar theme with Edgar and Gloucester who he finds wondering the moors as a blind man, and assists him to return to his glory (before he dies).
While there is a lot more to this play, another interesting aspect is the division of the kingdom. It is quite anachronistic for the period in which the play was written (or when it was set, in a mythological pre-Roman era – the sources for the play would be Monmouth's Kings of Britain), however during the era of Charlegmaine, this was something that would happen. One's kingdom, and property, were not handed down to the first born, but divided between the male heirs to the throne. This is probably the main reason why Charlegmaine's empire did not last much beyond his lifetime.(less)

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Apr 16, 2011

Lydia rated it

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Jan 05, 2011

Irene Velarde rated it

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Nov 19, 2010

Nicholas Armstrong rated it

So, I like some of this. My problem, as it almost always is with Shakespeare, is how everything just kind of gets piled on to build drama. He gets away with so many ridiculous things just for the sake of drama and no one ever mentions it. Ever.

I know this was set before Christianity, apparently during Pagan times, but the power that Lear's children wields I'm just not sure I buy. These are his soldiers, why in the world would they listen to his bitchy daughters? For that matter, how...moreSo, I like some of this. My problem, as it almost always is with Shakespeare, is how everything just kind of gets piled on to build drama. He gets away with so many ridiculous things just for the sake of drama and no one ever mentions it. Ever.

I know this was set before Christianity, apparently during Pagan times, but the power that Lear's children wields I'm just not sure I buy. These are his soldiers, why in the world would they listen to his bitchy daughters? For that matter, how is it Albany doesn't slap the crap out of Goneril the moment she tries to have power over him? I didn't study all this feminism and Gender Studies crap just to be told that sexism and female oppression didn't exist for most of humanities history. Furthermore, as interesting as it is that Edgar can become a parallel to Lear in his donning of the mad identity Tom, it is completely ridiculous that those events would snowball as they did. At least in Much Ado about Nothing Claudio thinks he sees Hero literally having sex with someone else; all of the other deceptions of Shakespeare fall into "Hey, I know you don't like me very much and have way less reason to trust me than this loved one, but you should suddenly hate them and kill and or banish them."

It's reasons like this that Lear just does nothing for me. I've been told it's the most tragic story ever told but I just don't care. You know what's tragic? A husband dealing with the death of his wife, or a child, real characters or real events that we can associate with. Those things are tragic because they are real, because we can read about real people with real horror. Lear isn't real. And I don't mean that in the literal sense. I mean that in the -- the premise of this play is silly and I can't buy the conflict or the characters -- real.

I understand the musicality of it, and I understand that some people love the language, but I don't think that should be a substitute for substance. If you love those things then read his sonnets and I won't ever argue on the greatness of them. Once something is written and regarded as literature, once it is about people and the horrors of existence, then it is held to more than just, 'I like the way it sounds.'

Like it if you want, but please don't try to tell me of its emotional depth, because I just don't see it.
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Oct 21, 2010

Prof. Mohamed Shareef rated it

Shelves: shakespeare

1. The fool in ‘King Lear’

The fool is one of the most important characters of ‘King Lear’. In fact, he is more than a fool; he is the wisest man that we find in the play. The fool becomes prominent in the fourth scene of the first act. The king has just started to get insulted by Gonerial, his first daughter. At this time, the fool makes fun of the stupidity of the king in his act of dividing the kingdom among his two daughters. He advises the king to
‘Have more th...more

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Sep 03, 2010

Angie rated it

King Lear, why don't I love you the way I love Hamlet and Macbeth? Is it that your fatal flaw seems to be being dumb as a brick and I just can't respect that? Being overly pensive and angsty or being power mad and not being able to handle your wife calling you a pansy---those are flaws I can go for, but extreme stupidity masquerading as pride? I don't know, Lear. For whatever reason I just don't enjoy your play as much as I do the other great tragedies. In many ways, Lear towers as the blea...more

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Aug 14, 2010

Lars Guthrie rated it

A large hole in my education finally filled. How I got into my sixties without reading or seeing 'King Lear' is a mystery. Especially since I have read Jane Smiley's 'A Thousand Acres,' and particularly because 'Lear' is so powerful and shocking.

Reading Shakespeare isn't easy and one has to be aware that he leaves so much open to performance, but there can be little doubt of how to interpret a stage direction which reads, 'Glouchester's eye put out.' The scene in Act III where Glo...moreA large hole in my education finally filled. How I got into my sixties without reading or seeing 'King Lear' is a mystery. Especially since I have read Jane Smiley's 'A Thousand Acres,' and particularly because 'Lear' is so powerful and shocking.

Reading Shakespeare isn't easy and one has to be aware that he leaves so much open to performance, but there can be little doubt of how to interpret a stage direction which reads, 'Glouchester's eye put out.' The scene in Act III where Glouchester makes a futile attempt to admonish the Harpy who is Kear's second daughter and her conniving husband is more blunt and brutal than anything I remember in Shakespeare.

That comes across just as forcefully on the page as in production. 'Out, vile jelly!' Cornwall screams as he plucks out eye number two, egged on by his wife Reagan: 'One side will mock another.' (After reading 'King Lear,' I watched the Masterpiece Theater presentation with Ian Holm. It's very good.)

Beyond the attraction of that instance of graphic gore, the play is relevant and timely. The old king is sinking into dementia, and his adult children, if they profess their love for the domineering madman, are rewarded with his property and burdened with his madness. Cordelia, the youngest of the three daughters, refuses to indulge in her siblings' obsequiousness, and loses her share of empire. Later, she rejects their cruelty and spite.

Glouchester's story runs parallel. He also makes the wrong choice among his offspring. His two sons, Edgar and Edmund, are intriguingly dark characters. Edmund, the illegitimate one, is a lovely and complicated antihero, the equal of Iago.

Lear's insanity is wonderfully echoed in the parts of the Fool, the Earl of Kent, and Edgar, all of whom disguise themselves by donning mantles of lunacy, and by nature, in the storm that is the play's linchpin.

It all ends in an orgy of death just as horrific as Odysseus's homecoming. This ending, however, is not a happy one.

If that weren't enough, 'King Lear' contains a classic piece of Shakespearean vituperation, when Kent lets fly a marvelous stream of insults at the eldest sister's man Friday and toady (Oswald, another great character), and lots of classic Shakespearean doggerel, everytime the Fool rambles.

I loved it.

Highly recommended.

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Jun 14, 2010

Trevor rated it

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Shelves: literature

I went to see Lear again last week. It must be the fifth time I have seen it performed and I’ve read it three or four times. It is a play that I can never become ‘familiar’ with. It is like no other play I know.

This time was the second time I have seen it performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company. This one was much better than the last – and I think I can say that because this time the performance brought out lots of the humour of the play. This is a play that is as dark as it i...moreI went to see Lear again last week. It must be the fifth time I have seen it performed and I’ve read it three or four times. It is a play that I can never become ‘familiar’ with. It is like no other play I know.

This time was the second time I have seen it performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company. This one was much better than the last – and I think I can say that because this time the performance brought out lots of the humour of the play. This is a play that is as dark as it is possible to make a play. But there is still humour – even if that humour is often as black as coal.

I was once told that the end of this play, with Lear holding Cordelia in his arms and uttering that achingly human line ‘Why should a dog, a rat, a horse have life and thou no breath at all?’ could well be the perfect test of our humanity. If you are incapable of being moved by that scene you no longer deserve to be considered properly human. Last week there was a young woman sitting beside me at the play, I assume she was watching the play for the first time. It was clear she was getting the play as she laughed in all the right places – but when final scene was played out it was also clear she was deeply moved, nearly to the point of tears. If I am likely to ever cry in a play, that is probably the scene that will do it for me. It was lovely getting to see someone be moved by this scene in the same way I had been moved by it when I first saw it nearly 30 years ago.

So much of this play is astounding. The drama at the start with Kent trying to stand in front of the furious Lear so as to take the bullet rather than see Cordelia exiled is great drama – as is the wonderful long soliloquy by Edmond about people blaming their wickedness on heavenly compulsion caused by the movement of the stars. I really love all of the sexual difficulties between Edmond and Lear’s older daughters, Goneril and Regan, and Edgar making himself Poor Tom in an attempt to avoid being captured and killed. The Fool is remarkable in this play, the most bitter fool in all of Shakespeare, I think, and one that has the oddest role, appearing and disappearing, at once being essential one minute and then never even being mentioned again the next.

This is a play about family dysfunction as much as it is about the dangers of a divided kingdom. It is a play about madness, but this time it is not the madness of Hamlet, a kind of questionable madness that stands in stark contrast to that of Ophelia, but the all too confronting madness of a once great man slowly losing his way, the inevitability of aging and decay. The truth be told, it is hard to know how ‘great’ Lear ever really was. He is not a loveable old man – more a tyrant far too used to getting his own way and of bending the will of others (even those he is supposed to ‘love’) until they meet his will.

If you have any unresolved issues with your father, this is either not the sort of play you should be watching or precisely the sort of play you should be watching (it is hard to tell which). The psychology of this play is just as deep as that of Hamlet and often I find it much more confronting.

It is hard to say who is right and who is wrong in this play. Just as it is reasonable to put aging parents into homes when they start lighting fires in the corners of rooms that don’t have fireplaces, so it is probably reasonable for Goneril and Regan to feel uncomfortable about Lear having a personal army with him while he is staying over at their place for the month. This play is much easier to follow, and the morality is clearer, in the sub-play – the one with Edmond and his father, the Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester gets to be involved in some of the most memorable scenes in the whole play. The scene where he tries to fling himself off the cliffs of Dover is utterly amazing. The ‘out vile jelly’ scene is virtually too much to watch, one of the most stomach turning scene in any play.

Bell did a good job of this. They brought a very bright light to the front of the stage and when each of the eyes were plucked out they flashed the light into the eyes of the audience and then turned all of the lights in the theatre off. The effect was the blinding of the audience and that worked incredibly well in making the audience walk in the shoes of Gloucester as he was being blinded.

I think I love every scene of this play, but the one that I find most remarkable in many ways is the one where Kent, dressed as a lower class hanger-on of Lear’s (someone who has been sent on a message by Lear, in fact) comes across Oswald who is delivering a letter from Goneril and starts a fight with him. This is followed by him being asked why he has been fighting with Oswald and he is unable to answer more than to say, I don’t like the look of him. He has to answer like this because he can hardly say, I dislike him because he is doing the work of his mistress. So, he is left looking like a pugnacious fool. It always makes me think of that other brilliant line from the play, “Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all.” As a poor man Kent is seen as insolent and needs to be punished, if he had still been a Lord he would have been excused this particular fault.

This is a truly remarkable play, one of my favourites and yet almost too painful in so many of the scenes. Like Hamlet it ends with just about everyone dead, but in this case that is virtually a necessity in ways I don’t think are true of Hamlet. But like Hamlet the end is utter tragedy – in this case nothing of Lear is left to continue on. His whole world has come to an end on the stage before him and with him. Like I said, it is almost too painful to watch. And why? I think because there is a kind of redemption in this play, but even after the redemption (for both Gloucester and for Lear) it so quickly and so effortlessly is snatched away from them again. No sooner has Gloucester been saved from his fall off the cliff at Dover than he dies after being told he was rescued by his loyal son Edgar. No sooner is Lear reconciled with Cordelia than they are both dead. This is not a play brimming with hope, but it is a strikingly human play and one that, perhaps like none other, makes me ponder the human condition.

And of course there are the lines, oh dear, the endlessly quotable lines.
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Jun 03, 2010

Rowland Bismark rated it

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Shakespeare authored King Lear around 1605, between Othello andMacbeth, and it is usually ranked with Hamlet as one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. The setting of King Lear is as far removed from Shakespeare’s time as the setting of any of his other plays, dramatizing events from the eighth century B.C. But the parallel stories of Lear’s and Gloucester’s sufferings at the hands of their own children reflect anxieties that would have been close to home for Shakespeare’s audience. One possible ev...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. Hi...moreWilliam 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. 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.
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“Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.” — 84 people liked it

“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.” — 34 people liked it

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