King

Lear
By: Borbon, Samuelle Mikyla
 The Main Characters
King Lear Regan
Lear’s middle daughter and
is the elderly King of Britain and
the wife of the duke of
the protagonist of the play.
Cornwall.
Cordelia Gloucester
Lear’s youngest daughter and A nobleman loyal to King Lear
most beloved daughter. whose rank, earl, is below that
of duke.
Goneril Edgar
Lear’s ruthless oldest daughter
Gloucester’s older, legitimate
and the wife of the duke of
son.
Albany.
 The Main Characters
Edmund Cornwall
Gloucester’s younger, illegitimate The husband of Lear’s
son. daughter Regan.

Kent Fool
A nobleman of the same rank as
Gloucester who is loyal to King Lear’s jester, who uses
Lear. double-talk.

Albany Oswald
The husband of Lear’s
daughter Goneril. Albany has a The steward, or chief servant,
good heart. in Goneril’s house.
 King Lear

King Lear, the elderly king of Britain, deciding to

retire and divide his kingdom between his three
daughters: Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia. Before
splitting his kingdom, Lear asks his daughters to
express the depth of their love for him. Regan
and Goneril, Lear's oldest daughters, both offer
over-the-top proclamations of love for their
father,
much to the egotistical Lear's delight.
 King Lear

Lear's youngest and more beloved daughter

Cordelia, however, takes a different approach.
She explains that she could never put the true
depth of her love for her father into words. Lear
doesn't get what she's trying to say, and in a fit of
rage, he banishes Cordelia. The King of France
happens to be nearby, and he's won over by
Cordelia's virtue. She accepts his marriage
proposal and leaves Britain, leaving her father
with his two conniving daughters.
Lear also banishes his friend, the Earl of Kent, for
publicly standing up for Cordelia. Thus, the play
begins with the two people who are most loyal to
Lear being booted from the kingdom.
 King Lear

It doesn't take long for Regan and Goneril to turn

on their father and take away his remaining
political power, and it pushes Lear's mind over
the edge. Lear wanders the countryside with his
Fool and Kent. Kent remains loyal to the king
who banished him, and he's traveling with Lear
in disguise. While wandering among the
common people, Lear begins to have a change of
heart as he realizes, for the first time, the wide
and unjust gap between the nobles and the
commoners.
 King Lear

Meanwhile, Gloucester, one of Lear's noblemen,

has his own plot line going. His situation is
remarkably like Lear's. Gloucester is a powerful
noble with a loyal son, Edgar, and a treacherous
son, Edmund. Edmund tricks Gloucester with a
forged letter and makes him think Edgar plans to
usurp his estate. Edmund fakes an attack by
Edgar, for which Gloucester disinherits Edgar
and proclaims him an outlaw. The two truly
noble characters in the play, Edgar and Cordelia,
have both been exiled by their fathers. While
Cordelia has escaped to France, Edgar disguises
himself as a madman and hides out in the
countryside.
 King Lear

Gloucester comes to understand what Lear's

daughters have done to their father. He tries to
help Lear, but Regan and her cruel husband
Cornwall catch him. Cornwall ties up Gloucester,
pulls out his eyes, and steps on them. At this
point in the play, Gloucester is blinded and
suicidal. His loyal son Edgar seems to have also
been driven over the edge. Lear's loyal servant,
Kent, has to disguise himself to care for his king,
who has also gone insane, and the villainous
characters have all the power
 King Lear

Cordelia eventually returns to Britain with a

French army in order to rescue her father and
restore him to power, but even this one glimmer
of hope fails to pan out. The British army, led by
the wicked Edmund, quickly subdues the French
forces, putting an end to the brief war. Cordelia
and Lear are both imprisoned by the British
force, though the two are able to reconnect with
each other while in captivity together. While in
prison with Cordelia, Lear comes to realize the
true extent of her love for him and the depth of
the mistakes he has made and resolves to be a
better man.
 King Lear

Edmund signs off on the death warrants for Lear

and Cordelia. Albany, Goneril's husband, has
intercepted a letter from Goneril to Edmund. The
letter urges Edmund to kill Albany so they could
rule Britain together. Albany's second challenges
Edmund to a duel, fatally wounds him, and
reveals himself to be Edmund's disguised
brother Edgar.
 King Lear

Meanwhile Goneril has poisoned her sister

Regan out of jealousy and then kills herself when
she fears being caught for all her treachery. Blind
Gloucester has also died after learning, to his
great joy, that his son Edgar plans to fight to
restore the family honor. Edmund, hoping to do
one last one good deed before dying, attempts to
call off the execution of Cordelia and Lear, but
he's too late. Cordelia has been killed and Lear
dies of sorrow. In the end, Albany suggests that
Kent and Edgar share the rule with him. Edgar
agrees, but Kent refuses, hinting that he will not
be alive much longer now that his master, Lear,
has perished.
Thank you for listening!
By: Borbon, Samuelle Mikyla