INTRODUCTION TO

KING LEAR
BY W I L L I A M S H A K E S P E A R E

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
1st Semester questions were:
What does it mean to be civilized?

Is humankind inherently good or evil?

How do we make moral choices?
Which has a greater impact on human development
nature or nurture?

Related to:
Lord of the Flies
Heart of Darkness
Frankenstein
Motif: Civilization and Savagery

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
2nd Semester questions:
What obligation do children have to their parents?
Does ones familial relationships shape our
understanding of ourselves and the world we live
in?
Do we create an identity or inherit one?
Answers to be found in:
King Lear
Death of a Salesman
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Motif: Family and Identity

HOWEVER
We are not leaving the idea of nature behind
The Elizabethans believed, or pretended to believe, that the natural world
reflected a hierarchy that mirrored good government and stable monarchy.
Nowadays, most people believe that culture is something that we invent so that
we can fall in love, create works of art and music, remember the past, and enjoy
a reasonable prospect of good health, personal security, and choosing our own
paths through life.
If most of us no longer believe that a king's sovereignty mirrors the harmony of a
well-run natural world, we can still find fundamental human issues treated inKing
Lear.
Shakespeare's era contrasted "nature" and "art" (i.e., human-made decorations,
human-made luxuries and technologies, human-made artistic productions).
King Leardeals with:
how children and parents treat each other
whether human society is the product of nature or something we create so as to
live better than animals do
whether human nature is fundamentally selfish or generous

OTHER MOTIFS
Clothing/nakedness
Are you more yourself with your culture's clothes and the
dignity they confer, or naked, owing nothing to anyone?

Fortune
Is what happens to us dumb luck, predestined, or whatever?

Justice
Many characters in the play feel that an injustice has been
done to them but does seeking justice upset the natural
balance of the world?

Eyesight/blindness/hallucination
the play asks "Does human nature make us care only for
ourselves, or for others?", our natural eyes may not give us
the best answer.

CONSIDER
1: Do you believe that we are born exactly as we are, or that we shaped by our
society, families, and cultures? In other words, do you believe in nature or
nurture? Why?
2: Your father is growing very old, and is much more volatile and vulnerable
than he used to be. He may also be suffering from the beginning stages of
mental decline. Although he is becoming increasingly difficult to care for, he
insists that you welcome him into your home for a visit. What are your options,
and what do you do?
3: Have you ever felt that you and your parents would never see eye-to-eye on
an issue? Do you find it difficult sometimes to defend your side of the
argument?
4: We live in a materialistic world where many define success and self-worth by
what they own and can buy. But King Lear has a transformational experience
when he loses all of his possessions. What item, of everything you own, could
you truly not live without? What could you give up? How important are your
material possessions to your identity?

THE STORY
Describe the plot of Cinderella
Folk Talk: Love Like Salt
What is similar about these two stories? What is
different?
King Lear has some similarity to both of these
stories.

VOCABULARY
Folly Foolishness, lack
of good sense
Dotage Feebleness of
mind, old age
Obedience Act of
submission
Filial due from son or
daughter

Nuncle child-like
shortening of mine uncle,
guardian
Nature (1) natural order,
way of the world
(2) natural powers, normal
state of mind and body
(3) human nature
(4) personality, innate
character

EARL OF KENT a
loyal nobleman later
disguised as Caius

GONERIL Lears
eldest daughter

CHARACTERS

DUKE OF
ALBANY her
husband

King Lear (King of

Britain)
REGAN Lears
middle daughter

FOOL Lears
jester

CORDELIA
Lears youngest
daughter

OSWALD her
steward
DUKE OF
CORNWALL her
husband

EARL OF
GLOUCESTER
EDGAR his elder son and
heir, later disguised as
Poor Tom

EDMUND his
illegitimate son

DUKE OF
BURGUNDY
KING OF FRANCE
suitors to Cordelia