King leer is about conflicts between fathers and their children Lear has three daughters one of them loves him and two of them don't he gets angry at the good daughter Cordelia and gives his kingdom to the two bad daughters goril and Regan once they're in charge of the Kingdom the bad daughters are mean to Lear and send him outside in a storm by himself the other father is Gloucester one of lear's noblemen he has two sons Edmund and Edgar Edmund the younger one is a bastard Gloucester committed adultery and Edmund was born out of wedlock
because he's a bastard the world looks down on Edmund as socially inferior Edmund wants to change this situation so he makes a plot to get rid of his brother and his father so he can inherit gloucester's money and title at the beginning of the play glester introduces his son Edmund to a nobleman named Kent Gloucester explains that Edmund is a bastard and it's clear that Gloucester is embarrassed by always having to admit he had an affair King Le announces he's going to give up being King and divide the kingdom between his three daughters he has
the country all carved out on a map already and he wants each of them to say how much they love him so he can act like he's giving them portions based on who loves him the most goril and rean lie and say they love Lear more than anything as much as it's possible to love but Cordelia who actually does love him won't do it she says she loves him as much as she should love her father no more no less Lear is furious with Cordelia he tells her she's not his daughter anymore and goril and
rean will divide up her portion he announces he's going to keep 100 nights as his followers and he's going to spend his remaining days visiting goril and then rean for a month at a time Kent tells Lear he's acting crazy and he should change his mind Lear tells him to shut up but Kent says he doesn't care what Le does to him Le is making a huge mistake and Ken is going to speak up about it Lear tells him to get out of the Kingdom if he's caught in England again he's dead the king of
France is visiting Lear and he takes Cordelia to be his Queen even though Lear just disowned her Edmond decides he's tired of being a second class citizen just because he's a bastard and he's going to do something about it he forges a letter from his older brother Edgar suggesting that Edgar wants to kill Gloucester so he can inherit his lands Gloucester tells Edmund to go find Edgar so he can explain the letter Edmund does find Edgar but he tells him gler as Furious with him so he needs to hide until Gloucester calms down Edmond hides
Edgar in his own room Lear is now at Gil's Castle goril tells her Chief servant Oswald that she's sick of Lear and his kns being at her house and Oswald should make sure everyone gives Lear bad service Kent doesn't leave the country as Lear had ordered instead he disguises himself as a poor man and shows up at goneril's house offering to be lear's servant Lear gives him a chance Oswald is rude to Lear turning his back and leaving when Lear calls him and treating him like he's just Gil's father and not a king Lear hits
Oswald and then Kent trips him which makes Lear happy goril confronts Lear telling him that his followers are unruly and disorderly which infuriates him she dismisses 50 of them without even Consulting Lear Lear was expecting to still be treated like a king so he's actually in tears after being treated like this he tells Gorel she's a degenerate bastard and not his daughter and he leaves with his followers to go to Regan's house goril writes to her sister to warn her that lear's coming which prompts Regan and Cornwall to leave their house to visit Gloucester gel's
husband the Duke of Albany is upset that Lear left in Anger Edmund tells Edgar to run away their father is coming he calls for help and before Gloucester arrives he cuts himself to make it look like Edgar tried to kill him rean and her husband the Duke of Cornwall arrive because they left home to avoid hosting Lear Cornwall tells glester he'll use his resources to help arrest Edgar Kent and Oswald get into a fight Kent was sent ahead by Lear to tell Regan and Cornwall that Lear is coming Oswald was sent by goril to warn
them to avoid Lear Cornwall who's very hot-headed and angry has Kent put into the stocks to sit outside locked up all day and all night this is a big deal because Kent is lear's messenger and no one would ever do this to the messenger of a king Lear coming to look for Regan in Cornwall finds Kent in the stocks and he's Furious he's even more Furious to hear that Regan and Cornwall are tired and won't see him Lear finally confronts Regan he complains about garil but Regan says she's on goneril's side then goril herself shows
up and the two sisters say they won't let Lear keep even one servant Lear leaves in tears so angry that he's starting to lose his mind and his daughters have the doors shut on him even though it's night and a huge storm is coming Lear is outside with just his fool and no Shelter From The Storm Kent finds him and tries to lead him toward a Hut Gloucester shows Edmund a secret letter saying that an army from France has landed in do England and he says Cordelia has brought this Army to make Lear king again
he says they need to be on lear's side even though it's treason against Regan and goril he's going to go out into the storm and try to help Lear after he leaves Edmund says he's going straight to Cornwall to tell him what Gloucester is up to Lear Kent and the fool try to take shelter in a little Hut full of straw but Edgar is inside it pretending to be poor Tom a crazy beggar Lear who's going crazy himself has a long talk with poor Tom before going inside Edmund gives Cornwall gloucester's secret letter and Cornwall
makes Edmund the Earl of Gloucester meaning he gives Edmund gloucester's title and property so Edmund has succeeded in taking everything away from his father and brother Gloucester finds Lear in the Hut and he tells Kent to take him to do to meet cordelia's Army Gloucester goes back to his own house and Cornwall arrests him for Trea reason Cornwall sends Edmund off to goril to tell her to gather her soldiers to fight Lear Cornwall and Regan interrogate Gloucester about what he did with Lear and whether he's on the side of the French and then Cornwall gouges
out his eyes they tell him Edmund hates him and he realizes he was tricked about Edgar one of cornwall's servants tries to stop him and he wounds Cornwall with a sword before Cornwall kills him Cornwall and Regan send Gloucester on his way but Cornwall is wounded and will soon die Edgar still pretending to be poor Tom sees his father and starts guiding him toward do Gloucester wants to go there to throw himself off the highest cliff goril is trying to get ready for war against Lear but her husband Albany doesn't want to fight since he
thinks Lear is right and goneril is worthless and horrible goril herself would love to get rid of Albany because she's fallen in love with Edmond when she hears Cornwall is dead she gets jealous of rean because she thinks Regan will try to seduce Edmund she uses her servant Oswald to car Love Letters to Edmund rean is in love with Edmund too and she tries to get Oswalt to show her Gil's love letters she tells Oswalt to kill Gloucester if he can find him because they should have killed him before Edgar tells Gloucester he's at the
top of a cliff though he's actually not Gloucester tries to throw himself off the cliff and lands on his face Edgar pretends to be another person at the bottom saying it was a miracle he survived the fall and that a demon was at the top persuading him to jump he does all this to make Gloucester stop being being suicidal Lear comes in and talks to them Lear is insane and Cordelia soldiers are trying to catch him Oswald tries to kill Gloucester but Edgar kills Oswald instead he finds on Oswald's body a letter from ganil in
which ganel promises to get rid of Albany and Mary Edmond cordelia's followers have caught Lear and given him drugs to sleep to try to cure him she wakes him up and he apologizes just before the battle with Le's forces rean tells Edmund she loves him and he should stay away from goneril Gil and Albany join them and Edgar comes and hands Oswald's letter to Albany he says that after the battle if Albany wins he should sound a trumpet three times and a champion will appear to prove that the letter is true what Edgar is talking
about is trial by combat a tradition that says if a knight is accused of something he can fight with his accuser and the winner must be right because God made them win Edgar is accusing Edmund of treason and he'll fight Edmund to prove it cordelius forces lose and Lear and Cordelia are captured Edmund gives a captain orders to kill them in prison rean and Gano start arguing over which one of them gets Edmund rean says she wants to marry him but Albany says she can't because his own wife has promised to marry Edmund already he
accuses Edmund of treason rean is getting sick anyway because Gil has poisoned her a trumpet is sounded and Edgar appears to fight Edmund and prove he's a traitor as rean is carried off Edgar defeats Edmund and ALB shows gor's letter to her she runs off and kills herself Edgar Reveals His true identity and Kent arrives on the scene a servant brings the news that goril and Regan are both dead Gorel stabbed herself after poisoning rean Edmund decides to do something good before he dies so he tells them to go save Lear and Cordelia Lear comes
in carrying Cordelia they were too late to save her Kent tries to tell Lear that he was the loyal servant but lear's lost his mind again Andes doesn't understand Lear dies and Kent says he plans to join him soon Edgar and Albany are the last people left to rule Britain for more information about King leer check out the king Le spark note at sparknotes.com for a translation of the entire play into Modern English Go to No Fear Shakespeare at nfss sparknotes.com
