King Lear by William Shakespeare

ISBN 10: 0681446595

ISBN 13: 9780681446595

Publisher: HarperCollins

• Tfw your dad says he’ll give you a house but only if you write an essay about how much you love him
• Kent gets banished because he says, “wtf.” Then he’s like, “well neeeh cuz i don’t want to be here anyways.”
• Burgundy doesn’t want a broke bitch but France is nearly in tears for Cordelia because she’s so pure and loving and honestly, this is what marriage should be, though I’m not entirely sure of Cordelia’s preference in the matter (she seems indifferent, at least).
• The two sisters, Regan and Goneril, immediately conspire to fuck up their senile dad.
• Edmund is a bastard who will inherit nothing because of this. So he plots to disenfranchise his legitimate brother Edgar to win their father’s (Gloucester) favor. In typical Shakespearian fashion, I cannot tell if Edmund is evil because he’s a bastard (i.e., all bastards are evil) or if he’s evil because he’s been wronged. He has ample reason to be upset with his position, but as we’ve seen in other material, the bastard chooses evil instead of some other means to acquire success.
• Kent comes back in disguise to look after Lear and he gives Goneril’s lackey, Oswald, an ass kicking twice, though the second time gets him in some trouble with Regan and Cornwall.
• Both Regan and Goneril turn Lear out of doors because he wants to keep his knights with him, and they claim the knights are unruly (which we’ve seen no evidence of). Yeah, having an entourage of fifty knights is wild, but he’s a king and he should know whether there’s reasonable space for them considering he just handed the land to his daughters.
• This has even worse effects on Lear’s feeble mind, so he starts raving in the storm to Kent and the Fool’s chagrin.
• Kent and the Fool finally get Lear into a little shitty dacha or whatever and Edgar is there, presumably wearing blackface or having made himself look dirty (???) pretending to also be crazy. Lear befriends him.
• Gloucester is not having these disrespectful shenanigans, and goes to find Lear to bring him in for the night, though Regan and Cornwall have forbidden him to do so. So we see that Gloucester isn’t altogether crooked, it’s just that he’s complacent with the status quo, and would originally give Edmund nothing to inherit as he’s a bastard, something that is entirely Gloucester’s fault. While this doesn’t make Gloucester an unlikeable character, it detracts from Edmund’s villainy, as the former has genuinely been wronged by society’s customs.
• Cornwall does in Gloucester’s eyes but not before one of Cornwall’s subordinates just can’t take all this injustice and strikes Cornwall dead. Gloucester is turned out of doors and eventually runs into Edgar, who is so moved to passion that he gives up his mad lad disguise while not uncovering his identity outright.
• Because Kent sent someone to tell Cordelia about what has taken place, France has sent over armed forces. She’s reunited with Lear and he’s astonished out of his wits.
• Goneril and Regan both have the hots for Edmund. Is it because kind recognizes kind, or because he’s attractive? Nothing of note is given of his appearance, so I’m wanting to say they’re enchanted by his wickedness. They’re so desperate for his affection that they plot against each other. Goneril poisons Regan and then offs herself. Over a man? Wild.
• So Edmund joins forces with Goneril’s husband, Albany, to fight against Lear’s rising forces. Even after they win, Albany puts Edmund in his place for being bastard, which tarnishes his position as a moral character.
• Edmund sends Cordelia and Lear to a dungeon and instructs a captain to kill them both.
• Edgar shows up, decked out in armor, to accuse Edmund of his crimes. Edmund keeps his pokerface until Edgar defeats him. He confesses and then tell them to hurry to the dungeon to stop the captain. That comes too late as Cordelia has been killed and Lear is so weary with grief that he dies.
• While this is a morality tale, it doesn’t entirely work. We now know that old age can bring dementia and Alzheimer’s and no amount of “Don’t do that!” is going to restore one’s mind. While Lear’s actions toward Cordelia are certainly unfair, it’s hard to say how much of it came from a character flaw or from some degenerative disease. Presumably, Shakespeare intended Lear’s actions against Cordelia to reflect an intentional malice, but a modern reading isn’t so definitive.