King Lear: What a King Cannot Hear

Shakespeare wrote comedies, histories and tragedies. Four of the tragedies are often discussed together because of their prominence in his work.

The usual grouping is:

1. King Lear
2. Hamlet
3. Othello
4. Macbeth

King Lear Among the Four Tragedies

King Lear is a particularly stark example of how a decision made at the start of a tragedy can spread through an entire household and kingdom. Modern writers and filmmakers still draw on that pattern.

Shakespeare wrote for performance. King Lear was performed at court in 1606, and what began on the stage went on to find a place in cinema as well.

In Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 film Ran, Lear’s story is reimagined in a Japan torn by war. The family and setting change, but the decision to divide power sets a familiar tragedy in motion.

The Story

Lear, the aging king of Britain, has three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. He plans to divide his kingdom and asks each to say how much she loves him. Goneril and Regan know what he wants to hear. Cordelia, his favorite, answers that she has nothing to add to what her duty as a daughter already says.

Lear cannot hear the honesty in her answer. In anger he gives her nothing, divides her share between the older sisters and sends Cordelia away without a dowry. The King of France marries her anyway.

Once the two sisters have what they wanted, they strip away the authority Lear thought he had kept. He goes out into a storm. Cordelia returns with French forces to help him, and the armies meet in battle.

The French lose. Cordelia and Lear are captured, and Edmund orders their deaths. The schemes of the older sisters come undone, and Edgar’s challenge exposes Edmund. The attempt to stop the executions comes too late to save Cordelia. Lear enters carrying her body and dies after grieving over her.

What Keeps the Story Alive

Written in the early seventeenth century, the play still feels tightly put together. A king tries to turn his daughters’ affection into a public measure. Every choice that follows is shaped by what he gets wrong in that room.

Chaucer’s work came earlier, in a very different form. What holds my attention in Lear is the pressure of all the relationships onstage at once, especially the echo between Lear’s family and Gloucester’s.

Shakespeare wrote many plays. This one stays alive on its own because the people keep making recognizable mistakes long after the circumstances of their world have disappeared.

Book Information

King Lear

Author

William Shakespeare

Publication date

November 20, 2005 (Korean edition)

ISBN-13

9788937461279

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