King Lear: Difference between revisions

[[File:king_lear_2083.jpg|frame|Once upon a time, there was a king with three daughters... and it all goes downhill from there.]]

 

''[[For the Evulz|They kill us for their sport.]]''|'''Gloucester''', [[Kill'Em All|who saw exactly where things were going]]}}

 

 

Lear, the elderly king of Britain, decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom into three parts to give to his three daughters. But before he officially does so, he demands they proclaim aloud how much they love him. The eldest daughters of Lear, Goneril and Regan, both indulge his request, but his youngest, Cordelia, is too honest for her own good. Despite being Lear's favorite and having the most love for her father, Cordelia refuses to flatter her father and gives a rather brief response. Enraged at her apparent lack of gratitude, Lear banishes his faithful daughter, as well as his own close friend the Earl of Kent who speaks in her defense. Cordelia's share is divvied up between her elder sisters and Lear announces his retirement, though he insists on keeping one hundred knights, the respect and title of a king, and free room and board at his daughters' homes.

 

 

A closely-related subplot follows another family, that of the Earl of Gloucester, another of Lear's close friends. His younger son, the illegitimate Edmund, tricks Gloucester into thinking his legitimate son Edgar is plotting to kill him. Gloucester is duped and Edgar goes on the run, disguising himself as a homeless madman to escape capture. Edgar falls in with his godfather Lear, while Edmund, resentful of the world who judges him simply because he was born a bastard, decides to show everyone [[Manipulative Bastard|what a bastard]] [[Kick the Dog|he can be]] and seduces not just one but BOTH of Lear's elder daughters. With a few deft moves, he goes from inheriting nothing to potentially the most powerful man in Britain.

The play has been adapted several times for the screen, but no adaptation is more famous than the one that [[Recycled in Space|moves it to Japan]], [[Gender Flip|changes the daughters into sons]], and adds a whole bunch of other stuff. ''[[Ran]]''.

 

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* [[Abdicate the Throne]]: The decision that kicks the whole thing off.

* [[Ambition Is Evil]]: Edmund, Regan and Goneril all have high ambitions, making them the main Antagonists.

* [[Anachronism Stew]]: King Lear is a legendary Brythonic monarch said to have reigned sometime before 400 BC. All the terminology used in the play however is either contemporary to Shakespeare's time or only a few centuries before that. This is standard for the time.

* [[Character Title]]

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Edmund, Regan and Goneril.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Pity Shakespeare's audience; the story ''they'd'' all heard couldn't have prepared them for this.

* [[Downer Ending]]: Almost every named character is dead, and it's heavily implied that one of the handful of survivors plans to kill himself shortly.

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: Edmund's ruthless pragmatism generally gets the better of Regan and Goneril's more personal vendettas.

* [[Eye Scream]]: {{spoiler|Gloucester}}.

'''Lear:''' Sir, this young fellow's mother could }}

** It's practically a 'your mum' joke.

* [[Gold Digger]]: Cordelia has a suitor who drops his suit when her father disinherits her.

* [[Hope Spot]]: Lear eventually reunites with Cordelia and obtains her forgiveness. Yay! Wait, what just happened?

* [[Hurricane of Euphemisms|Hurricane Of Insults]]: Hoo ''boy'', Kent's got a mean tongue.

'''Earl of Kent:''' A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny the least syllable of thy addition. }}

** And so also gets into [[Flowery Insults]] with stuff like "Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter""

* [[Lady of War]]: Affairs in France force Cordelia's husband to remind behind when the French army comes to Lear's aid, and even though a conversation mentions the man assigned to lead in his absence, Cordelia is the only one shown to be in charge.

* [[Long List]]

* [[Master of Disguise]]: The Earl of Kent disguises himself as a servant after being banished by King Lear, and Edgar disguises himself as a madman after he is declared an outlaw by his father. Both of them are able to fool close friends and family (and each other).

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: The Fool.

* [[Obviously Evil]]: Edmund is the ''illegitimate son''. Remember that the play was written 400 years ago.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Kent and the Duke of Albany. Edgar is one as well, but he spends most of the play pretending to be insane.

* [[Plot Parallel]]

* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: The defeat of the villain seems worthless when contrasted with how many good people have died.

* [[Sanity Slippage]]: Lear.

** Because of Lear's rather unwound state, however, he alternates between cursing nature, asking nature to smite Goneril and Regan, and thanking nature for not being as inhumanely cruel as Goneril and Regan.

* [[This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself]]: By the end of the play, Edgar is convinced that only he can undo his brother's plot.

** And the Duke of Albany, who is described as "mild" but turns out to be one of the only characters willing to stand up to Regan or Goneril.

* [[Tragedy]]

* [[Youngest Child Wins]]: Cordelia is the only one of Lear's daughters who actually loves him enough not to demean him with flattery.

** Subverted with Edgar and Edmund - Edmund is younger than Edgar, [[Fridge Logic|so even if he wasn't born out of wedlock he still couldn't inherit Gloucester's land and title.]] Edgar is, however, the one who eventually foils his half-brother's schemes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]