King Lear: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''[[Jerkass Gods|As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods,]]''<br />

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

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

A [[Tragedy]] by [[William Shakespeare]], though the story is older than that, first found in the ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae (Literature)|Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (the tragic ending ''isn't'', though).

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'''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""

* [[It Got Worse]]: ''King Lear'' starts with a king giving his land away to his daughters after they tell him how much they love him, then one refuses to and he banishes her, then banishes the man who objects to the kings choices, then he gets betrayed by the first, and then second, of his daughters. At the same time Gloucester is being manipulated (and eventually betrayed) by his bastard son [[Bastard Bastard|Edmund]] to cast out his legitimate son Edgar, and {{spoiler|has his eyes put out in a rather horrid way}}. Meanwhile, while Edmund is manipulating his way towards becoming ruler of England, Lear is wandering the countryside slowly going insane, and even when he is {{spoiler|reunited with his youngest daughter}}... [[Kill Em All|um,]] [[Downer Ending|yeah...]]

* [[It Got Worse]]: ''King Lear'' starts with a king giving his land away to his daughters after they tell him how much they love him, then one refuses to and he banishes her, then banishes the man who objects to the kings choices, then he gets betrayed by the first, and then second, of his daughters. At the same time Gloucester is being manipulated (and eventually betrayed) by his bastard son [[Bastard Bastard|Edmund]] to cast out his legitimate son Edgar, and {{spoiler|has his eyes put out in a rather horrid way}}. Meanwhile, while Edmund is manipulating his way towards becoming ruler of England, Lear is wandering the countryside slowly going insane, and even when he is {{spoiler|reunited with his youngest daughter}}... [[Kill'Em All|um,]] [[Downer Ending|yeah...]]

* [[Kill Em All]]: [[William Shakespeare|Obviously.]] This play has one heck of a body count.

* [[Kill'Em All]]: [[William Shakespeare|Obviously.]] This play has one heck of a body count.

* [[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]]

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* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: The Fool.

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

* [[One Scene Wonder]]: The First Servant, who suddenly [[Took a Level In Badass|takes a level in badass]] and defies Cornwall.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: The First Servant, who suddenly [[Took a Level In Badass|takes a level in badass]] and defies Cornwall.

* [[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]]

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* [[Tragedy]]

** [[Sarcasm Mode|Well, color me surprised.]]

* [[~~Villains~~ Dying Grace]]: A complete [[My God What Have I Done]] moment from {{spoiler|Edmund as he dies allows the King to be rescued. However, they were too late to save Cordelia}}.

* [[Villain's Dying Grace]]: A complete [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment from {{spoiler|Edmund as he dies allows the King to be rescued. However, they were too late to save Cordelia}}.

* [[You Know What You Did]]

* [[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.

* [[What Happened to The Mouse]]?: In one of the oldest and most famous examples of this trope, The Fool abruptly disappears from the play between Acts 3 and 4. Different productions handle this in different manners, e.g.

* [[What Happened to The Mouse?]]?: In one of the oldest and most famous examples of this trope, The Fool abruptly disappears from the play between Acts 3 and 4. Different productions handle this in different manners, e.g.

## Playing it straight, sticking to the script and offering no explanation.

## Offering some vague clue, enabling the production to stay true to the script but also offering the audience a degree of closure; for example, in [[The Movie]] adaptation starring Ian Holm, the Fool is shown having trouble breathing in the scene just after the thunderstorm, suggesting hypothermia. This, coupled with the fact that the actor playing the Fool is obviously well into his sixties, implies that the Fool has died between acts.