King Lear

        the banished daughter . . . a bastard's prayer to Nature . . . the storm upon the moor . . . a madman's trial . . . battle at Dover . . . the royal prisoners . . . sounding the trumpet . . . the power of nothing

        • If you need help following the play, try reading this summary of King Lear and see if it helps you understand Shakespeare's text.
        • For some critical commentary on the play, click here.
        • For information about film versions, check out the Internet Movie Data Base. The bottom of that page will lead you to other versions and to analogues like Kurosawa's Ran. You might also look for information about films that are analogues, such as A Thousand Acres or The Dresser .
        • There is a set of electronic exercises below; another set is on Christy Desmet's website.

        Electronic Text Exercises for King Lear

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        Set One by Kathi Vosevich 

        1. Look up the word "fool." When and why does the fool appear in the play? How is that information thematically important?

        2. Look up any two of the following words and write about how they are thematically important to Lear: eye* mother mad* blind* father reason *order villain storm letter

        3. Look at 2.2.79 ff. How is this exchange between Kent and Cornwall thematically important?

        Set Two by Christy Desmet (For another set by Christy Desmet, press here.)

        1. What between Cornwall and Albany "is cover'd with mutual cunning," according to Kent?

        2. What would Albany's hands be apt to do if he were to let them obey his blood? Who else talks about blood? When is blood related to violence and when to family?

        3. What is "our darker purpose" that Lear speaks of in 1.1?

        4. What do the late eclipses in the sun and moon tell about "brothers" and about "son and father" as Gloucester sees it?

        5. What is "to-and-fro-conflicting" on the heath, according to the Gentleman?

        6. What does Goneril do to Lear's train of knights? What does Regan propose to do to the knights? How many does he begin with and when does the number change? Why?

        7. What does the fool say he will do with the egg that he asks Lear to give him? What will be left of it afterwards? What else are eggs associated with?

        8. Into what two halves does a woman's girdle (i.e., her sash) divide her, according to Lear in his madness?

        9. Why does a man's nose stand where it does according to the Fool? What other nose references occur? Can you see any pattern among the speakers?

        10. What would happen to heaven's vault if Lear had the tongues and eyes of those who are on stage in Act V?

        11. What does Lear want the cheeks of the winds to do in the storm? [WARNING: Word Cruncher has a typo and uses "checks" for "cheeks."]

        12. What do you find if you look up "crack*" and "break*" and "brok*"? How does this play compare to other tragedies in its use of these words?

        13. Some critics say that the word "nothing" is the most important one in the play. Look it up and see if you can decide why. Again, how does this play compare to other tragedies in its use of this word?

        14. Another important word is "nature," which has several different meanings. See how many meanings you can identify.

        15. If you have WordCruncher, do a two-list search. In one list, use Cordelia's speech prefix, "cor"; in the second list, use "fool." In what scenes do these characters appear together? Why might that matter?

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