Character Analysis for 'King Lear'

Character Analysis for 'King Lear'

1. King Lear

   • Classic Tragic Hero
     • Major flaws (rash, ignorant) but earns sympathy due to pathos
     • With suffering brings great insight into his mistakes
   • Becomes very frail and vulnerable over the course of the play
   • Starts to change from an ignorant, hasty and volatile man to a wise and aware man.
   • Experiences extreme poverty, madness and great suffering – he is surrounded here by other poor and dispossessed people
   • Shows an ability for self-analysis and self-reflection.

2. Cordelia

   • A character who embodies perfection – she represents absolute good in contrast to her sisters
   • Suffers the consequences of her integrity and dignity – she will not submit herself to the love test and this pride is her downfall
   • Her unconditional love for her father is a lesson to both other characters and the audience
   • Compared to a saint/holy woman who represents charity, mercy and forgiveness
     • Spoken of like the Virgin Mary
     • symbolic of how loyal she is to her father and how good and incorruptible she is

3. Kent

   • Represents the perfect servant
     • loyal to the end, even in death
     • Brave and noble – he stands up Lear and defends him to Oswald
   • Demonstrates real love and respect when he stays with Lear in his madness (disguised)
   • He has a dramatic function (he adds drama) when he fights with Oswald
   • When Lear dies, Kent’s heart breaks and he wishes to join his master even in death, even though Albany offers him a share in the Kingdom.

4. Edmund

   • Angry ‘bastard’ son
     • Bitter and resentful at being denied a title, money, power or an inheritance
     • Suffered the consequences of his ‘bastard’ birth for a very long time
     • made him angry and jealous
     • Changes from the illegitimate outcast child to a powerful force by betraying his family
       • Feels wronged by others
   • Very manipulative and duplicitous
   • One of the most evil of all Shakespeare’s characters
   • His monologues (where he talks alone to the audience) help us to sympathise with him. We understand his plight, and we acknowledge why he does the things that he does.
   • Shows a token of remorse in his final moments by confessing he ordered Cordelia’s death, and trying to stop it.

5. Goneril & Regan

   • Similar to Edmund – manipulative, cruel, calculating and power-mad.
   • They feel little to no remorse about their actions
   • Motivated by greed and their love for Edmund
     • Their partnership turns to jealousy and hatred and they create their own path of self-destruction
       • They turn out to be each other’s greatest enemy
   • Portrayed as dramatically cruel, heinous and they represent the absolute evil in the play.
   • Often compared to dangerous, predatory animals because they prey on the weak for their own benefit and gain, for example, serpents, vultures etc.