Themes in "King Lear"

Themes in "King Lear"

1. Fathers and Children

   • Gonerill and Regan plot against their father and Edmond is plotting against his.
     • Edmond repeatedly calls Gloucester "father" when Gonerill and Regan never do.
   • Both Lear and Gloucester cast out children. Gloucester doesn't trust Edgar and Lear is displeased with Cordelia.
   • Both the sets of children are controlling and possessive of their fathers.
   • Cordelia and Edgar are the good children who love their fathers but they are being banished and punished.
   • Objectification: Edmond wants Gloucester's title and Gonerill and Regan want Lear's power.

2. Women

   • There are two sets of women in the play: good and evil.
   • Cordelia is the virtuous, good, honest woman that would have been expected for women then.
   • Gonerill and Regan are the women that would have shocked audiences - evil, immoral, lustful.
   • Showing two extremes of the types of women.

3. Appearance and Identity

   • Edmond feels very bitter about his identity which is the cause of his villainous plots.
   • There are a lot of characters who are not what they seem - they are hiding their true intentions.
     • Gonerill and Regan pretend to love their father to gain his trust and power.
     • Edmond pretends to care for Edgar and warn him so that he will leave and allow the manipulation of Gloucester to begin.
   • Edgar becoming mad - he is stripping away his identity and this allows him to understand virtues and become the hero of the play.
     • Edgar remains in disguise because he does not want to hurt his father further by revealing who he is.
   • Kent - he disguises himself so that he can continue to serve Lear and show his loyalty to the King.

4. Sight and Blindness

   • Both Lear and Gloucester are blind to what their children are doing to them.
   • Lear is blind to how the poor in his kingdom live but his madness gives him sight and allows him to understand.
   • Gloucester becomes literally blind - payment for what he did to Edgar? Edmond's evil scheming?
   • Gloucester's blindness allows him to 'see' what Edmond has done and how he has wronged Edgar.

5. Manipulation

   • Edmond manipulates Cornwall, Gonerill and Regan into his plot so that he is close to the power.
   • Lear is manipulated out of his knights by his daughters - he loses his power to them.
   • Edmond manipulates Gloucester into banishing Edgar so that he is the favoured son and nothing stands in his way of gaining power.
   • Edmond pretends to love both Gonerill and Regan so that they will turn against each other and leave him in control.

6. Loyalty

   • Edgar remains loyal to his father even after he has been cast out.
   • Oswald remains loyal throughout the play even though is he serving a villainous master.
   • Kent comes back even after banishment to show that all he wants to achieve is loyalty to the King.
   • Cordelia remains loyal to her father and helps him see the error of his ways.

7. Conflict

   • The storm is violent and represents the conflict between Lear and his daughters at that moment.
   • Gonerill and Regan show conflict the later part of the play.
     • Fighting over Edmond and preventing one being alone with him.
     • Regan speaks to Oswald to find out what Gonerill is trying to do with Edmond.
     • Regan poisoned by her sister.

8. Madness

   • Lear
     • The madness shows his fall from power and how he was once a mighty King but has now lost everything.
     • He must go mad in order to understand the truth.
     • He becomes dependable on the Fool who is 'mad'.
   • Edgar pretends to be mad so that he can show development by the end of the play and in his revenge against his brother.
   • Gloucester's blinding is the physical representation of Lear's madness.

9. Revenge

   • Edgar wants to have revenge against his brother for he did to their father.

10. Good vs. Evil

    • Acts Four and Five sandwich the good and bad characters, showing the contrast between them.
    • The good join together against the bad in the final show down.

11. Betrayal

    • Gonerill and Regan betray their father.
    • Edmond
      • Betrays his brother into thinking that Gloucester wants to kill him so that Edmond has all the power.
      • He betrays Gloucester by telling him Edgar wants his life and by authorising his blinding.
      • Betraying Gonerill and Regan by promising to be with the both.

12. Forgiveness

    • Lear realises his mistakes and forgives his daughter.
    • Edgar forgives Gloucester for what has done and protects him.