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Summary A synopsis of King Lear as an introduction to A level English Literature study of the play
a concise outline/ synopsis of the plot of King Lear as an introduction to an in-depth study of the play at A level
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King Lear had three daughters: Goneril, wife to the duke of Albany; Regan,wife to the Duke of Cornwall; and Cordelia for whose hand in marriage the
king of France and the duke of Burgundy were joint suitors.
Worn out with age and the demands of government, the king wanted to take
no further part in state affairs, but to leave the management of the country
to others. He called his three daughters to him, to find out directly from
them, which of them loved him best, so that he could share his kingdom
amongst them accordingly.
Goneril, the eldest, declared that she loved her father more than words could
say, that he was dearer to her than the light of her own eyes, dearer than life
and freedom. The king, delighted to hear from her own mouth this assurance
of her love gave her and her husband one third of his vast kingdom.
Then calling to him his second daughter, he asked what she had to say.
Regan, who was as shallow as her elder sister, declared that she loved him
even more than her elder sister to the extent that that she found all other
joys dead in comparison to the pleasure which she took in her father’s love.
Lear was delighted to have such loving children, and he gave to Regan and
her husband one third of his kingdom. Then turning to his youngest daughter
Cordelia, he asked her what she had to say; thinking without a doubt that
she would give the same declaration of love, or even stronger declarations
as she had always been his favourite. But Cordelia, disgusted with the
shallow words of her sisters, fabricated so as to extract from the king his
kingdom, told her father that she loved him according to her duty, no more
and no less.
The king, shocked with this seeming ingratitude in his favourite child, asked
her to rethink, and to amend her speech in case it should damage her
fortune. Cordelia then told her father, that he was her father, and he had
loved her, that she returned those duties as was appropriate and did obey,
love and honour him. But she could not produce such gushing speeches as
her sisters had done.
Cordelia, who loved her father even almost as much as her sisters had
pretended to, would have told him so more sincerely at any other time, and
without these qualifications that she was now making, but after the
insincerity of her sisters, she thought that the best thing to do was to be
modestly silent. This would put her affection out of the shadow of suspicion
, of being greedy, and would show that she did in fact love him, but not for
money.
This plainness of speech angered the king to the point that he could not
distinguish between lies and the truth. In his anger he took back the third
part of his kingdom reserved for Cordelia and shared it between her sisters
and their husbands. He now called them to him and invested them jointly
with his government, only keeping for himself the title of king. He resigned
with the proviso that himself with a hundred knights as his attendants were
to be kept for a month at a time in each of his daughters’ palaces in turn.
This giving away of his kingdom shocked his courtiers but none of them had
the courage to speak up, apart from the earl of Kent, who was beginning to
put in a good word for Cordelia, when Lear commanded that he stop; but
Kent was not to be silenced. He had been loyal to Lear, had honoured him as
a king and loved him as a father. He begged him now to take his advice; and
to set aside this rash decision, as he was sure that Lear’s youngest daughter
did not love him the least.
The earl’s words only angered the King more; he banished him and allowed
him only five days to prepare to leave; but if on the sixth day he was found
within Britain, he would be put to death. Kent said goodbye to the king, and
added, that as he chose to act in such a way it would be banishment for him
to remain there. Before he left he recommended Cordelia to the protection of
the gods.
The king of France and the duke of Burgundy were now called in to hear
Lear’s decision regarding his youngest daughter, and to know whether to
pursue their courtship of Cordelia, now that she had upset her father, and
had no fortune but her own; the duke of Burgundy declined the match; but
the king of France accepted Cordelia. He told Cordelia to say goodbye to her
sisters and father and to go with him and be his queen in France.
Cordelia, crying, said goodbye to her sisters and told them to stand by their
promises of love; they sullenly told her not to tell them what to do as they
knew their duty. Cordelia left feeling sad as she knew how false they were,
and she wished that she was leaving her father in better hands.
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