Resumo de King Lear - William Shakespeare

King Lear is one of William Shakespeare?s greatest tragic plays. According to Dr.Johnson, no other play keeps our attention so strongly fixed and so much excites our passions and interests our curiosity as this play.
The opening scene, like all the other opening scenes of Shakespeare?s plays, is very important and introduces all the principal characters of the main plot as well as the sub plot. King Lear has three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Goneril is married to the Duke of Cornwall. Regan is married to the Duke of Albany. Lear has decided to divide his power and authority among his daughters. But his childish vanity prompts him to ask his daughters how much they love him before that. His elder daughters, Goneril and Regan impress their father with their extravagant professions of love and their father blindly assigns them large portions of his kingdom. But Cordelia, the youngest daughter of King Lear is deprived of her share as she fails to gratify her father?s vanity. She says that she loves him as a daughter should and nothing more or less than that. Lear, disappointed with her candid statement, disowns and disinherits her. The earl of Kent, a loyal courtier, tries to intervene, supporting Cordelia. Lear banishes him from his kingdom as a punishment.

In the sub-plot we find another father being misled with blind faith. The Earl of Gloucester, a very credulous kind of man, believes his illegal son, Edmund, who is a deceitful villain. In spite of his love for his legal son, Edgar, he easily believes that Edgar must be plotting against his life. Edgar too, seems to be so gullible that he does not feel it necessary to personally meet his father and find out the truth. Instead, he obeys Edmund and hides himself from his father, thus making himself appear guilty.

Goneril?s unfaithful attitude shocks and angers Lear and he quarrels with her and utters dreadful curses upon her. This quarrel is one of the most dramatic situations in the play. When Lear has quarreled with his eldest daughter he says that he has another daughter to whom he can go. But the dramatic irony is that Regan turns out to be even more callous than her elder sister. This irony heightens the tragic effect of the play. Regan?s justification of her sister?s unfilial attitude shocks Lear and he threatens her with terrible consequences and goes out into the stormy darkness. Lear cannot reconcile himself to the disgraceful manner in which he has been treated by his daughters and gradually becomes mad Both; Gloucester and Lear are victims of their own foolishness and blind faith.

King Lear is a typical tragedy of Shakespeare, where the protagonist suffers misfortunes and meets a sad fate due to his own faults. Lear?s faults are his excessive egoism and hasty temper. Circumstances also play a role in aggravating the misery of the protagonist. In all Shakespearean tragedies, circumstances contribute to the misfortunes of the hero. Here, nature shows its cruel side, in the form of a storm just at the time when Lear is alone and nowhere to go. The outside storm is symbolic of the storm of emotions inside him.
The loyalty of the Fool is noteworthy. His sarcastic remarks remind Lear the folly that he has done by transferring all his power to his two elder daughters. Though deceived by his two daughters, the loyalty of his youngest daughter, the Earl, the Fool and Kent is heartening. The gentle and affectionate Cordelia feels sorry for her father and worries about him. Lear realizes the goodness of his youngest daughter but is ashamed to meet her. Cordelia?s stoic acceptance of her fate and Lear?s endurance of his misfortunes, are examples of the optimism, although their fate and misery do have a depressing affect on us.

Gloucester saves Lear?s life when he comes to know about a conspiracy hatched by Cornwall, but unfortunately is blinded mercilessly by the brutal Cornwall with the support of the cruel woman, Regan. Edgar, disguised as a beggar encounters his blind father and helps him without disclosing his identity. . Edgar saves his father twice; first when his father attempts to jump from the top of a cliff and again when Oswald, the steward tries to murder him. Edgar fights with Oswald and wounds him fatally. Although Oswald?s death is not so significant, the letter written by Goneril to Edmund falls in the hands of Edgar, revealing her wickedness and also her lustful and immoral nature. Regan is also in love with Edmund His soliloquy reveals that he has vowed his love to both the sisters and also intends to kill both Lear and Cordelia. Goneril poisons Regan and later stabs herself to death. Lear and Cordelia become prisoners after the defeat of the French army at the hands of the British forces led by Edmund and the Duke Of Albany. Edgar reveals his identity and informs about the death of his father to the Duke of Albany. Edmund confesses that he had given orders for the hanging of Lear and Cordelia.
A messenger is sent to the prison, but it is too late. Cordelia is already hanged. Lear too dies in grief.
King Lear, like all the tragedies of Shakespeare, abounds in highly dramatic and melodramatic scenes and situations, right from the beginning to the end.

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