King Lear Important Questions
1) Describe the changes in Goneril and Regan’s characters.
Regan and Goneril were one hand at the beginning of the play.
They planned together to dismiss their father and they were
seeking authority together. They were also continuing on each
other’s sugar coated words. However, when Edmund interfered
in the middle and he got between them, they both liked him and
started planning how to gain Edmund’s love. Finally, they both
started planning for each other’s death. This was shown when
Goneril killed herself, but not before poisoning Regan.
2) Describe Edmund’s change throughout the play.
Edmund was the illegitimate son of Gloucester, and everybody
called him a bastard. At the beginning of the play, Edmund was
hated and treated the worst way possible, but his father and
brother showed all the sympathy and rules of hospitality to
Edmund. Also, Gloucester made Edmund a high ranked person in
the English army. However, at the end Edmund killed everyone
and put Lear and Cordelia in prison and was their jailer. He also
interfered between Goneril and Regan making them kill each
other, and he was almost going to rule the kingdom, but he was
stopped. However, he died after killing almost everyone in the
play. He has come a long way from being a bastard.
3) Do you think Cordelia and Lear deserved to die at the end?
Why and why not?
In my own opinion I believe that Lear made terrible mistakes
while ruling the kingdom, and he preferred his 2 daughters,
Goneril and Regan, more than Cordelia just for sugarcoating their
words. However, I think that he doesn’t deserve to die at the end
and even if he did deserve what did Cordelia do to die. She didn’t
do any mistakes that destroyed the kingdom. So, in my opinion I
believe that both Lear and Cordelia don’t deserve to die at the
end. I believe that Lear’s mistakes don’t deserve all of that, and
Cordelia didn’t do anything from the beginning, so she deserves
to live.
4) What is the reflection of job in king Lear?
Shakespeare reflected the idea of “men must endure” in his play
of king Lear by making Edgar face complicated problems
thorough his journey. Edgar was sent out to the forest and was
forced to be pretending that he is mad, although he is the
legitimate son of Gloucester. Shakespeare showed us this
reflection because he was affected by the bible and he used it as
his model through all his plays. He was affected by the bible
greatly that he reflected the story of Job on Edgar and Lear.
5) Describe Kent’s personality.
Kent is the earl of Kent, and he has massive authority and should
gain respect. However, he chose to follow his master’s fate. Kent
chose to become Poor Tom, and he didn’t care about authority.
All what he desired was to be with his master and follow
everything he does and orders. This shows Kent’s nobility and
that he would give up his life just for his master, king Lear. This
was shown when Kent disguised as Poor Tom and went to Lear to
stay by his side. Finally, when Albany requested Kent to rule the
kingdom, he refused and stated that he will soon die following his
master.
6) Describe Albany’s changes throughout the play.
Albany was at first presented as a fragile person without a
personality. He just followed Goneril’s orders and sometimes
stood up too her, but he didn’t stand up powerfully. However, at
the end of the play when he knew that Goneril loves Edmund and
wants to kill Albany, he stood up to her. He even said that she
isn’t worth the dust that fall onto her face. This finally showed us
that he isn’t that fragile person from Act 1. We now see that he is
a powerful person that has a strong personality.