SYNOPSIS ; KING LEAR BY

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
King Lear is the most complicated of all Shakespears plays. There are two plots
the main one concerning the king and his three daughters; and the sub plot of
Gloucester and his two sons. The plots are intrinsically interwoven with each other,
as the characters from Gloucesters subplot become involved with those in kings
main action. At the end of the play, the two plots are finally resolved together.
King Lear has planned to divide the kingdom between his three daughters, but when
the youngest, Coderlia ,incurs his displeasure he casts her off and gives her share if
the land to her sisters on whom he soon becomes totally dependent. They are
greedy and selfish , and eventually diposses their father entirely. They turn him into
wild and stormy nights with only his Fool and devoted servant ,Kent ,as
companions. But Gloucester follows them ,and leads the king to find shelter in
deserted hovel.
Gloucester has grief of his own: early in the play we saw how his younger
son, Edmund, deceived him into thinking that Edgar , his elder son ,was plotting
against his fathers life. A search warrant was issued against Edgar , who, to avoid
arrest, disguised himself as POOR TOM, a crazy beggar. He too, has has taken
refuge from the storm ,and in the hovel the king and the Fool encounter the
madman.
Gloucesters other son , meanwhile has warming his way into favour of King Lears
elder daughter , Goneril and Regan ,and their husbands ,the Dukes of Albany and
Cornwall. These are now rulers of the kingdom- and Edmund is ambitious. HE
betrays his by revealing the help that Gloucester outcast Lear , and he is rewarded
for this with the title Earl of Gloucester, which has been stripped from his father.
The Dukes of Albany and Cornwall begin to quarrel , each wanting the others share
of Lears kingdom. They unite only to face a threatened invasion from France
whose troops are led by Laers youngest daughter . Cordelia is know married to the
king of France .and she is coming to rescue her father and restore him to the throne.
But by this time Lears sufferings have driven him mad. He is led to a place of safety
by the old Earl of Gloucster,and sometime withdraws from the action. Gloucster
however , is arrested and charged , on the evidence of his son , with aiding and
abetting a known traitor King Lear. The DUKE OF Cornwall tears out Gloucesters
eyes , and the blind old man , expelled from his castle , is put into the care of Poor
Tom who is actually ,of course ,the loving son {i.e Edgar} whom Gloucester had
once rejected and outlawed . Edgar leads his father towards Dover ,where he plans
to take his own life. Cornwall dies, wounded dy one of his own servants who was
outraged by his cruelity.
Edgar leads his father in the direction of the Dover , but frustrates his suicide
attempts ; he then saves his fathers life for the second time when Gonerils
messenger Oswald , carrying a letter from Goneril to Edmund recognizes
Gloucester and tries to kill him. Edgar kills Oswald and reads the letter he is
carrying. From this , Edgar learns that Goneril wants Edmund to kill her husband so
that she and Edmund can be married.Edgar gives the letter to Albany.
Lear recovers from his madness sufficiently to recognize Cordelia, but their at the is
reunion is short lived. The battle is fought between the invading French forces ( who
Love goes towards love as schoolboys from their books


are fighting for the rights of Cordelia and her father) and the English armies,
defending the kingdom of Gonreil and Regan. The French army is defeated ;Cordelia
and Lear are taken to prison. Edmund arranges for Cordelia to be murdered.
Albany denounces Edmund , and Edgar (in another disguise) challenges his brother
to a duel. Edmund is fatally wounded ,but before he dies he learns of his fathers
death and of the deaths of Goneril and Regan(Goneril poisoned by her sister ,and
then stabbed herself). Edmund makes a last minute attempt to save Cordelias life,
but its too late: she was hanged on the instructions he had given earlier. Lear
carries in the body of his youngest daughter. His grief is extreme, and shortly he is
dead too. Albany yields the kingdom to Edgar ,who has the last words of the play.

Love goes towards love as schoolboys from their books