English 304: Shakespeare: Major Plays
Prof. Boyer

The best beginning procedure is always to familiarize yourself with the cast of characters and then to read the play (or at least an act or a scene) all the way through so that you know what's happening. The notes can help if you're stuck, but try to get the big picture of a scene before getting bogged down in details. Read through, then go back and clear up details. Then you're ready to think about the questions.

1.1
1. What do we learn from 1.1.1-6? What has changed? What is going to happen to the kingdom?

2. What do we learn from the discussion about Gloucester's son Edmund? Which of Gloucester's sons is older (and thus would be his heir if both were legitimate)? (Note that Gloucester is pronounced "Gloster," as it was spelled in some of the early editions.)

3. What is Lear's plan (1.1.34-51)? What happens to it by 1.1.120? What key word appears several times in 1.1.86-92?

4. What is Lear's plan for his future now (1.1.121-139)? What does Kent do beginning in 1.1.120 and continuing in 1.1.139-167? What happens to him by 1.1.188? How much of what has happened concerning Cordelia and Kent does Gloucester know about at 1.1.188? Why?

5. Why does Burgundy reject Cordelia as his wife? Why does France accept her? (See 1.1.189-267.)

6. How honest in their presentations to Lear to Goneril and Regan appear to have been by 1.1.269-305? What sort of picture of Lear do we get from them? How accurate does it seem to be?

1.2
1. Read Edmund's soliloquy (1.2.1-22) carefully. What do we learn about him and his plans? What does he seem to mean by the word "nature"? What is he planning to do? What device has he already prepared?

2. How does Edmund get his father to read the letter? Does anything in 1.2.30-35 sound familiar?

3. What does "Edgar" say in the letter? Who really wrote the letter? Are you surprised at Gloucester's response in 1.2.71-72 to what Edmund said in 1.2.67-70? Does Gloucester mean the same thing by "natural" (based on his use of "unnatural" in 1.2.72) as Edmund means by the word?

4. What explanation for the strange events happening does Gloucester give in 1.2.96-108? By now, what does he believe about Edgar? Based on how much evidence? How does Edmund, in his soliloquy (1.2.109-125), respond to what Gloucester has just said? What is his view of the nature of humanity (he would say "man") and the universe? (Or is it unfair to him and to "humanity" to modernize "whoremaster man" as "whoremaster humanity" when he's obviously thinking only of males as "man"? But then, what about Edmund's mother-or is it unfair to assume a willingness on her part when her partner was either a lord or, at that time, the son of a lord? How likely is it that she was of the same social rank? See how easy it is to start "deconstructing" a text when we start asking questions the author didn't expect us to ask?)

5. How easily does Edgar fall for Edmund's plot? What does Edmund try to make Edgar believe has happened? Why does Edmund expect that Edgar can be manipulated by Edmund's obviously hypocritical (to us, given his most recent soliloquy) use of the same astrological "evidence" that Gloucester made use of?

1.3
1. What problems is Goneril having with Lear and his knights? What does she tell Oswald to do about it? What does her plan seem to be? At this point, how justified does she seem in what she's doing?

1.4
1. Why is Kent here? How is he dressed? How is he talking? (See 1.4.1-2.) What does he want? How successful is he?

2. How are things going at Goneril's? Do her complaints of 1.3 seem borne out or not? How does Lear treat Oswald? (See especially 1.4.41, 43, 45, 67-78.)

3. What has recently happened to change the Fool? (See 1.4.61-63, 148.) What message is the Fool trying to give to Lear? Does 1.4.111-114 sound familiar? (Compare 1.4.162-164, 167-169.) And note 1.4.205-206.

4. What does Goneril ask Lear to do in 1.4.222-227? Given her description of the knights in the lines just before these, and earlier in the scene, is this a reasonable request? How does Lear respond to it (1.4.227-230)? What version of "Nature" does Lear call on in 1.4.252? Where is he going? What has he discovered by 1.4.271-272?

5. Where does Goneril send Oswald at the end of the scene? What is he taking with him?

6. Albany first enters at 1.4.232.1 and remains onstage until the end of the scene. How would you characterize him based on what he does and says in this scene?

1.5
1. Where does Lear send Kent/Caius at the beginning of the scene. What is he taking with him?

2. Whom is Lear referring to in 1.5.20? What is he beginning to realize? What does he also feel is beginning to happen? (See 1.5.38-39.)

2.1
1. Who is coming to Gloucester's castle (2.1.2-4)? What news is there abroad (2.1.6-11)?

2. How does Edmund get Edgar to flee? What does Edmund do to make the "escape" look and sound real? What does Edmund say Edgar proposed to him? What will Gloucester do for Edmund (2.1.84-86)?

3. How does Regan further blacken Edgar's character (2.1.92-98)? How does Cornwall reward Edmund?

4. Why have Cornwall and Regan left home and come to visit Gloucester at night?

2.2
1. What time of day is it? Why do Kent/Caius and Oswald arrive at the same time? Where have they come from? What can you say about Kent/Caius's answer to Oswald in 2.2.2?

2. How does Kent/Caius treat Oswald? How does he anger Cornwall and Regan? How is Kent/Caius punished? How can this be seen as an insult to King Lear (2.2.132-139)?

3. How will Kent/Caius spend the day? Whom is the letter from that he reads?

2.3
1. How will Edgar disguise himself to avoid capture? Does 2.3.21 sound familiar?

2.4
1. What happens when Lear discovers Kent/Caius in the stocks? Does Lear accept Kent/Caius's statement of who put him there?

2. What happens to Lear at 2.4.54-56? Watch for this again. (E.g., 2.4.115, 192-193.)

3. Why won't Cornwall and Regan talk to Lear (2.4.82-85)? How does Lear take that answer?

4. How does Lear expect Regan to respond when he tells her what Goneril did? What is her actual response? What happens, to Lear's surprise, when Goneril arrives (at 2.4.183.1)?

5. In addition to Lear's physical illness, what other problem threatens to appear as it did earlier (2.4.213)?

6. When Lear decides to stay with Regan instead of with Goneril, what happens (2.4.226-231)?

7. What happens as the daughters decide to eliminate all of Lear's knights? Can they do that? (See 2.4.242-248.) How does Lear argue the need for his followers (2.4.259-281)? What begins to be heard at 2.4.281.2? What reappears, but in a different form, in 2.4.281? How is this mention of madness different from the one in 2.4.213?

8. How do Cornwall and Regan tell Gloucester to respond to Lear's departure? Why do they say he should be left alone? What is happening to the weather (2.4.303-304)?

3.1
1. Where is the king and what is he doing, according to the Gentleman's description (3.1.4-15)?

2. In addition to the split forming between Albany and Cornwall (see 3.1.19-21), what other event of military significance is happening (3.1.30-34)? What does Kent/Caius ask the Gentleman to do, and what does he give him? Where will Kent/Caius go?

3.2
1. What is Lear doing when we first see him on the heath in the storm (3.2.1-9)? What is Lear asking from this version of nature? (See especially 3.2.47-58.) How is the Fool responding?

2. What does Kent/Caius try to get Lear to do in 3.2.59-65?

3. In 3.2.65 Lear says "My wits begin to turn." Does he mean to madness or from madness? For a suggestion, look at the new way he views the Fool in 3.2.66-71.

4. What, if anything, does Merlin's prophecy mean in 3.2.79-90 (or 92 in some versions)? Why is it here? (In the traditional British history from which the Lear story is taken, Lear was assumed to reign about 1000 BCE, about the same time as David in Israel; Arthur, with whom Merlin is associated [the film Excalibur is recommended for this story], ruled about 500 CE, about 1500 years later.)

3.3
1. What news and opinions does Gloucester confide to Edmund? Is it a good idea to do so? Why? What will Edmund do, and what does he expect to get as a result?

3.4
1. Where is the scene set? What has Lear learned so far? (See especially 3.4.27-37. Read this speech carefully so that you know what Lear is saying.)

2. Once Lear has spoken in general about the "poor naked wretches" out in the storm, who appears (3.4.38-39)? (Remember his disguise from 2.3.) What does the Fool think he is (3.2.40-43)?

3. What sort of person does Edgar/Poor Tom pretend to be? (Remember throughout his appearances that he is playacting madness.) What does Lear immediately assume was the cause of Edgar/Poor Tom's madness (3.4.49, 61-62, 65-72)? What does Edgar/Poor Tom say he was before his madness (3.4.80-93)?

4. What is Lear's response to Edgar/Poor Tom (3.4.94-101)? (This is another speech to read carefully.) Who has now become for Lear the prime example of suffering humanity? Who previously was the prime example (as in 3.2.65-71)? What is Lear doing in 3.4.100-101? What does the Fool say he is doing (3.4.102-103)?

5. Why has Gloucester come? What problem might his presence create for Edgar/Poor Tom? And what might Edgar/Poor Tom learn from Gloucester at 3.4.154-157 that he did not know before? Why won't Lear go with Gloucester? (See 3.4.142-143, 145-146, 160-164, 168.) Whom does Edgar/Poor Tom seem to be replacing in Lear's attention (and in his presentations-see 3.4.110-114 and 170-172)?

3.5
1. What does Edmund give to Cornwall? What does he get in return? Whom are they trying to apprehend?

3.6
Now that they are inside, what does Lear in his madness attempt to do in 3.6.18-74? What problem does Edgar/Poor Tom have in 3.6.55-56?

2. What happens as soon as Lear finally gets to sleep? What warning does Gloucester bring? (And notice the Fool's line at 3.6.78 and his action at 3.6.93-94.1. This is the last appearance of the Fool, a cause for much critical discussion.)

3. What is the effect of Edgar/Poor Tom's formal speech in rhymed couplets at the end of the scene (3.6.95-108)? How does his language here sound after everything else we've heard in the scene?

3.7
1. What letter is Cornwall sending to Albany with Goneril? What is the military situation now? Who will go with Goneril? Why?

2. Where is Lear reported to be? Whom is he with (3.7.15-19)? Why have the knights only caught up with him now? (Remember that this is still the night after the day that dawned at 2.2.1. Lear left Goneril's hastily the night before (1.4.287.1), and the knights he left there [100 or possibly 50] have now caught up with him. The action from 1.3 through at least 4.1 occurs over no more than 36 hours.)

3. What happens in the trial and punishment of Gloucester (3.7.27.1-87)? Why does the servant intervene in 3.7.73-76? What does Gloucester learn in 3.7.88-93? What is his response (3.7.94-95)? In 3.7.96-102, what happens to the servant, to Cornwall, and to Gloucester?

4. How do the other servants respond to what has happened (3.7.103-111)? Whom will they get to help Gloucester? Why is this ironic?

4.1
1. What is the point of Edgar/Poor Tom's philosophical speech in 4.1.1-9? What happens to change his position to that of 4.1.26-27, and what do those lines mean?

2. What view of the universe has Gloucester reached in 4.1.37-38?

3. What sorts of service and charity appear in the scene? How does this compare to the world of the "worldly" people-Goneril, Regan, their husbands, and Edmund?

4. What further anguish is Edgar/Poor Tom going to have to face? Where does Gloucester ask him to lead him? Why? What will Edgar/Poor Tom get for it?

4.2
1. What, according to Oswald, is different about Albany (4.2.3-11)?

2. What has apparently passed between Goneril and Edmund on the journey? Why is Edmund returning to Cornwall (from where he was sent with Goneril, remember, so that he would not be there for the torture of his father)?

3. What does Albany accuse Goneril of, and in what tone? How does she respond? What view of the universe does Albany hope is true (4.2.47-51)? What sort of a universe does he see operating in the death of Cornwall (4.2.79-81)?

4. How does Goneril respond to the death of Cornwall (4.2.85-89)?

4.3
1. What has happened to the King of France? Has Cordelia gone back with him?

2. What sort of picture of Cordelia do we get from the Gentleman's description in 4.3.10-31? What sort of universe does Kent see operating in this (4.3.31-34)?

3. Where is Lear? Why won't he see Cordelia?

4.4
1. Where, according to Cordelia, is Lear now? What is he doing? How does she propose to help him?

2. What is the effect of Cordelia's speech in 4.4.23-30? How does it echo the imagery of the Gentleman's description in 4.3?

4.5
1. Why has Oswald come to Gloucester's house (where Regan still is)? Whom is he looking for? Where has Edmund gone?

2. What does Regan want Oswald to let her do? What message does she tell Oswald to give to Edmund?

4.6
1. What happens in the Gloucester "suicide" scene (4.6.1-80)? How has Edgar/Poor Tom changed (4.6.7-8)? Are they really at the cliffs of Dover? Given the absence of scenery on Shakespeare's stage, would an audience know if they are there or not? How different would Edgar/Poor Tom's description in 4.6.11-27 be if they were actually supposed to be at the edge of the cliff?

2. Why is Edgar doing this to his father? (See 4.6.33-34.) Notice that he must take on yet another voice and identity at 4.6.45-48. As the person at the bottom of the cliff, how does Edgar describe the person who was with Gloucester (4.6.67-74)? Why? Does Edgar's stratagem work? (See 4.6.75-77.) (Edgar changes identities several more times in the play. These notes will no longer try to identify what character he is "playing.")

3. What new torment awaits Gloucester at 4.6.80.1?

4. We meet the mad Lear (who was described in 4.4.1-6). What happens when he and Gloucester meet? What is Lear saying in 4.6.95-103?

5. Lear in this scene has two satirical or railing speeches, on standard topics of Renaissance satire and yet very appropriate to the themes of the play. The first is in 4.6.105-129. What is the subject of this speech? How is it appropriate to the play? How does Gloucester respond, and how does Lear respond to him (4.6.130-131)?

6. How well does Lear seem to recognize Gloucester in 4.6.132-145? What is the topic they talk about? What is Edgar's response in 4.6.138-139?

7. Lear's second satirical speech is in 4.6.146-167. What is the topic of this speech? How is it appropriate to the play? How good is Lear's advice? What does Lear do at line 167? What does this action signify? (Remember 3.4.94-101.)

8. How does Lear then respond to Gloucester, and what advice does he have for him (4.6.170-177)? Does this mean Lear is now sane? (See 4.6.177-181.)

9. Who comes for Lear? Whom do they come from? How does Lear treat them (4.6.196-197)?

10. How does the Gentleman describe Cordelia in 4.6.199-201? Does it match the earlier description of her in 4.3? What does he tell Edgar about the military situation?

11. Note that Gloucester's question at 4.6.215 shows that Edgar has changed his voice (and thus the character he is "playing") again. He changes the voice yet again at line 231 but seems to return to the original "new" voice (of line 215) at line 279. Hearing Gloucester at 4.6.212-214, why would Edgar be pleased? How does Gloucester then respond to Oswald's "arrest" of him (4.6.222-227)?

12. What does Edgar gain in killing Oswald? What does he learn from reading the letter Oswald was carrying (4.6.257-265)? (Remember, this is the letter Goneril apparently wrote when she responded to Regan about the death of Cornwall at 4.2.89; it is the same letter that Oswald refused to show Regan at 4.5.23.) What will Edgar do with the letter?

4.7
1. How does Kent respond when Cordelia asks him to change into clothes more fitting to his station (that is, to get out of his disguise)?

2. How are Lear and Cordelia reunited, and what happens? How has Lear's way of referring to himself changed? (See 4.7.61-62, 70, 85.) What does this suggest about what has happened to Lear and what he has learned from it?

3. What is the military situation (4.7.86-98)? For the proper ending to the play, which army should win? (Which side are the "good guys" on?)

5.1
1. What is the relationship between Edmund, Regan, and Goneril, as shown in 5.1? Why is Albany fighting (5.1.24-27)?

2. What do we learn from Edmund's soliloquy (5.1.55-69)? What plans does he have for Lear and Cordelia if they are captured? How does this differ from Albany's plan? Why?

5.2
1. Who has won the battle? What has happened to Lear and Cordelia (5.2.6)?

2. What message does Edgar give Gloucester (5.2.9-11)? What is Gloucester's response?

5.3
1. How do Lear and Cordelia anticipate their imprisonment (5.3.3-26)? Except for prison, how different is this arrangement from the retired life with Cordelia Lear looked forward to before his falling out with her in 1.1?

2. What does Edmund ask the Captain to do (5.3.27-40)?

3. Why is it important that Albany and the others enter only at 5.3.40.1?

4. What argument develops out of Albany's claim in 5.3.61-62 that Edmund is not his equal in the war? Why do Goneril and Regan fight? What is significant about lines 74, 96-97? What has Goneril done?

5. What two people does Albany arrest in 5.3.83-85? What is Albany saying ironically to Regan in 5.3.85-89?

6. Who answers the trumpet to challenge Edmund? (We have to assume that Edgar has his face covered by his Helmet; Edmund obviously does not know who it is until after the fight. So this is one more of Edgar's disguises.)

7. Who wins the fight? (See the stage direction at 5.3.149.1, which covers a sword fight between Edmund and Edgar.)

8. What is Goneril's response to the accusation (5.3.153-159)?

9. What is Edgar's view of the universe in 5.3.169-172? What "wheel" does Edmund refer to at line 173? How does it echo Lear at 4.7.46-48? How does it differ?

10. What happened to Gloucester (5.3.180-198)? What almost happens in lines 198-200?

11. Whom does Edgar describe in 5.3.203-217? What physical shape is he now in (5.3.215-216)?

12. What has happened to Goneril and Regan? How does Edmund respond? How does Albany respond (5.3.230)?

13. What does Kent remind the others (and us) of in 5.3.233-235? What were Edmund's plans and why does he change (5.3.242-254)?

14. What is Albany's prayer at 5.3.255? How is it answered?

15. What is Lear's state after he enters with Cordelia's body? Why does he alternate between knowing she's dead and thinking she's alive? (See 5.3.258-260, 260-262, 264, 269, 270-271, 304-307, 309-310.) What does line 308 suggest about Lear's state? (Compare 3.4.100-101 and 4.6.167.). What did Lear do to the hangman (5.3.273)?

16. What is the effect of ending the play this way? Is this the way it was "supposed" to end? What does this say about the nature of the universe, about which so many characters have had so much to say?

17. Side issues: What happens to Edmund (5.3.294)? How successful is Kent's reunion with Lear (5.3.266-293)?

18. Notice that Albany tries to end the play at 5.3.295-303 with what certainly sounds like one of Shakespeare's "summing up" endings for a tragedy, spoken by the top ranking person left on stage. What does Albany propose? But what happens after his speech?

19. Whose heart is Kent referring to at 5.3.311? How definite can we be?

20. When the others try to help Lear, what does Kent tell them to do in 5.3.312-314? In a play filled with images of torture and torture instruments, what is he referring to? Why is 5.3.313-314 a horrifyingly, literally bad pun? What is its effect here? There is also an alternative meaning, coming from the original spelling "wracke," of a shipwreck or similar disaster-significantly, the kind of disaster that refers to the object (here the world), not the individual sufferer. What, in this play, has suffered such a "wracke" or shipwreck/disaster?

21. When Albany tries to make Kent one of the rulers, how does he respond? (See 5.3.320-321, and compare what happened to him at 5.3.214-216.) What future does Kent see for himself?

22. What is Edgar saying in 5.3.322-325? Why is it Edgar who says it? What does that say about Albany's proposal in lines 318-319? How does it add to our confusion to note that while Edgar speaks lines 322-325 in the First Folio (p. 2473), Albany speaks them in the Quarto version of the play (p. 2472)?

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