What You’ll Love about… King Lear by William Shakespeare
King Lear is probably Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy. Hamlet is just too long and too unpleasant; it’s not really something that one can enjoy. If anyone tells you that they “like” Hamlet, keep an eye on them.
The play opens in medias res, as most Shakespeare plays do. Everyone is wondering about King Lear’s retirement and the plan he has devised to divide the kingdom. It looks like he has already decided how it’s going to go, but he wants his daughters to do a little dog-and-pony show before he gives them their share.
I have noticed an odd tendency in students to identify with King Lear at the beginning of the play. He is clearly an awful man who doesn’t really deserve your concern. At least not at the beginning. He is proud, petulant, and temperamental, and he is horrible to his children. You can see how Goneril and Regan turned out the way they did. Students tend to turn against the bad daughters a little early, which is a mistake, since they have to endure some horrible treatment from Lear. Their early conversations about King Lear’s erratic behavior are completely understandable given how unstable he is. Even their requests for him to cut down the size of his entourage seem pretty reasonable to me, and his reaction is definitely over the top.
