Writing and Rhetoric - King Lear Act 1

Burgundy

Fights for Cordelia’s hand but loses it after her banishment

France

Fights for Cordelia’s hand and ends up marrying her

Fool

Lear’s honest servant who is required to tell nothing but the truth, but does so in riddles and song

Cordelia

Honest, truthful, youngest

Banished by her father after the love test

Lear

King of Britain, old, crabby, senile

Father of Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan

Goneril and Regan

Power hungry, manipulative, conniving

Regan tries to one up Goneril during the love test and is the middle daughter

Goneril is the oldest

Kent

Loyal servant to Lear, Earl of Kent, nobleman

Banished from the kingdom after defending Cordelia but returns in disguise

Gloucester

Earl of Gloucester, nobleman

father of 2, edmund and edgar

Edmund

illegitimate son of Gloucester, jealous, scheming, deceiving

Fools his family to overthrow his brother and gain his inheritance

Edgar

Legitimate son of Gloucester

Cornwall

Regan’s husband

Albany

Goneril’s husband

Hamartia

A fatal flaw or crucial error that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine

Tragedy

A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character

Foil

A character whose contrasting traits highlight and define the key characteristics of the main character

“I love your Majesty/According to my bond, no more nor less”

Cordelia says tis during the love test to explain that she cannot lie like her sisters and that if she had a true marriage she would not be able to love her father with 100% of her heart. This leads to her banishment

“Why not the slave back to me when I called him?”

Lear says this in response to a letter he sent that resulted in Oswald not returning like requested. This is an example of Lear not realizing that he has less power than he used to and that people are not going to recognize his requests like when he used to have everything

“These late eclipses of the sun and moon portend no good to us…Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide…the bond crackd ‘twixt son and father”

Gloucester says this. The eclipses point to impending disaster and broken relationships, expressing how relationships ate to change throughout his family

“This is the excellent foppery of the world that when we are sick in fortune…we make guilty of our disasters the sun the moon and stars…and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on”

Edmund says this to express how he dislikes his father’s lack of accountability. Here he claims that he would rather blame occurrences on the stars and use it as an excuse for his actions, especially the action of Edmund’s conception

“If our father would sleep till I waken him, you should enjoy half his revenue forever and live the beloved of your brother Edgar”

This is read by Gloucester though it is actually the letter written by Edmund in order to trick his father into disowning Edgar. It says that Edgar plans on murdering his father in order to gain his inheritance

“Now gods, stand up for bastards”

This is said by Edmund as a cry for validation as an illegitimate son. He dislikes the rules of legitimacy and claims that he should not be treated differently from his brother just because of his conception