SuitabookKing Lear
Macaw Books
- Reading
- Read a section at a time, pause to compare flattering speech with honest speech, and invite the reader to predict how Lear’s decision could affect both power and family relationships.
- Themes
- Power, love and judgement: Lear links the division of his kingdom to public declarations of love, then gives power to daughters whose answers flatter him. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Family rupture: Lear’s response to Cordelia’s silence leads him to disown her, while giving up the kingdom damages his relationships with his daughters. The book does not clearly resolve its stance on this.
- Worth knowing
- The shortened form may make the central predicament easier to encounter, but important character development, language and later events may receive less space than in the original play.