King Lear is yet another tragedy from Shakespeare based on the inter-family quarell and politics, and the downfall of a royal family.
The 80-year-old King Lear of Britain decides to divide his property and kingdom between his three daughters before retiring, giving the largest share to the one who loves him the most.
His two older daughters butter and oil him, but his youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses to do so. King Lear - fool, as he admitted later - gets mad at Cordelia, and divides his property between his other daughters - Goneril and Regan - only, and banishes Cordelia, who gets married to the King of France.
A lot of incidents take place, and a lot is seen and understood by Lear. He infers that Goneril and Regan had never actually loved him, but it was Cordelia who loved him truly.
After going to banishment himself - along with his fools and loyal friend Kent - Lear hear that Goneril and Regan plan to kill him. However, he soon meets Cordelia and apologize to her, admitting that he was a fool to have banished her previously.
Later, Goneril understands her mistakes and pisons Regan and kills herself too. Soon afterwards, Cordelia is executed, and Lear dies while mourning over her corpse.
The play consist of many other hinge characters, namely Cornwall, Albany, Gloucester, Edger, Edmund, Oswald, etc. They play an important role in the entire set up of the play.
I felt that the story-line was overly complicated, with many insults, many misunderstandings, and many trecheary.
However, on the basis of the simple and most important concept that I have described above, the play was wonderful. And if I am to choose a favorite character, it would definitely be Kent, who had showed his loyalty to Lear through to the end.
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