King Lear

Characters:

• King Lear
• aging king of Britain
• used to enjoying absolute power and to being flattered
• prioritizes the appearance of love over actual devotion
• Cordelia
• Lear's youngest daughter
• disowned for refusing to flatter him
• married by King of France for her virtue despite her lack of dowry
• remains loyal to Lear despite his cruelty and forgives her
• also displays forbearing temperament towards Goneril and Regan
• Goneril
• Lear's ruthless oldest daughter
• wife of duke of Albany
• jealous, treacherous, amoral
• challenges Lear's authority
• initiates affair with Edmund
• wrests military power from her husband
• Regan
• Lear's middle daughter
• wife of duke of Cornwall
• as ruthless as Goneril
• jealously competes for Edmund with Goneril
• Gloucester
• nobleman loyal to King Lear
• father of bastard son, Edmund
• like Lear, he misjudges which of his children to trust
• Edgar
• Gloucester's older, legitimate son
• Edmund
• Gloucester's younger, illegitimate son
• resents bastard status and schemes to usurp Gloucester's title and possessions from Edgar
• Kent/ Caius
• loyal to King Lear
• spends most of play disguised as peasant Caius so he can continue to serve Lear even after his banishment
• Albany
• husband of Goneril
• good at heart and eventually denounces cruelty of Goneril, Regan and Cornwall
• Cornwall
• husband of Regan
• domineering, cruel and violent
• works with wife and Goneril to persecute Lear and Gloucester
• Fool
• Lear's jester who uses double-talk and seemingly frivolous songs to advise Lear
• Oswald
• steward of Goneril's household who helps her in her conspiracies

Plot summary:

• King Lear decides to step down from throne of Britain and wants to divide his kingdom evenly among his 3 daughters
• To test them, he asks each of them how much she loves him. Goneril and Regan give their father flattering answers, but Cordelia remains silent, saying she has no words to describe how much she loves her father. Lear gets angry and disowns Cordelia.
• The king of France marries Cordelia even without her land and she accompanies him to France.
• Goneril and Regan begin to undermine Lear's authority and Lear begins to go insane.
• He flees his daughters' houses and wanders on a heath during a great thunderstorm accompanied by his Fool and Kent in disguise.
• The Earl of Gloucester is tricked by Edmund into believing that Edgar is out to kill him. 
• Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar, "Poor Tom", in order to avoid the manhunt his father has set on him. He heads out onto the heath as well.
• Gloucester decides to help King Lear. Regan and Cornwall accuse him of treason, blind him, and turn him out to wander the countryside. Edgar in disguise leads him to Dover, where Lear has also been brought.
• In Dover, a French army lands as part of an invasion led by Cordelia to save her father. 
• Edmund becomes romantically entangled with Regan and Goneril.
• Goneril and Edmund conspire to kill Albany, who is becoming increasingly symapthetic to Lear's cause.
• Gloucester tries to commit suicide but Edgar saves him by leading him off an imaginary cliff.
• The English troops, led by Edmund, reach Dover and defeat the French led by Cordelia.
• Cordelia and Lear are captured.
• Edgar duels and kills Edmund. Gloucester dies. Goneril poisons Regan out of jealousy over Edmund and then kills herself when her treachery is revealed to Albany. Cordelia is executed in prison and Lear dies of grief at Cordelia's death. Albany, Edgar and the elderly Kent remain.