KING LEAR

By the end of this unit, students will be able to: trace the development of the main plot in the play and indicate how and where the subplot parallels the main plot; trace and analyze the development of the following characters: Lear, Cordelia, Regan, Goneril, Kent, Gloucester, Edgar, Edmund, Cornwall, Albany, Oswald; trace the causes, symptoms, and consequences of the developing madness that plagues King Lear throughout the play; trace and analyze relationships between characters, especially between Lear and Cordelia, Regan and Goneril, Edmund and Edgar, and Gloucester and Edgar; analyze Shakespeare’s use of language, (including rhyme and meter, figurative devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, etc.), dramatic conventions (such as pun, aside, allusion, subplot, etc.); analyze the function of the Fool; define the concept of the tragic hero by looking at the example of King Lear; and trace themes in the play, including old age and the ingratitude of the young, the concept of Natural Order in terms of family relations, the meaning of "nothing," reality versus appearance, and the influence of fate, the stars, and the gods. 98 pages. ©2006.