King lear Plot Overview
King Lear is the story of Lear, the aged king of Britain, and Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, his three children. When he asks them, in return for one-third of his empire, to prove their love for him, all but Cordelia manage to flatter him enough. Clearly, Cordelia is the daughter who loves him the most, and stills she is banished; meanwhile, Regan and Goneril soon reveal that they hate him.
In a state of half-madness, they send him out of their homes with only his most obedient servants to defend him. Meanwhile, Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester, seeks to usurp his father and elder brother Edgar, conspiring to murder his father and banish Edgar from their houses.
Goneril clashes with Regan for Edmund’s affection as the French army, led by Cordelia and her new husband, the French king, arrives on the British coast. Goneril finally poisons her sister; however, Goneril kills herself off stage when her husband Albany faces her for her cruelty.
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