King Lear’s most loyal warrior, Kent, sticks up for Cordelia since Kent thinks that what Lear was doing is wrong, this made Lear furious indeed and also banishes Kent.
King Lear, in a bad mood, split first prize between Regan and Gorneril on condition that he lives with them alternately with one hundred followers. The two daughters immediately agree to this condition. As soon as King Lear’s back is turned, they began to discuss their understandable concerns to each other about their fathers’ metal condition. Lear, who is now blinded by Gornerils and Regan’s speech that he doesn’t question why they love him so much, why do they love him more then their own husbands? King Lear thinks that what Cordelia did was just being too disrespectable, rude and bad mannered to him. Lear is blinded from the truth.
Regan and Goneril start to make Lear’s army smaller and smaller, day by day, going less and less. King Lear realises they don’t want him around so he is forced to escape to nature. In order to survive in nature, Lear learns how to hunt, he hunts a rabbit. King Lear now with no power of society, has been forced to change back to an ordinary man who has to work and hunt for themselves.
Glouster and Edgar also fall to the wild; they have also been forced by the bastard son ‘Edmund’, Edmund who wants to be king, but because society rules he find it hard to make his wish come true. Edmond even decides to write letters about Edgar wanting to kill his dad and that Edgar’s dad is a traitor.
Edgar and Glouster both flew into the dark, Edgar reduced to a lion cloth and has to pretend that he is mad and Glouster had his eyes gorged and has the protection of the wild.
Whilst these entire things happen, the king of France plans to start a war on England because he wants to rule himself. nature vs. nurture, who will win? They had the war and most of the good still survive.
Near to the end of the play, Cordelia and her father finally are reunited, Regans husband also finds out about everything that Edmund had done and also goes to fight him, instead, an unknown figures appears and fights him, at the end the unkown figures reveals who he really is, it was Edgar! Edgar who came back to regain what should be his and his fathers. Edgar won because of nature.
Even though it was too late, Cordelia had already been hung by Edmund’s orders, but just before he dies he rectifies his sins by telling Edgar the real truth.
At the very end of the play, King Lear came crying out of the dungeon with Cordelia’s dead body in his arms. Lear put Cordelia down and sits with her before dying of a broken heart.
Eventually Edgar becomes the new king of England. Everyone else dies even if they didn’t deserve to die yet.
