Scene 1 | Gloucester and kent discuss King lears decision to divide the kingdom, and then Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son who has been out of the country for nine years. Then King Lear,cornwall,albany,gonreil,regan and Cordelia enter and the division of land talk begins. The king asks each of his daughters how much they love himand Gonreil & Regan tell him they love him more than life and he gives them both a large portion of his land then he asks his favourite daughter how much she loves him then she says nothing ( because she’s shy and can’t express her words) he gets pst and banishes her from the kingdom and disowns her. Then he talks badly about her to her 2 future husbands. Duke of burgandy takes back his proposal cause all he cares about is the land, while the duke of france takes her in and says she’s more valuable now then ever.Kent also stands up for Cordelia but then is banished by the king. Then Gonreil and Regan are left by themselves talking about how mad their dad and worry they might get treated like he did their sister, and that they will take turns taking care of him. |
Scene 2 | Edmund reveals in his soliloquy ( like a monologue) his plans to get rid of everything that stands in his way of inheriting all of his fathers possession. He created a fake letter and convinces his dad that edgar is plotting to kill gloucester ( the dad ) in order to claim the inheritance. Gloucester rashly believes edmund’s story. Edmund was clever because he was defending edgar. Then gloucester leaves and edgard comes in. Edmund convinces edgar that gloucester is angry with him and that edgar should flee the household. |
Scene 3 | Gonreil is talking to her stewardess, Oswald, about the difficulties she’s having with having her dad and the knights live with them. She tells oswald to provoke lear so that his actions give her a reason to kick him out. |
Scene 4 | Kent didn’t leave the kingdom instead he disguised himself in order to serve the “old king”. Lear meats kent and likes him and orders him to be his servant.A knight enters and tells him about the poor treatment that he is receiving at the duke of albany’s palace ( Gonreil’s husbands palace). Lear decides to talk to Gonreil about this. Oswald then pisses off the king, and Kent steps in and takes Lear’s side by threatning to beat him up. At this point the fool enters and tells lear of his stupidity of dividing up his kingdom. Gonreil enters then and tells him that if wants to stay at his place he will have to reduce the amount of knights he has. This angers Lear who then decides to go live with his other daughter Regina. Then Albany come in unknown of what just occurred and hears his wife tell oswald to inform her sister of what happened. Albany doesn’t agree with her decision but he doesn’t do anything to prevent them. |
Scene 5 | Lear is getting ready to leave. He tells Kent to take a letter he wrote to Regina telling her of what happened and instructs kent to only give no new information then what is written to Regina. He wrote of his arrival. The fool continues to remind him of his mistakes and near the end as he is about to leave he begins to feel the approach of madness. |
King Lear Act 1
July 27, 2019