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King Lear

Explore resources related to William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Overview

Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the suffering of others. Lear himself rages until his sanity cracks. What, then, keeps bringing us back to King Lear? For all the force of its language, King Lear is almost equally powerful when translated, suggesting that it is the story, in large part, that draws us to the play.

The play tells us about families struggling between greed and cruelty, on the one hand, and support and consolation, on the other. Emotions are extreme, magnified to gigantic proportions. We also see old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, pride, and, perhaps, wisdom—one reason this most devastating of Shakespeare’s tragedies is also perhaps his most moving.

Most Popular Resources

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Cutting a Scene: King Lear 4.6

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Cutting a Scene: King Lear 4.6

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Choral Reading: King Lear 1.2

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Choral Reading: King Lear 1.2

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Choral Reading: Fences and King Lear

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Choral Reading: Fences and King Lear

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Engaging All Students Across the Humanities

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Engaging All Students Across the Humanities

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Juicy Hamlet Lessons from the Creators of The Folger Guide to Teaching Hamlet 5-Week Unit

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Juicy Hamlet Lessons from the Creators of The Folger Guide to Teaching Hamlet 5-Week Unit

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So, You Have to Read Shakespeare... How the Folger Method Can Reach Reluctant Readers...and Teachers of Shakespeare
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Fill Your Cauldron: Spooky Treats from Macbeth
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Fill Your Cauldron: Spooky Treats from Macbeth

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