King Lear, Acts 2

1
King Lear, Acts 2 3

• CNE/ENG 120
• 12/6/04

2
Act 2, Scene 1

• Edmund tricks Edgar into fleeing from
  Gloucesters castle.
• Believing Edmunds lies, Gloucester condemns
  Edgar to death even as he makes Edmund his heir.
• Cornwall and Regan arrive at Gloucesters castle,
  hear false stories about Edgar. They welcome
  Edmund into their service.

3
Act 2, Scene 2

• Kent meets Oswald at Gloucesters castle (both
  await answers to letters they have brought to
  Regan) and challenges him to fight. The
  disturbance Kents explanations provoke
  Cornwell into putting Kent into the stocks for
  punishment.

4
Act 2, Scene 3

• Edgar disguises himself as a madman/beggar to
  escape his death sentence.
• Although Kent remains onstage, a new scene begins
  because the place has shifted away from
  Gloucesters castle, from which Edgar has fled.

5
Act 2, Scene 4

• At Gloucesters castle, Lear is angered that his
  messenger has been stocked, then further angered
  that Regan and Cornwall refuse to see him.
• When Goneril arrives, Lear argues bitterly with
  both daughters, who claim that he needs no
  attendants of his own. When both declare that he
  can stay with them only if he gives us his
  knights, he rushes, enraged, out into a storm.
• Cornwall, Regan, and Goneril shut Gloucesters
  castle against Lear.

6
Act 3, Scene 1

• Kent, searching for Lear, meets a gentleman and
  learns that Lear and the Fool are alone in the
  storm.
• Kent tells the gentleman that French forces are
  on their way to England.

7
Act 3, Scene 2

• Lear rages against the elements while the Fool
  begs him to return to his daughters for shelter
  when Kent finds them, he leads them toward a
  hovel.

8
The Storm

• The storm represents Lears situation an old man
  caught up in storms of his own foolishness.
• The result he is cold, hurt, buffeted.

9
Act 3, Scene 3

• Gloucester tells Edmund that he has decided to go
  to Lears aid he also tells him about an
  incriminating letter he has received about the
  French invasion.
• After Gloucester leaves to find Lear, Edmund
  announces his plan to betray his father to
  Cornwall.
• Here Edmund reveals himself to be worse than wed
  thought - to be just like Regan and Goneril.

10
Act 3, Scene 4

• Lear, Kent and the Fool reach the hovel, where
  they find Edgar disguised as Poor Tom, a
  madman-beggar.
• When Gloucester finds them, he leads them into
  the shelter of a house.
• Lear is still raging against ingratitude (lines
  15 ff).

11
Filial Ingratitude

• This tempest in my mind doth from my senses take
  all feeling else save what beats there. Filial
  ingratitude!
• When they interact with Tom, Lear wonders if Tom
  were driven mad by wild, ungrateful daughters
  (likened to animals pelican daughters, tigers,
  dogs).

12
Deception

• Gloucester, still believing Edmunds lies,
  commiserates with Lear about bad children. He
  also claims to be grief-stricken to the point of
  insanity (180).
• In this scene, the good (Edgar, Kent) are foced
  to deceive in order to achieve their goals
  (staying alive, helping Lear).

13
Act 3, Scene 5

• The betrayal comes to fruition
• Edmund tells Cornwall about Gloucesters decision
  to help Lear and about the incriminating letter
  from France.
• In return, Cornwall makes Edmund earl of
  Gloucester.

14
Act 3, Scene 6

• Lear, in his madness, imagines that Goneril and
  Regan are on trial before a tribunal made up of
  Edgar, the Fool, Kent, and himself.
• Gloucester returns to announce that Lears death
  is being plotted - he urges Kent to rush Lear to
  Cordelia at Dover.

15
Act 3, Scene 7

• Cornwall dispatches men to capture Gloucester,
  whom he calls a traitor.
• Sending Edmund and Goneril to tell Albany about
  the landing of the French army, Cornwall puts out
  Gloucesters eyes.
• Cornwall himself is seriously wounded by one of
  his own servants, who tries to stop the torture
  of Gloucester. Regan herself kills the servant,
  cursing Gloucester as an ungrateful fox (line
  33).

16
What Goes Around, Comes Around

• Regans curse of Gloucester as an ungrateful
  fox echoes Lears anger of his daughters
  ungratefulness.
• Regan tells Gloucester that Edmund had betrayed
  him.