History Theatre / KingLear

* TheJester: The Fool, of course. His jokes and clowning often has a pretty scratching criticism of Lear and his conduct attached to them.

** Shakespeare was no stranger to anachronism, but this play takes it UpToEleven. The legendary King Leir of Britain is supposed to have lived around the 8th century BC. At that time, there was no "King of France", "Duke of Cornwall", "Duke of Albany", "Earl of Gloucester" or "Earl of Kent". Nor, for example, was there a St Mary Bethlehem (Bedlam) Hospital, from which Edgar takes his madman's identity. One of the most egregious anachronisms is when Kent professes "to eat no fish", implying that he is declaring himself to be a Protestant and not a Catholic - centuries before even the most rudimentary Christianity existed.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Ironically, the primary motivation for Kent ''and'' Oswald. Kent disguises himself to protect Lear even after being exiled for calling him on his bullshit; meanwhile, Oswald ''works'' for Goneril -- who appears to be something of a ReasonableAuthorityFigure towards her servants -- and is quite clear that his responsibility is to keep her household running according to her wishes.

* BadassGrandpa: Lear despite being canonically in his eighties kills the executioner who was holding him and his daughter when he executed Cordelia.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Goneril and Albany, with Goneril getting involved in a relationship with Edmund, while she sees Albany as rather mild-mannered and honest, in contrast to Goneril poisoning her sister Regan, and even writes letters to Edmund encouraging him to kill Albany. By the time Albany steps in to prevent Edmund's counter-claims to Goneril, he arrests his wife and Edmund as co-conspirators.

* DarkerAndEdgier: compared to the legend it was based on. Not only did Shakespeare alter the ending so that Lear and Cordelia both die, he also introduced the subplot of Gloucester and his sons, which contributes further to the darker tone.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of Cornwall's servants finds the gouging of Old Gloucester's eyes excesively brutal:

* TheSimpleGestureWins: Tragically subverted at the beginning of the play, which is what sets up the series of events leading to the DownerEnding.

* TheSimplestGestureWins: Tragically subverted at the beginning of the play, which is what sets up the series of events leading to the DownerEnding.

** Note also that the usage of this trope is true to the source material, the ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae''.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Oswald, who gets beaten up by Kent when he is sent by Goneril with letters for Regan:

* AcquittedTooLate: [[spoiler: Edmund sends someone to pardon Lear and Cordelia's execution on his deathbed, but he's too late and Cordelia is hanged]].

** [[spoiler: Edmund repents on his deathbed, lamenting that he was born inherently evil, because he was illegitimate]].
** A lot of productions will portray [[spoiler: Cornwall's death sadly, if his and Regan's marriage is shown to be a happy one]]. It does mark the start of AnyoneCanDie.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Goneril kills herself once she's exposed for her crimes, knowing execution is probably the only route for her, after poisoning Regan]].

* BraveScot: Double subverted with Albany - which is what Scotland used to be called, implying the character to be Scottish - who is at first weak and submissive. But then he stands up to everyone and [[spoiler: is one of the few characters left alive by the end]].

** The final scene is a big one for Goneril. Her affair with Edmund is exposed, Albany finally stands up to her, she's reduced to [[spoiler: poisoning her own sister]] and [[spoiler: her lover is killed in front of her]].

** Goneril plays off her father's ego in order to get one third of the kingdom, manipulates him into disbanding a good portion of his knights and enrages him so much that he runs off to be someone else's problem. [[spoiler: She also poisons her sister when it becomes clear that the two won't be in cahoots much longer]].
** Regan is able to inspire large amounts of cruelty in others, leading to Gloucester getting his eyes gouged out and Lear being driven out into the storm. [[spoiler: She's outwitted by Goneril in the end however]].

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The Fool vanishes from the play after Act 3, Scene 6, and his whereabouts are never accounted for. Many speculate that the character probably was meant to have died and that the scene explicitly stating or depicting this was lost. His final line about "Going to bed at noon," has been interpreted as {{foreshadowing}} his demise. Another theory is that the Fool and Cordelia may have been depicted by the same actor in the original production, necessitating the disappearance of one when the other reenters the play. Some productions have Lear, while mad, accidentally killing him. Since he is a comic character, The Fool's disappearance may very well indicate the play's shift to the subsequent tragedies that befall [[spoiler: Cornwall and his servant, Oswald, Gloucester, Goneril, Regan, Edmund, Cordelia, and King Lear]]. A line in the fifth act from Lear says "my poor fool is hanged", but the "f" is lowercase - leading to doubt as to whether The Fool was hanged offscreen.

** [[spoiler: Oswald]] dying at Edgar's hands marks the true loss of whatever innocence he had left. It's after this that Edgar also TookALevelInBadass.
** Earlier the death of [[spoiler: Cornwall]] symbolises the kingdom starting to collapse under the power struggle. It's only after this that [[spoiler: Edmund pits the two sisters against each other, and Cordelia leads the French army to battle]].

** [[spoiler: Lear dies after having to watch his beloved youngest daughter be hanged, the same daughter he disinherited at the start and caused the entire mess in the first place]].
** [[spoiler: Regan spends the whole play attacking other people, and manipulating them into doing unspeakably horrible things. She ends up outwitted by her sister and poisoned]].

* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Cordelia will never get a break, unless you count her reconciliation to Lear before her execution]].

** A more charitable interpretation would say that [[spoiler: Goneril's suicide is remorse over the evil things she's done]].

* SeeminglyProfoundFool: Lear finds himself in awe of Tom O'Bedlam's[=/=][[spoiler: Edgar's]] profound wisdom when they take shelter from the storm:

* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: By the end of the play, [[spoiler: Edgar duels his brother by himself while the other characters sit and watch]]. Though Albany does scream "save him" to prevent [[spoiler: Edgar from outright killing him]].

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:Cordelia, the most kind and virtuous character in the story, ends up being executed, mostly to make a point about how fleeting happiness is and how unjust the world can be at times.]]

** In the {{parody}} version "[[http://www.shakespeare-parodies.com/lear.html How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth]]" by Richard Nathan, the play ends with [[spoiler: the Fool [[MoodWhiplash bounding back onstage]] and saying, "Hey, everyone, I'm back! Did I miss anything?"]]

* YoungestChildWins: As the play is based on fairy tale tropes, this one is present. Cordelia the youngest is the most moral person in the play, and she's her father's favourite. She ends up disowned and, [[spoiler: despite pulling BigDamnHeroes to save her father, she still ends up hanged]]. Ian [=McKellen=]'s version had Lear wearing two wedding rings, implying that Cordelia is a child of a second marriage.

Lastly, a single line from this play had inspired Creator/RobertBrowning to write a poem, ''Literature/ChildeRolandToTheDarkTowerCame''. That poem had in turn become the inspiration for ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series by Creator/StephenKing.

Lear, the elderly king of Britain, decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom into three parts to give to his daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. But before he officially seals the deal, he keens that the largest share will go to the daughter who loves him best. Much butt-kissing ensues -- all except from the youngest, Cordelia. Despite being Lear's favorite and having the most love for her father, Cordy's flattery doesn't pass muster, and the senile King [[InadequateInheritor banishes her]] along with his own close friend the Earl of Kent who speaks in her defense. Cordelia's share is divvied up between her elder sisters and Lear announces his retirement, though he insists on keeping one hundred knights, the respect and title of a king, and free room and board at his daughters' homes.

It doesn't take long before Lear wears out his welcome. His daughters, resentful and wary from the outset, quickly tire of the knights causing a ruckus, not to mention the lavish expense of keeping them on staff. Lear flips his lid once more and, rather than compromising with his daughters, he stubbornly denounces them. When Goneril and Regan double down by refusing to take in his knights, Lear, too, refuses their shelter, and is caught out in a thunderstorm while both his followers and his sanity desert him. He is left with only his Fool, the disguised Earl of Kent, Edgar, and Gloucester (after he's ousted from his estate) to care for him.

A closely related subplot follows another family, that of the Earl of Gloucester, another of Lear's close friends. His younger son, the illegitimate Edmund, tricks Gloucester into thinking his legitimate son Edgar is plotting to kill him. Gloucester is duped, and Edgar goes on the run, disguising himself as a homeless madman to escape capture. Edgar falls in with his godfather Lear, while Edmund, resentful of the world who judges him simply because he was born a bastard, decides to show everyone [[BastardBastard what a bastard]] [[KickTheDog he can be]] and seduces not just one but '''both''' of Lear's elder daughters. With a few deft moves, he goes from inheriting nothing to being [[FromNobodyToNightmare potentially the most powerful man in Britain]].

** At the end, after Edmund has been vanquished, Lear still hopes (in vain) that Cordelia might be alive:

* ThrowTheDogABone: Poor Cordelia, disowned by her father and rejected by her shallow suitor from Burgundy. Then the [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming King of France falls for her and values her more than any material dowry.]]

** Lear, while not evil, sis a temperamental, power-hungry {{Jerkass}} who thinks only of himself. Unlike most of Shakespeare's {{Tragic Hero}}es, he does see the error of his ways and becomes a genuinely good person by the end... but his transformation comes too late to prevent him from losing everything, including, ultimately, his life.

* InadequateInheritor: The play opens with Lear dividing the kingdom amongst his daughters based on their professions of love, which proves to be a mistake when the actions of Goneril and Regan betray their words, and Cordelia goes out to seek Lear and nurse him from insanity to health.

* BigBad: Edmund of Gloucester; a significant portion of Edmund's subplot involves being involved in a love triangle between Goneril and Regan, with Edmund turning on his own father, attempting to kill Goneril's husband Albany, and ultimately seizing Lear and Cordelia and sending them off to the dungeon, only to meet his demise at the hand of Edgar his half-brother, who is disguised as a mysterious knight.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Edmund doesn't actually kill his father, but he's totally complacent as even worse things are done to him. This makes Edmund very much an EvilPrince.
* ServileSnarker: When Lear arrives at Goneril's palace and the servants ignore him, Oswald's impudent speech to Lear considers him a mere father instead of a king, and Lear immediately takes offense: