King Lear

Lear, the King of Britain, is a powerful and important man. But he’s getting near retiremen...

The big thing to know about Edmund is that, as Shakespeare repeatedly says, he’s "a bastard...

Edgar begins the play as the rich and clueless son of Gloucester, one of the kingdom’s most...

A powerful lord in Lear’s court, Gloucester is part of Lear’s generation – one...

Cordelia is one of the few genuinely principled people in King Lear. Compared with her two...

In contrast to her sister Regan, Goneril is more proactive and more aggressive. She confronts the...

Albany is Goneril’s husband. Goneril walks all over him for the first half of the play, and...

Regan is the younger and potentially less wicked of the two evil sisters. Slightly more passive,...

Cornwall, Regan's husband, represents abuse of power at its worst. Lear is certainly one for gett...

Kent is loyalty personified. He makes great sacrifices to help Lear, even though the King treated...

The Fool is Lear’s own stand-up comedian, sure, but more interestingly, he’s the only...

Oswald, Goneril’s servant, is your typical slime-ball. He does whatever Goneril wants him t...