This tragedy, like many other works of Shakespeare, has a borrowed plot. It was created in 1606. However, a year before this, the anonymous play "True History in King Lear" was published.
The plot of Shakespeare's tragedy "King Lear"
The scene of the tragedy is Britain, the time of action is the ninth century AD. The plot is based on the story of the British king Lear, inclined to divide his own kingdom between his three daughters. In order to determine who gets what part, he asks them to say how strong their love for their father is. Older daughters take the opportunity, and the youngest refuses to go on flattery. In a fit of anger, the father expels the daughter and Earl of Kent from the kingdom, who tried to intercede for her.
However, over time, the king realizes that the love of the eldest daughters was only prudent, and the tension between them exacerbates the political situation in the kingdom.
An additional plot is also interwoven - Count Gloucester and his son Edmund. The latter slandered the legitimate son of the count, who barely managed to avoid reprisal.
The eldest daughters expel Lear, he goes into the steppe. Gloucester, Kent and Edgar join him. Daughters are hunting for the king. The youngest daughter, having learned about everything, leads the French troops. The battle is coming. Total they are captured. Edmund, having bribed the officers, wants them to kill the prisoners. However, the Duke of Albania brings Edmund to the open, reveals his atrocities, but Edgar still kills his brother in a duel. Before his death, Edmund wants to do one good thing - to disrupt the plan to kill prisoners. But not in time. In the end, Cordelia is strangled, both her sisters also die. Lear dies of grief. Count Kent also wanted to die, but the duke strengthens him in all rights and leaves him near the throne.
