If you are looking for the beginning of the study for Shakespeare’s “King Lear” then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Compassion, Deception, Fortitude, Loyalty, Betrayal, Appearance vs. Reality
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
According to Kent, what is going on between Albany and Cornwall?
What is France busy doing in the meanwhile?
What is King Lear doing at the beginning of Act III, Scene II?
Who, alone, has stayed by Lear’s side the whole time?
What did Kent try to persuade King Lear to do?
The Fool said he would “speak a prophecy,” but whose prophecy is it really?
What is the difficult situation in which the Earl of Gloucester finds himself?
What did King Lear’s small party find in the hovel in which they sought shelter?
What did Lear seem to assume was the cause of Poor Tom’s troubles?
What kinds of things did Poor Tom say put him into his troubled state?
Who comes to King Lear by the end of the reading?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
The text emphasizes that King Lear is out in the storm “unbonneted” or “bare headed.” What might Shakespeare be trying to communicate by the repetition of this idea?
Why might France be secretly invading England?
In the Fool’s rhyme which starts “The cod-piece that will house…” what is he trying to say?
What did Lear mean when he said, “Come, your hovel, Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart that’s sorry yet for thee?”
What might the Fool’s “prophecy” mean?
What should we infer about the Earl of Gloucester’s character from his course of action in Act III, Scene III?
What did Edmund mean by the speech he made after his father departed which starts, “This courtesy, forbid thee…?”
What did Lear mean when he said, “When the mind’s free the body’s delicate: the tempest in my mind doth from my senses take all feeling else save what beats there.”
Why did King Lear ask Poor Tom “Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?”
What serves as good proof that Edgar’s disguise as Poor Tom was very effective?
What do Edgar and Kent have particularly in common with one another in Act III, Scene IV.
What are at least three things that the raging storm might be symbolic of in this story?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
What does it mean to suffer the consequences of our actions? When we make mistakes, sin, or otherwise do foolish things, to what degree ought we to be forced to face the consequences and feel the results of what we have chosen? Put another way, to what degree do we sit back and let other people face the consequences versus intervening and showing them mercy and compassion? What is the problem with always intervening and never allowing people to face the consequences? What is the problem with never intervening and never showing people mercy? How do we decide which of these to do in any given situation? Give your response thoughtfully and thoroughly.
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Matthew 7:24-27. How might we build a connection to what Jesus says here and the story of King Lear?