King Lear 8
Study Guide Questions for Act IV, Scenes I-V
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)
Eucatastrophe, Expectation vs. Reality, Suffering, Wisdom, Goodness, Temperance, Shame
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What was Gloucester concerned about on the Old Man’s behalf?
What happened which made Edgar say, “O gods! Who is’t can say ‘I am at the worst’? I am worse than e’er I was?”
What are the names of the “five fiends” who have supposedly possessed “Poor Tom?”
Where did the Earl of Gloucester desire Poor Tom to take him?
What did Oswald say was the Duke of Albany’s attitude towards the news he delivered to him concerning the French soldiers, the arrival of Goneril, and about the Earl of Gloucester?
How did the Duke of Albany address his wife, Goneril, after she returned home?
What news came to the Duke of Albany about the Duke of Cornwall?
Whose side does the Duke of Albany mean to take in the upcoming conflict?
According to the text, why did the King of France return to France?
Now that they had reached the French camp, what was King Lear refusing to do and why?
What did Regan say “was great ignorance” to have done?
What do Goneril and Regan both want concerning Edmund?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
What did Edgar mean when he said, “The lamentable change is from the best; the worst returns to laughter?”
The Earl of Gloucester said, “World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, life would not yield to age.” What did he mean by this?
What did Edgar mean when he said, “Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow. Angering itself and others?”
What did the Earl of Gloucester mean when he said to Edgar/Poor Tom, “from that place I shall no leading need?”
What did the Duke of Albany mean when he told OSwald that the latter “had turn’d the wrong side out?”
What did Goneril mean when she said, “I must change arms at home and give the distaff into my husband’s hands?”
Why do the Duke of Albany and Goneril now despise one another?
What did the gentleman mean when he said of Cordelia, “Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved, if all could so become it?”
How do Kent’s words in Act IV, Scene III about “the stars” continue an important theme in this book?
What did Cordelia mean when she said, “No blown ambition doth our arms incite, but love, dear love, and our aged father’s right?”
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
One gentleman observed about Queen Cordelia, “It seem’d she was a queen over her passion, who most rebel-like sought to be king o’er her.” This is an excellent way to capture the idea of Temperance. In your own words, what is the virtue of temperance? How has temperance, or the lack thereof, played an important role in this story so far? How can one acquire the virtue of temperance personally so one can exercise it when it really matters?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Act 9:1-19 and make a thematic connection between Paul’s experience and the Earl of Gloucester in this reading. In what way can we say they had a similar experience despite the obvious differences?