King Lear

William Shakespeare

There is no way any review of this that I could give that would justify the acclaim earned by a play that has stood the test of time for hundreds of years. King Lear is the classic novel of a dysfunctional family.

The wealthy father, Lear, decides to retire and leave his land to his daughters and their husbands. The older two daughters flatter their father as he wants. The youngest daughter instead tells the truth and he disowns her instead. The youngest leaves and marries. The older two, already married, then turn their back on their father. They both fall for yet another man, a scoundrel, disdaining their husbands. Since this is a tragedy, by the end of the play almost everyone has died.

The play addresses issues that never change throughout mankind. There are going to be greedy people. There will be clueless people. There will be flatterers and the ones who tell the truth despite the cost. The hardest part of reading the play is, of course, the original language. My copy of the text had footnotes on every page with the modern translations of the old English words. I was pleased that the Shakespeare classes I took way, way back when stuck with me. I still knew most of the meanings.

Shakespeare knew how to get his audience involved with his work. He touched chords that we all can recognize in ourselves or other people we may know. I had to re-read King Lear because I recently read A Thousand Acres. Good fiction just doesn't die (although sometimes it plays out better on stage...)