Study Guide
1. At the beginning of this scene Lear starts to rage and the fool interjects with a plea. What is it that the fool wants Lear to do?
Is this a reasonable request or is it hypocritical?
2. Explain what the storm has to do with Goneril and Reagan, according to Lear’s view at this time.
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At the beginning of the play Lear felt like he knew and understood everything about the world. It was a safe and predictable place he was in control of. He is finding that he is tragically wrong. He feels like the world is falling around him and that he is open for attack from every angle. This develops into a situation of dramatic irony. Lyman Baker of Kansas State University offers and excellent definition:
Dramatic irony is a relationship of contrast between a character's limited understanding of his or her situation in some particular moment of the unfolding action and what the audience, at the same instant, understands the character's situation actually to be.
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3. Explain why this section of the play is an excellent example of dramatic irony. Be very specific with your explanation or examples.
4. How has Lear’s consideration of the Fool changed from the beginning of the play to how it is in this scene.
What kind of shift in Lear does this signify?
5. Lear states, “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.” III ii 59-60
Write a paragraph that states whether you think this a true statement or you think he is wrong. Be sure to back up your response with two specific examples from the play thus far.
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