LiteratureBook · 1608
King Lear
William Shakespeare
A king divides his kingdom by asking his daughters to say how much they love him, and the one who refuses to perform it is the one who meant it. Everything after that is loss, and the ending offers no consolation at all.
Why you should read this
This is the Shakespeare tragedy that Jan Kott's influential essay linked to Beckett's Endgame, a reading that shaped stripped-down twentieth-century stagings such as Peter Brook's 1962 production. Approach it expecting a punishing emotional register, since the ending withholds the restoration of order that closes most of Shakespeare's other tragedies.
- Field
- Literature
- Form
- Fiction
- Published
- 1608
- Themes
- DramaLiterature
