King Lear

King Lear Class Presentation and Activities

Primary Sources:

Classroom Sources:

King Lear Layers of Interpretation

Secondary Sources:

  • King Lear Arden Edition, edited by R.A. Foakes: Click here

  • Scholarly Essays about this play:

    • From Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • From Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber: Part 1 and Part 2

    • From The Meaning of Shakespeare by Harold Goddard: Click here

    • From Shakespeare by Mark Van Doren: Click here

    • Dr. Marjorie Garber, Professor of English at Harvard University discusses this play in a lecture: Click here

    • Royal Shakespeare Company's reproduction of King Lear, starring Sir Ian McKellan: click here

  • Actor Sir Ian McKellan talks about King Lear: Click here

  • 3 Minute Illustrated Summary of King Lear: Link

  • Discussion with Oxford professor Jonathan Bates and actor Sir Ian McKellan about aging and King Lear: Click here

  • Original source of Shakespeare's play, an earlier play called King Leir, written approximately 15 years earlier: Link

  • Actor Simon Russell Beale suggests King Lear suffered from a specific form of dementia: Click here

  • Orson Welles full movie of King Lear: Link

  • Actor Simon Russell Beale talks about King Lear: Click here

  • Biblical connections to the infamous book of Job: Click here or read for yourself: Click here

  • Non-fiction connection: The Myth of Sisyphus: Click here

  • Keats and King Lear: Click here

  • Keats' "On the Sea" (inspired by scene with Edgar and Gloucester on the cliffs of Dover): Link

  • Sir Ian McKellan on King Lear as he ages: Click here

  • Political opinion essay, connecting Trump to Lear: Link

  • Famous, dark, bleak rendition of King Lear by Peter Brooks: Link

  • Early Cinema silent film of King Lear ("Koenig Lear" 1909): Link

  • In Our Time Podcast about King Lear: Link

  • Scholarly Essays about King Lear:

    • A.C. Bradley: Click here

    • "Introduction" from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "King Lear" by George Orwell from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "King Lear" by Harold Goddard from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "King Lear" by William Rosen from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "The Emotional Landscape of King Lear" by Arthur Kirsch from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "Redemption in King Lear" by Russell Fraser from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "King Lear" from Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "Anger's Privilege: King Lear" by David Farley-Hills from King Lear by Harold Bloom: Click here

    • "'Mapping' King Lear in a Drama Survey Course: A Guide in an Antiformalist Terrain" by Maurice Hunt from Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "'Is this the promis'd end?' Teaching the Play's Conclusion" by David Kranz from Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "An Approach through Visual Stimuli and Student Writing" by Jean Klene from Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "King Lear in a Literature Survey Course" by Ann Paton from Approaches to teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "An Archetypal Approach" by Ann Imbrie from Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "An Approach through Theme: Marriage and the Family" by Lynda Boose from Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "Sight and Perception in King Lear: An Approach through Imagery and Theme" from Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear: Click here

    • "Shakespeare's Rituals and the Opening of King Lear" by William Frost from Shakespeare: The Tragedies: Click here

    • "Character and Action: King Lear" by Levin Schucking from Shakespeare: The Tragedies: Click here

    • "King Lear and the Comedy of the Grotesque" by G. Wilson Knight from Shakespeare: The Tragedies: Click here

    • "King Lear: A Tragedy of Wrath in Old Age" by Lily Campbell from Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes: Click here

      • Part 2: "King Lear: A Tragedy of Wrath in Old Age" by Lily Campbell from Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes: Click here

    • "King Lear" from Shakespeare's Tragedies by G.B. Harrison: Click here

    • "Tragedy and the Kingdom of Ends" from King Lear by Arthur Sewell: Click here

    • "The Fool and Handy-Dandy" from King Lear by John Danby: Click here

    • "Aesthetic Meaning and Political Freedom" from The Word and the Pen by Milner Ball: Click here

    • "The Historic Relations of King Lear and Moby Dick" from Melville and Politics of Identity by Julian Markels: Click here

    • "Melville's Route to King Lear" from Melville and the Politics of Identity by Julian Markels: Click here

Watch the full episode. See more Great Performances.

Act I, Scene I of aforementioned film, embedded here for your convenience and viewing pleasure...