Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. What does the storm in Act III symbolize?
2. What role do women play in
King
Lear?
3. Analyze the relationship between
madness and blindness in the play.
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Is Lear a sympathetic character?
What about Gloucester? How do our impressions of them change during
the course of the play?
2. Analyze the function that
the Fool serves. Why does he disappear from the action?
3. Discuss the relationship
between Cordelia and Lear, and compare it to the relationship between
Edgar and Gloucester.
4. Of the three villains—Edmund,
Goneril, and Regan—who is the most interesting? Why?
5. Discuss the significance
of old age and death in King Lear.
6. How does order break down
in Britain during the course of the play? Who is to blame?
7. Discuss Edmund. Are we meant
to find him sympathetic?
