The King Lear grew old, but with age, wisdom did not come to him. Due to his egoism, he failed to perceive true love and was unable to listen to the advice of those who only wished him well. He had to be deconstructed, go through torments, tempests, and betrayals, and have his kingdom destroyed in order to become human.

Lear's pride and self-centeredness led him to make hasty and unwise decisions. He divided his kingdom among his daughters based on their flattery rather than their true love and loyalty. This act set in motion a series of events that would bring about his downfall.

As Lear faced the consequences of his actions, he began to realize the error of his ways. He was humbled by the hardships he endured and learned valuable lessons about love, forgiveness, and the true meaning of being human. Through his suffering, he was able to transform and grow as a person.

“This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.”
― William Shakespeare, King Lear


In this modern era, with Trump as the president, I find it essential to re-discover the profound wisdom within Shakespeare's works. It seems almost necessary for me to read them annually until 2021. Currently, I'm not finished with this review. Instead, I feel the urge to step out into the rain, let the raindrops soak me, and sit there for a while, lost in thought. I push my toes deep into the mud, as if trying to ground myself and reflect on the concept of mortality.

This play, King Lear, is not one that I could have related to easily in my twenties or even thirties. However, as my parents grow older and I myself age, I become increasingly aware of the approaching shadows of mortality. The unwavering certainty of youth and the boldness that characterized the past decades have now vanished. In their place, there is not madness, but rather an ache in the brain and those vain whispers that attempt to convince us that all is not lost and everything lasts.

It is in these moments of quiet reflection that I realize the true power and relevance of Shakespeare's words. They speak to the human condition across time and generations, reminding us of our vulnerability and the inevitable passage of time.

This is such a great play!!!

I find myself constantly drawn to Shakespeare's works, and King Lear is no exception. I'm having a hard time not comparing it to my love for Hamlet, because I feel many people favor one over the other. I think I'm part of the group who favors Hamlet, although I understand why many people would prefer King Lear.

The language in King Lear is, as always, outstanding. It is rich, poetic, and full of depth. The characters are so complex yet simple at the same time. They are human, with all their flaws and virtues, and this makes them truly relatable. I was expecting a bit more from this play, and I don't even know what exactly. Maybe the plot could have been more developed, or maybe the language could have been even more powerful. I'll have to think about it more.

I always like watching a stage or film performance of Shakespeare's plays, either before or after I read them. In this case, it will be after I've read Lear. I'm excited to see if my feelings change after viewing it in the way Shakespeare intended it...to be seen and not read. I think the more of his plays I read, the more critical of a Shakespeare reader I become. But my love for his work will never waiver, that's for certain. His plays are timeless, and they continue to inspire and move audiences around the world.

After reading the play, I came across an essay about King Lear in "This Is Shakespeare: How to Read the World’s Greatest Playwright" by Emma Smith.

It presented an interesting, albeit not entirely original, idea that each generation interprets the play in accordance with the sensibilities and issues of its own era. For instance, the Romantics, particularly the Germans, saw it as "a fall from the highest elevation into the deepest abyss of misery, where humanity is stripped of all external and internal advantages and given up a prey to naked helplessness" (Schlegel). Here, humanity is subjected to the sublime power of natural forces. In the 1980s, the play seemingly revolved around very materialistic concerns like "above all, power, property and inheritance" (Jonathan Dollimore). Was it perhaps the time when everyone in the UK, under Mrs Thatcher's guidance, aspired to buy their own little private house? The author provided more examples from different periods. And Shakespeare himself seems to concur through Edmund's quip in the play that "men / Are as the time is".

I wonder how this play would be reflected in our times. I don't have a definite answer. Of course, I can make many obvious guesses, but I'll refrain from doing so for now. If I were to summarize my reading in the context of our times, with a touch of irony, it would be Edgar's monologue: "Yes better thus, and know to be condemned, / Than still condemned and flattered. To be worst, / The low’s and most dejected thing of fortune, / Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear. / The lamentable change is from the best; / The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then, / Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace: / The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst / Owes nothing to thy blasts."

In general, I didn't find the play as pessimistic, cruel, and distraught as I had anticipated. My favorite character was Edgar (as is evident from the above). So, I was satisfied with the resolution. I felt sorry for the Earl of Gloucester, but not as much for King Lear. Also, I was surprised by how little role Cordellia played in all the proceedings. I had expected the old girl to be much more active in the play. As far as I'm concerned, all the "good" characters have survived and have nearly won the battle as all the "baddies" have destroyed each other (more or less).

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention, so I had to update this little review. I got a very clear impression from this play of how badly they thought of women: not just domestic misogyny, but almost philosophical and aesthetic misogyny. Lear said, "Down from the waist they are / centaurs, though women all above. / But to the girdle do the gods inherit; / beneath is all the fiends'. There’s hell, / there’s darkness, there’s the sulfurous / pit— burning, scalding, stench, consumption!" And the "goodish" Duke of Albany said to his "baddish" wife, "See thyself, devil! Proper / deformity shows not in the fiend so horrid as in woman".

That's a short summary of my impression. I know I won't make a career as a Shakespeare critic based on such brief impressions, but I have to live with this lost opportunity. I need to re-read "Hamlet". I recently dreamed that I was directing it (strange!). However, I personally prefer "Macbeth" to "King Lear". Maybe because I consider Lady Macbeth an extremely impressive female character; or maybe because the certain tragic nihilistic sentiment of that play is more palpable in our times; or maybe because the power struggle depicted there is more sophisticated and not based on kinship. Still, King Lear, Edgar, the Fool, and the Earl of Gloucester now live in my memory.

A few more fragments from "King Lear" that resonated with me: "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, other the surfeits of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars,and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on."

"In cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack’d ’twixt son and father… We have seen the best of our time."

"What the evil have known from their cradles, that in this world there is no poetic justice."

And the one fragment that deeply moved me: "We two alone will sing like birds in the cage. / when thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down / And ask of thee forgiveness: so we’ll live, / And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh / At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues / Talk of court news, and we ll talk with them too- / Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out- / And take upon s the mystery of things, / As if we were God’s spies; and we’ll wear out / In a walled prison packs and sects of great ones / That ebb and flow by the moon."

His greatest work, in my opinion, is truly one of the most remarkable masterpieces our species has ever created.

Its greatness is not simply confined to its beautiful language or its profound analysis of power. Instead, it lies in the extraordinary structure that it possesses and its complete defiance of the usual dramatic arcs.

Just imagine how shocking it must have been for a Jacobean audience to witness a divinely chosen king reduced to scrambling around in a hovel.

This work also delves deep into the heartbreaking irreversibility of mortality, the effects of age and loss, the stripping away of the self, the power of love, the horrors of torture and state-sponsored brutality, and the question of an unjust God, if indeed one exists.

It makes us remember and recognize those who are suffering and impoverished, those who lack the luck or the privileges that come with our birth.

However, it is astonishing that 2109 fellow Goodreaders gave it only 1 star. Many of them call it boring, and some even claim that it is predictable and offers no moral lesson.

The fact that these people have the right to vote and to procreate is truly a cause for concern for me.

I went to see Lear again last week. It must be the fifth time I have seen it performed and I’ve read it three or four times. It is a play that I can never become ‘familiar’ with. It is like no other play I know.

This time was the second time I have seen it performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company. This one was much better than the last. The performance brought out lots of the humour of the play. This is a play that is as dark as it can be, yet there is still humour, even if it's often as black as coal.

I was once told that the end of this play, with Lear holding Cordelia and saying that achingly human line, could be the perfect test of our humanity. If you're not moved by that scene, you may not deserve to be called human. Last week, there was a young woman beside me. It was clear she was enjoying the play as she laughed in the right places. But when the final scene came, she was deeply moved, nearly to tears. It was lovely to see someone moved in the same way I was when I first saw it nearly 30 years ago.

So much of this play is astounding. The drama at the start with Kent trying to protect Cordelia, Edmond's soliloquy about blaming wickedness on the stars, the sexual difficulties between Edmond and Lear's daughters, and Edgar becoming Poor Tom are all great. The Fool is remarkable too, the most bitter in all of Shakespeare, with an odd role.

This play is about family dysfunction and the dangers of a divided kingdom. It's about madness, not like Hamlet's, but the more confronting madness of an aging man losing his way. It's hard to say how 'great' Lear ever was. He's not a loveable old man, but a tyrant used to getting his own way.

If you have issues with your father, this play might be either too much or just what you need. The psychology is as deep as in Hamlet and often more confronting. It's hard to say who is right and wrong. The sub-play with Edmond and Gloucester has clearer morality. Gloucester is in some of the most memorable scenes, like when he tries to jump off the cliff and when his eyes are plucked out.

Bell did a great job. They used a bright light to make the audience feel like they were being blinded along with Gloucester. I love every scene, but the one where Kent fights Oswald is especially remarkable. It makes me think of that other brilliant line, "Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all."

This is a truly remarkable play, one of my favourites, but it's almost too painful in many scenes. Like Hamlet, it ends with almost everyone dead, but in a different way. The end is utter tragedy, with nothing left of Lear's world. There's a kind of redemption, but it's quickly snatched away. This play makes me ponder the human condition. And of course, there are the endlessly quotable lines.

Reading Shakespeare is extremely complex when it is translated correctly as in the case of Mohamed Anani's translations.

So you read on a whim and wonder if you understood everything that is said.

Also, Mohamed Anani translates King Lear into a structured and prose form as in the original text, and as we know, one of the most difficult and hardest tasks is to structure English poetry in Arabic.

I got angry with Lear at the beginning of the play when he disowned his daughter because she didn't flatter him like the others, and the story reminded me of another story I don't know where I read it about a daughter when her father asked her how much she loved him, she said she loved him like salt and salt is indispensable in food and that's what she meant.

And when his other daughters started treating him harshly and accusing him of madness, I got very angry with them. How after he gave you everything he had, you despise his worth and discard him like this.

The rebellion of nature to achieve justice for King Lear, who is wronged by his daughters.

So the husband of one of them dies and they both love the same person, so they plot to kill one of them, and one succeeds in killing her sister with poison and then commits suicide for the sake of the evil Edmund.

Edmund is also another story of baseness in this epic play. It is not enough for him to destroy his brother's reputation to take his place, but he also turns against his father and sides with those who blind his father.

You read and there is a strong desire within you that the earth will split open and swallow all these base people.

This is a Shakespearean tragedy of the first kind, but I am really hesitant to read more of his plays, although I need to do so along with the critical book I read about Shakespeare.

King Lear can be read in a plethora of ways.

It can be regarded as a theological drama, delving into profound questions of faith and the nature of the divine.

Alternatively, it can be seen as a philosophical work, exploring themes such as power, madness, and the human condition.

It is also considered a supreme example of Shakespeare's intuitive egalitarianism, challenging the social hierarchies of his time.

Some might even view it as a melodrama that is elevated to the status of tragedy solely by its superb poetry.

Undoubtedly, King Lear is the most titanic of Shakespeare's tragedies, with its complex characters, intense emotions, and profound themes that continue to resonate with audiences today.

It is a work that demands to be studied and analyzed from multiple perspectives, as each reading reveals new layers of meaning and depth.

Whether one approaches it from a theological, philosophical, or literary standpoint, King Lear is a masterpiece that will continue to be celebrated and revered for centuries to come.

Dear friends,

This play is undoubtedly a masterpiece of the living memory of "Shakespeare."

In my opinion, the most impactful part is when the male guard is whipping and flogging the Russian woman... According to "Great Shakespeare," when the male guard was whipping the Russian woman, he had a hard time needing to do the same thing with the Russian woman that he was flogging her for because of the rights of that thing... The guard had a strong need for sex with the Russian woman with all his being.

Dear ones, this part of the play is an indication of the fact that: always the individuals who are subject to that law have a suppressed desire to do the thing because of which the guilty person is given rights.

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I hope you enjoy reading this play.

"Be victorious and be Iranian."

«From the few works to which literature is still entitled to base its extravagant claim to be true», writes Dionysios Kapsalis in the preface of his excellent translation of Basil Lyras. Standing in awe before the greatest tragedy ever written by a human hand, I simply quote its end:

«Now we shall henceforth bear the burden
of our gloomy time, saying with courage
not what is necessary but what we feel is right.
The old have endured much. We, the young
shall neither see what the old have seen
nor shall we live as long.»

This powerful excerpt from the work seems to encapsulate the essence of a generation's struggle and the passage of time. It makes us reflect on how each era faces its own challenges and how the experiences of the past shape the future. The words of Dionysios Kapsalis and the lines from Basil Lyras combine to create a profound and thought-provoking piece that lingers in our minds long after we have read it.

Carl Kraus, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars in Germany, said:

There is nothing about Shakespeare that has not been said, and there is no subject that has not been researched. But if one day comes when we no longer have anything to say about Shakespeare, we must say that on that day our culture has come to an end. I begin this speech here with the hope that we still have something to say about Shakespeare and therefore our culture has not yet come to an end…

«Shakespeare is a living art, and his works, according to Guérin, are a blessing from God.»

Will Shakespeare ever be exhausted?!

Shakespeare's works have endured through the ages and continue to captivate audiences around the world. His plays explore universal themes such as love, hate, jealousy, and power, which are still relevant today. Each time we read or watch a Shakespeare play, we can discover something new and gain a deeper understanding of the human condition.

Moreover, Shakespeare's language is rich and beautiful, filled with vivid imagery and powerful metaphors. His use of words has influenced countless writers and poets throughout history. Even today, his phrases and expressions are still commonly used in everyday language.

In conclusion, Shakespeare is not only a great playwright but also a cultural icon. His works will continue to inspire and educate generations to come. As long as there are people who appreciate literature and the arts, Shakespeare will never be exhausted.

To call King Lear a tragedy somehow seems lacking.

It is not just a simple tragedy but rather a profound exploration of human nature and the consequences of hubris. I don't know where in literature (let alone in real life) you could find a greater succession of calamities.

The story of King Lear is filled with heart-wrenching moments as he loses his power, his family, and ultimately his sanity.

All of these events come to a bad end, leaving the audience in a state of shock and sadness.

It's generally regarded as one of Shakespeare's greatest works, right along with Hamlet and Macbeth.

The complex characters, the powerful language, and the tragic plot make it a timeless masterpiece that continues to resonate with audiences today.

4.5 stars.