Lear's dilemma - future of Britain & Cordelia
Tripartition of Britain - Lear's grand plan
Kent & Gloster - Lear's attitude to Cornwall
Act 1 Scene 1 - Enter KING LEAR
The flattery game - Goneril & Regan
Sharing the kingdom - a third more opulent
Lear and flattery - did he love it or hate it?
Duke of Burgundy - the dowerless suitor
King of France - in choler parted
Edmund - sectary astronomical
Duke of Albany - worthy prince
Queen Goneril - King Lear's successor?
Oswald - this detested groom
Goneril - under the influence
Regan - is she worse than Goneril?
Goneril/Edmund/Regan - unequilateral triangle
Division 'twixt Albany and Cornwall - rumour
Lear's sanity - recovery
The final tableau - Lear endures his going hence
The last word - Albany or Edgar?
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Lear's Dilemma — future of Britain & Cordelia
Can future strife be prevented now?
Lear's foreign policy problem
Britain is a strong country but the one danger that confronts Lear and
has always confronted him, is an alliance between the other two major
powers, France and Burgundy. There is always the danger that any two
will form an alliance to attack the third and this is the reason that
both France and Burgundy seek an alliance with Britain. If there were
only two major powers, that is, two 'super-powers', of approximately
equal strength, they might argue, or even have a cold-war, but an
armed conflict would not be in the best interest of either as they
would have too much to lose. It is this 'two-camp' strategic
situation that Lear envisages and tries to bring into being by
resolving the various power-play scenarios. How can Lear solve this
problem?
Lear's domestic policy problem
A pressing problem is that Cordelia must have a dowry. Lear realises
that he cannot live forever and at some stage Britain must pass to
his successor. If he does nothing, the succession will pass to his
first born daughter, Goneril. Apart from not wanting Goneril to have
the lot, he is wise enough to see that on his sudden death there very
likely would be a power struggle between his daughters. He wishes
that future strife may be prevented now. How can Lear solve this
problem?
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