King Lear - Characters

Characters

  • Lear, King of Britain
  • Goneril (sometimes written Gonerill or Gonoril), eldest daughter of Lear
  • Regan, second daughter of Lear
  • Cordelia, youngest daughter of Lear
  • Duke of Albany, husband to Goneril
  • Duke of Cornwall, husband to Regan
  • Earl of Gloucester (sometimes written as Gloster)
  • Earl of Kent, often appearing under the guise of Caius
  • Edgar, son of Gloucester
  • Edmund (sometimes written Edmond), illegitimate son of Gloucester
  • Oswald, steward to Goneril
  • Fool, Lear's fool or court jester (definitely not his nephew, his calling Lear nuncle is in jest)
  • King of France, suitor and later husband to Cordelia
  • Duke of Burgundy, suitor to Cordelia
  • Curan, a courtier
  • Old man, tenant of Gloucester
  • A Doctor, an Officer employed by Edmund, a Gentleman attending on Cordelia, a Herald, Servants to Cornwall, Knights of Lear's Train, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants

Read more about this topic:  King Lear

Famous quotes containing the word characters:

    “Though they be mad and dead as nails,
    Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
    Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
    And death shall have no dominion.”
    —Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    “To marry a man out of pity is folly; and, if you think you are going to influence the kind of fellow who has “never had a chance, poor devil,” you are profoundly mistaken. One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone.”
    —Margot Asquith (1864–1945)

    “Philosophy is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—
    which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
    —Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)