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

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Famous quotes containing the word characters:

    “What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That’s what their substance is.”
    —Jonathan Miller (b. 1936)

    “For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.”
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