Shakespeare’s King Lear is one of his darkest and most powerful tragedies.
The play begins with an aging king who decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, based on how much they say they love him. Goneril and Regan flatter him with lies, while the youngest, Cordelia, refuses to exaggerate. Enraged, Lear disowns her — a mistake that leads to betrayal, madness, and war.
As Lear wanders the storm, stripped of power and sanity, he begins to see the truth about himself, his family, and the cruelty of the world. Meanwhile, another story unfolds: Gloucester, betrayed by his illegitimate son Edmund, suffers his own tragic fall.
King Lear is about pride, blindness, and the search for meaning in a world of suffering. With its storms, betrayals, and moments of heartbreaking tenderness, it remains one of Shakespeare’s greatest explorations of power, family, and the human condition.