King Lear
William Shakespeare · 1564–1616 · England
Why it matters
An old king divides his kingdom by demanding declarations of love, banishes the one daughter who won't flatter, and is stripped of everything on a storm-lashed heath. Shakespeare's bleakest tragedy: family, power, and sanity dismantled together.
At a glance
tragedydrama
Difficulty 7/10medium pace140 pagesKnotted late-Shakespeare syntax, a double plot, and madness rendered as fractured language.
Deep dive
Why the play refuses every chance to correct its opening injustice, and what that refusal says about the moral universe it takes place in.
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