Have you ever tried to get into a Shakespeare play, only to get overwhelmed by the long list of characters with strange names?
King Lear is one of those plays. It contains many different characters which can be easily confused.
Furthermore, these characters might seem like they have nothing to do with us. What could we possibly learn from ancient British royalty?
Shakespeare’s characters can often seem bizarre at first. But if you take a second look, you’ll find them shockingly relatable.
That’s because they’re dealing with eternal problems - the same ones that we face in our own lives.
When it comes to King Lear characters, you might think that you have nothing in common with a fractured royal family. But what about:
- An elderly parent who’s losing his mental faculties?
- A misunderstood daughter who makes a failed attempt to speak for herself?
- A ridiculed son who lashes out at his family?
These people are more than characters in a classic play. They’re universal figures who show up at every time and situation in history — even in our own lives.
Who are the main characters in King Lear, and which one speaks to you the most? Keep reading to find out.
If you get confused, refer back to this summary and analysis of King Lear!
King Lear
King Lear is the main character of the play. He is an aging king who wants to retire from his royal duties, and plans to hand on his power to his three daughters.
As the protagonist, King Lear’s fatal flaw drives the plot and causes tragic events to happen.
What Is King Lear’s Fatal Flaw?
King Lear’s fatal flaw is blindness.
As king, Lear is used to being flattered by everyone around him. Everyone else sucks up to King Lear to stay on his good side, so he’s used to hearing only what he wants to.
As a result, Lear doesn’t see the true character of anyone around him. He’s shocked when his trusted family members betray him.
However, Lear isn’t just a victim in this play.
Lear does have a chance to see others clearly, but he refuses to take it.
On the rare occasions when people challenge him — like when Cordelia and Kent stand up to him in the first act — he’s too proud to admit that he might be wrong.
In other words, King Lear is wilfully blind to what’s happening right under his nose, including the treachery of his two oldest daughters. He could have saved himself from the consequences of his blindness, but chose not to.
King Lear’s pride and blindness lead to his downfall, and the deaths of almost everyone he cares about.
How Does King Lear Develop as a Character?
Over the course of the play, King Lear learns that he has been wilfully blind. He realizes that he should have listened to the few people who were willing to tell him the truth.
Lear also learns that power doesn’t satisfy him. By the last act, he’s so humble that he is willing to spend life in prison if it means he can have what he truly wants: time with Cordelia.
However, like other Shakespearean tragedies, Lear learns his lesson too late.
Cordelia
Cordelia is King Lear’s youngest and favorite daughter.
She is the only one of King Lear’s three daughters who truly loves him. However, she refuses to give him the extravagant flatter that her older sisters do.
Why Did King Lear Disown Cordelia?
King Lear disowns Cordelia because she won’t flatter him as he expects.
Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his daughters, giving the largest portion to those who claim to love him the most.
Cordelia’s older sisters make dramatic professions of love. In contrast, Cordelia simply states that she loves him as much as a daughter should love her father.
This hurts Lear’s feelings so much that he flies into a rage, disowning her.
How Does Cordelia Suffer in King Lear?
King Lear unjustly punishes Cordelia for telling the truth. He disowns her and strips her of her dowry, leaving her penniless.
He also humiliates her in front of her two suitors, the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France. Ultimately, Cordelia dies because of Lear’s actions.
Why Is Cordelia Hanged?
Once married to the King of France, Cordelia tries to help King Lear. She launches an attack to take Britain back from her sisters and Edmund.
During that battle, Edmund captures her and orders her to be executed for treason.
Goneril
Goneril is King Lear’s eldest daughter. Power-hungry and dishonest, she betrays her father and tries to seize his power.
How Does Goneril Betray King Lear?
In the first scene, Goneril makes an over-the-top speech about her love for King Lear. Once he has given her the power she wants, she throws him out of her house and plots to kill him.
How Is Goneril Evil?
Goneril is vengeful and resentful. At first, it seems like she betrays her father because she wants power.
However, we slowly realize that she doesn’t want power as much as she wants to lash out at those who have hurt her.
King Lear favors Cordelia and treats his older daughters dismissively, leaving Goneril resentful and hungry for revenge.
By the end of the play, Goneril poisons Regan, her sister and ally, out of spite. Even though it destroys their chance of victory, she would rather lash out at Regan than win the war against Lear and Cordelia.
Regan
Regan is King Lear’s second daughter. Like Goneril, she flatters King Lear to his face, only to join her sister in plotting against him.
Who Is More Evil: Goneril or Regan?
At first, Regan appears less evil than Goneril. She follows Goneril’s lead in plotting against Lear, but doesn’t instigate as much violence.
Eventually, though, Regan reveals that she is just as cruel as her older sister. She encourages her husband to rip out Gloucester’s eyes, then betrays him by having an affair with Edmund.
Why Did Goneril Poison Regan?
Goneril and Regan both get romantically involved with their political ally Edmund. When Goneril realized that Edmund was also involved with her sister, she poisoned Regan and killed herself.
Duke of Albany
Married to Goneril, the Duke of Albany initially goes along with his wife’s play for power.
However, as the story unfolds, he resists her cruelty and tries to help King Lear.
At the end of the play, Albany is the only person left to inherit the throne. He receives the crown by default.
He shows that he will be a fair ruler by restoring power to Edgar and Kent, two loyal noblemen.
Duke of Cornwall
Married to Regan, the Duke of Cornwall is one of the play’s most vicious characters. He shows no remorse for his cruelty, even tearing out Gloucester’s eyes to punish him for supporting Lear.
Right after the blinding of Gloucester, however, one of Cornwall's servants objects and challenges him to a duel.
Though Cornwall kills the servant, he doesn't make it out unscathed. His injury proves mortal, and Cornwall later succumbs to his wounds.
The Fool
The Fool is King Lear’s court jester. One of the few loyal characters in the play, the Fool even accompanies Lear in his homeless wanderings on the moor.
What Is the Significance of the Fool in King Lear?
The Fool is the only person whom Lear allows to criticize him openly.
The Fool mocks Lear for handing his power over to his daughters. When Lear begins to lose his power, the Fool points out that he is a shadow of the man he used to be.
In doing so, the Fool fulfills the traditional role of the court jester. He speaks the truth that no one wants to hear, disguising it as comedy.
Earl of Gloucester
A nobleman in King Lear’s court, Gloucester is an elderly, gullible man. He mirrors King Lear’s blindness to the true nature of his children.
What Happens to Gloucester in King Lear?
Gloucester falls for his bastard son Edmund’s false accusations about his legitimate son Edgar.
Though Gloucester tries to stay loyal to King Lear, he continues to trust the traitorous Edmund. Edmund eventually betrays his father to his enemies, which leads to Gloucester being physically blinded.
Later, blind Gloucester meets his son Edgar, who is in disguise. Edgar helps lead Gloucester as the two wander the moors.
Gloucester tries to commit suicide by having Edgar lead him to the top of a cliff, but Edgar saves him. After finally being reconciled to Edgar, Gloucester dies of a heart attack.
Edgar (Poor Tom)
Edgar is Gloucester’s legitimate son. When Edmund accuses him of trying to kill his father, Edgar has to disguise himself as a beggar named Poor Tom.
He feigns madness, using his beggarly disguise to avoid detection by his enemies. Along the way, he spends time with both King Lear and his father Gloucester in his "Poor Tom" diguise.
At the end of the play, Edgar is rewarded for his loyalty and becomes the new Earl of Gloucester.
Edmund
Gloucester’s younger, illegitimate son, Edmund resents his father for favoring Edgar.
Edmund wants to get back at his father and older brother. When King Lear abdicates the throne, Edmund sees an opportunity to create political instability.
He sides with Goneril and Regan against Lear, Cordelia, and his own father. He even has affairs with both Goneril and Regan at the same time.
While Edmund seems to lack a conscience for most of the play. However, as he’s dying, he tries to cancel the order to execute Cordelia.
The order comes too late to save Cordelia, but Edmund’s attempt to redeem himself lead some to believe that he does still a conscience by the end.
Earl of Kent (Caius)
Kent is a nobleman who is loyal to the King.
When Lear disowns Cordelia, Kent speaks up to defend her. In response, Lear banishes Kent.
Even then, Kent remains loyal to King Lear. He disguises himself as a commoner named Caius and tricks the King into hiring him as a servant. He does all of this out of love and loyalty to Lear.
At the end of the play, Kent is restored to his nobility. However, rather than taking his place as one of the new rulers in Britian, he chooses to commit suicide.
Oswald
Oswald is Goneril’s steward. He supports her plan to betray her father and seize power, carrying messages between the two evil sisters.
Why Does Kent Hate Oswald?
Kent, the loyal nobleman, hates Oswald for his disloyalty to the King.
When Kent intercepts Oswald carrying treasonous messages, he insults him as:
A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue.
One of the main insults Kent makes here (he makes several!) is that Oswald loves expensive things so much that he’s willing to betray his King for money. In contrast, Kent is willing to lose everything to help King Lear.
King of France
The King of France is one of Cordelia’s suitors. Even though King Lear refuses to give Cordelia a dowry, the King of France marries her anyway.
Why Does the King of France Want to Marry Cordelia?
The King of France wants to marry Cordelia because of her virtue.
Even though she doesn’t have a dowry, he values Cordelia’s honesty and loyalty to her father and recognizes what Lear doesn’t: that her virtues are a treasure worth more than money.
Duke of Burgundy
The Duke of Burgundy is one of Cordelia’s suitors at the beginning of the play. When Cordelia refuses to flatter her father and loses her dowry, the Duke of Burgundy rejects Cordelia.
Servants to Cornwall
Cornwall’s household staff. The most significant appearance of Cornwall’s servants happens while Cornwall blinds Gloucester by removing his eyes.
The First Servant, probably a senior servant of the house, steps forward to stop the blinding.
A fight breaks out between the Servant and Cornwall. Regan grabs a sword and stabs the Servant, killing him.
Discover Yourself in King Lear Characters
The best thing about Shakespeare plays is also the worst.
No matter how far-fetched the plot sounds, you’ll always discover a character who resonates with you — often in uncomfortable ways.
Whether you’re a jealous sibling, a parent who wants to think the best of your kids, or a person of power who likes to rest on your laurels, King Lear’s characters offer some stern warnings.
Shakespeare’s plays are rich with multilayered, complex characters. Most of all, they always leave us with new — and often unsettling — self-insight.
That’s one of the many ways that reading Shakespeare can change your life.
If you want to learn more about how you can discover yourself in Shakespeare’s plays, check out my free ebook.
When you click the link above, you’ll get your downloadable copy of The Bard and the Bees: What Shakespeare taught me about sex, evil, and life in the modern world.
Until next time,
Evan