King Lear announces he will divide his kingdom among his daughters but first demands each declare how much she loves him.

After Goneril and Regan flatter Lear extravagantly, Cordelia refuses to play along and Lear disowns her, stripping her of her dowry.

Kent protests Cordelia's disownment and Lear banishes him from the kingdom for his defiance.

The King of France agrees to marry the dowry-less Cordelia, recognizing her true worth.

Goneril demands Lear dismiss most of his rowdy knights, and Lear furiously curses her before departing for Regan's home.

Regan and Cornwall put the disguised Kent in the stocks outside Gloucester's castle, insulting Lear's authority.

Lear flees into a violent storm after Goneril and Regan together refuse to house him with any knights.

On the stormy heath, Lear encounters the disguised Edgar raving as the mad beggar Poor Tom.

Edmund betrays his father Gloucester to Cornwall and Regan, revealing that Gloucester plans to rescue Lear.

Cornwall gouges out both of Gloucester's eyes in revenge for his loyalty to Lear.

Kent leads the maddened Lear to safety within Cordelia's French encampment near Dover.

Lear wakes from healing sleep in Cordelia's care, humbles himself, and begs her forgiveness.

The English forces defeat Cordelia's French army and take Lear and Cordelia prisoner.

Edgar defeats Edmund in single combat and reveals his true identity to his dying brother.

Lear enters carrying Cordelia's hanged body, howling with grief, and dies of a broken heart.

Lear's catastrophic decision to divide his kingdom while demanding declarations of love from his daughters sets the tragic wheels in motion. His disownment of Cordelia and banishment of Kent leaves him vulnerable to the cruelty of Goneril and Regan, who strip him of power and drive him into madness during a great storm. Lear's sanity shatters on the heath, where his ally Gloucester is brutally blinded for remaining loyal to the old king. After a tender reunion with Cordelia and her French forces, Lear's hope is short-lived when the English army defeats the French and takes father and daughter prisoner. Edmund's treachery leads to Cordelia's execution, and Lear dies of grief over her body. Only Albany and Edgar survive to rebuild the shattered kingdom.

The rise and fall of King Lear's tragic reign.

Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son Edmund to Kent, making crude jokes about the circumstances of Edmund's birth.

Edmund shows Gloucester a forged letter in which Edgar supposedly plots to kill their father.

Edmund warns Edgar that Gloucester is furious with him and tricks him into fleeing into the night.

The Fool mocks Lear for surrendering his power and warns him that Regan will be no better than Goneril.

Kent disguises himself as the rough servant Caius and successfully re-enters Lear's service to protect him.

Goneril instructs her servants to be rude and neglectful toward Lear and his retinue of knights.

Kent insults Oswald colorfully outside Gloucester's castle, draws his sword, and is overpowered and arrested.

Gloucester confides in Edmund about a secret letter describing the French invasion and his plan to rescue Lear.

Cornwall promotes Edmund to Earl of Gloucester as reward for betraying his father's secrets.

A horrified servant intervenes in Gloucester's blinding and mortally wounds Cornwall before being killed.

A messenger brings Albany news that Cornwall is dead and Gloucester has been blinded.

The blinded Gloucester, cast out onto the heath, is found and taken in by the disguised Edgar.

Edgar kills Oswald and discovers on his body Goneril's letter urging Edmund to murder Albany.

Regan collapses with sudden sickness and is carried off; Goneril privately admits she poisoned her sister.

Kent declines Albany's request to help rule the broken kingdom, implying he will follow Lear into death.

While Lear's world unravels at court, a parallel web of treachery unfolds within Gloucester's family, driven entirely by Edmund's ruthless ambition. Edmund manipulates both his father and his brother Edgar with forged letters and false alarms, forcing Edgar to flee and positioning himself to inherit the earldom. As Lear's daughters scheme to neutralize their father, the loyal Kent disguises himself to remain by Lear's side while the Fool tries in vain to warn his master of the dangers ahead. Edmund's final betrayal delivers Gloucester into Cornwall and Regan's hands, and a brief act of heroism by one horrified servant costs Cornwall his life. The catastrophe ripples outward as Goneril poisons Regan to secure Edmund for herself, only for both sisters to be destroyed by their obsession. Kent, the last loyal survivor, implies he has no reason to outlive the king he served.

The schemes and betrayals that tear two families apart.

Edmund delivers a soliloquy declaring loyalty to Nature over the social customs that deny him rank and inheritance.

Goneril and Regan privately agree that their father has grown senile and must be managed carefully.

Edgar resolves to disguise himself as the naked, raving beggar Poor Tom to escape his father's men.

Lear confesses his fear of losing his mind to the Fool before setting out for Regan's castle.

Lear strips off his own clothing in imitation of Poor Tom, finding sudden empathy for suffering poor people.

Gloucester arrives at the hovel on the heath and urgently warns the group they must flee for Dover.

The Fool, having followed Lear into the storm, vanishes silently and permanently from the rest of the play.

Albany confronts Goneril and accuses her of devilish cruelty toward Lear, calling her a fiend.

As Gloucester cries out for Edmund, Regan reveals that Edmund is the one who betrayed him.

Edgar leads the blinded Gloucester to flat ground and fabricates a vivid imaginary cliff of Dover.

The mad Lear encounters the blinded Gloucester wandering the heath and sits down to console him.

Edgar reveals his true identity to Gloucester, whose heart bursts between grief and joy and he dies.

Edmund privately vows to show no mercy to Lear or Cordelia if the English forces prevail in battle.

The mortally wounded Edmund undergoes a change of heart and confesses he ordered Lear and Cordelia hanged.

Edgar closes the broken kingdom with a solemn speech urging survivors to speak what they feel, not what they should.

From Edmund's opening declaration of war against polite society to Edgar's closing call for honesty, King Lear is shaped by a series of devastating reversals and hard-won truths. Lear privately fears madness before it takes him, and his encounter with Poor Tom on the heath strips away his remaining pretensions and teaches him empathy for human suffering for the first time. Gloucester's blinding becomes the moment his eyes are finally opened, when Regan cruelly reveals Edmund's betrayal just as his sight is destroyed. Edgar uses fiction and disguise as tools of mercy, fabricating an imaginary cliff to rescue his father before ultimately revealing himself at the cost of Gloucester's life. Even the villainous Edmund finds a late conscience, though his change of heart comes too late to save Cordelia. Edgar's final words insist that the only way to honor the dead is to speak the truth.