74 pages 2 hours read

William Shakespeare, William James Rolfe

King Lear

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2004

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Acts IV-VChapter Summaries & Analyses

Act IV, Scene 1 Summary

Having resigned himself to his terrible circumstances, Edgar believes he’s hit such an absolute low that there’s nowhere to go but up. At that moment, he sees the blinded Gloucester led by an old man and concludes, “The worst is not/So long as we can say, ‘This is the worst’” (27-28).

Edgar presents himself as a guide to the miserable Gloucester, who wants to be led to the cliffs of Dover, where he can throw himself to his death. The old man leading Gloucester protests that Edgar is a madman; Gloucester, unperturbed, replies, “‘Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind” (48). Although Edgar can barely keep up his act, he agrees to guide his father to the cliffs.

Act IV, Scene 2 Summary

Goneril, Oswald, and Edmund discuss changes they’ve observed in Albany, who now seems to have qualms about his family’s behavior, particularly Goneril’s. Goneril is neither surprised nor upset. She wants to marry Edmund now, and Albany can die for all she cares. Goneril and Edmund part with a kiss, and she sighs, “O, the difference of man and man:/To thee a woman’s services are due;/My fool usurps my body” (26-28).

Related Titles

By these authors

Study Guide
Guide cover image

All's Well That Ends Well

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine

Teaching Guide + Study Guide
Guide cover image

A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare, Іван Франко, Barbara A. Mowat, Ivan Franko, Panteleimon Kulish, Cynthia Marshall, Ludwig Tieck, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Paul Werstine

Teaching Guide + Study Guide
Guide cover image

As You Like It

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Coriolanus

William Shakespeare, Roma Gill, William Aldis Wright, Francis Fergusson

Plot Summary
Guide cover placeholder

Cymbeline

William Shakespeare, Harold Bloom, Gabriele Baldini

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Hamlet

William Shakespeare, Israel Gollancz, Harold Bloom, Rex Gibson, Henry Norman Hudson, Max J. Herzberg, L.A. Sherman

Plot Summary
Guide cover placeholder

Henry IV, Part Two

William Shakespeare, David Scott Kastan, David Bevington

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Henry V

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Michael Neill, Paul Werstine

Plot Summary
Guide cover placeholder

Henry VIII

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine

Plot Summary
Guide cover placeholder

Henry VI, Part 1

William Shakespeare

Teaching Guide + Study Guide
Guide cover image

Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare, Roma Gill, Harold Bloom, William Allan Neilson

Study Guide
Guide cover image

King Henry IV, Part 1

William Shakespeare, David Scott Kastan

Plot Summary
Guide cover placeholder

King Henry VI, Part 3

William Shakespeare, John D. Cox, Eric Rasmussen

Plot Summary
Guide cover placeholder

King John

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Love's Labour's Lost

William Shakespeare, Henry R. Woudhuysen

Teaching Guide + Study Guide
Guide cover image

Macbeth

William Shakespeare, Jack Armstrong, Carmen Kahn

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Measure for Measure

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine

Teaching Guide + Study Guide
Guide cover image

Much Ado About Nothing

Gail Kern Paster, Robert Jackson, Barbara A. Mowat, Henry Norman Hudson, F.H. Mares, Henry Irving, Frederick S. Boas, Paul Werstine, William Shakespeare

Study Guide
Guide cover image

Othello

William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine