Writing an essay about a play such as King Lear may not be the most appealing assignment for most students. However, writing this paper doesn’t have to take up hours of research. It simply takes asking the right questions and providing the correct answers to provide you with what you need to write the best paper possible. Within this article, we will go over several questions to help you identify what you want the focus of your paper to be and how to expand upon your chosen question(s).

Understanding The Play

As you tackle your essay, you’ll need to keep a few things in mind. As you are writing in regards to a play, keeping in mind the theatrical context of the work itself, as well as the historical context this work is placed in will prove crucial to your success.

It’s also important to understand that there are several major themes and motifs going on within this play. You can turn to these to help give your paper an overall theme and help you to select the best questions that fit within this theme. These themes and motifs are:

• Reconciliation

• Justice

• Madness

• Authority vs Chaos

• Blindness

Here are some questions to help you choose the best topic for your paper. If you are having trouble finding the right theme and topic for your project, or you need help with the content itself, be sure to use this company’s services as they can provide great assistance.

1. What symbolic value does the storm in Act 3 possess?

2. What are the roles of both madness and blindness within the play?

3. What is the role of female characters in King Lear?

4. How does Lear fit within the image of a typical tragic hero?

5. Why are certain words repeated throughout the play, such as “bond", “natural", and “nothing"? What is their meaning within the overall play?

6. How is the Fool significant throughout the play?

7. Why are the deaths of Cordelia and Lear ironic?

8. What are the different stages of madness that Lear presents throughout the play?

9. How are the characters of Lear and Gloucester presented initially in the play, and how do they change as the play goes on?

10. How are the three villains presented within the play-Goneril, Edmund, and Regan-similar or different from one another?

11. What is each of the villain’s roles within the play?

12. Why does order within Britain break down over the course of the play?

13. Why did Lear exile his daughter Cordelia? What long-term effects does this decision bring about?

14. What is the relationship between Lear and his three daughters like? How does this play a role in the king’s eventual madness?

15. What was Kent’s role within the play?