King Lear: Opening Scene

William Shakespeare - King Lear. Act I, Scene I.

The opening scene of William Shakespeare’s King Lear lays strong thematic foundations for the acts to follow. Its conversations play a great part in introducing the characters that will shape the events of the play, and establishing the setting and some of the central themes. Scene I also reveals the beginnings of the two plotlines of the play; the major plot of King Lear and his division of his kingdom between his daughters, and the subplot of Gloucester and Edmund, his bastard son. Throughout these developments the opening scene manages to convey an underlying sense of impending disaster amidst the setting.

King Lear begins in a manner ...