Lear (Characters)

Characters

Ben

Ben is an orderly in the prison who is kind to Lear. When Ben, pursued by soldiers, later appears at the Gravedigger’s Boy’s house, Lear takes him in despite the danger in doing so.

Bishop

The Bishop appears briefly in the first act, blessing Lear’s army. He tells Lear that God will support him, not the women who act against him.

Bodice

Bodice is Lear’s daughter and Fontanelle’s sister. In the first scene, she objects to her father’s cruelty in killing one of his workmen, but when she marries the Duke of North and leads a successful rebellion against her father, she becomes more cruel than he was, even coolly planning her own husband’s murder. Although in many ways she is quite similar to her sister, Bodice is the more cold and calculating of the two. While Warrington is being tortured, Bodice calmly knits, and her concentration on her knitting throughout this horrid scene is so extreme that it becomes darkly comic. As the play progresses, Bodice’s desire for power grows, and she imprisons her husband and speaks of eventually killing her sister. She is, however, the more introspective of the two sisters, and in a monologue speaks of her own feeling that all of her power traps her and makes her its slave. When Bodice is finally imprisoned, she is as calculating as ever. She is killed by Cordelia’s soldiers while in prison, and it is clear that she has learned nothing.

Carpenter

The Carpenter is first seen at the home of the Gravedigger’s Boy and his wife, Cordelia. The Gravedigger’s Boy says that the Carpenter comes to their home often because of his love for Cordelia. Shortly after soldiers kill the Gravedigger’s Boy and rape Cordelia, the Carpenter comes on stage and kills the soldiers. He and Cordelia marry. Although his killing of the soldiers seems to be a noble act, when Cordelia gains power, he becomes a part of her corrupt government.

Cordelia

The audience first sees Cordelia, the Gravedigger’s Boy’s Wife, at home with her husband when Lear comes seeking shelter. She is not as compassionate as the Gravedigger’s Boy and wants Lear to leave. After her husband is killed by the soldiers who cruelly rape her, Cordelia marries the Carpenter and leads a rebellion against Bodice and Fontanelle. Her rebellion is successful, but once in power, she is every bit as cruel as those she fought against. It is Cordelia who leaves her own wounded soldier to die alone, who orders the executions of Bodice and Fontanelle, and the blinding of Lear. She allows Lear to live but tries to stop his public speaking. It is one of her soldiers who finally kills Lear.

Duke of Cornwall

The Duke of Cornwall begins as an enemy of Lear’s kingdom, but Fontanelle says that by marrying him, she can bring peace between him and her father. Instead, he becomes a part of Fontanelle and Bodice’s revolution against Lear. Fontanelle quickly tires of him and attempts to have him killed. He survives, but Fontanelle later has him imprisoned. As a character, he is virtually interchangeable with the Duke of North.

Duke of North

Initially an enemy of Lear’s kingdom, the Duke of North marries Bodice, supposedly in order to bring peace, but then supports Bodice and Fontanelle’s revolution. Bodice, however, soon grows tired of him and tries to have him killed. Although that attempt fails, she eventually succeeds in having him imprisoned. There is little difference between the Duke of North and the Duke of Cornwall, Fontanelle’s husband.

Farmer

The Farmer appears by Lear’s wall with his wife and son shortly after Lear is released, blinded, from prison. When Lear asks to rest in his home, the Farmer explains that he has lost everything due to the madness of the king and his obsession with building the wall. Lear begins to see the real effects of what he has done and to feel compassion for the people of the kingdom.

Farmer’s Son

The Farmer’s Son appears with his mother and father at Lear’s wall. At the time Lear meets him, he is being conscripted into Cordelia’s army. Lear begs him not to go, but to run away instead. In the final scene, it is the Farmer’s Son, now a soldier, who shoots and kills Lear.

Farmer’s Wife

The Farmer’s Wife appears at Lear’s wall with her husband and son. She is resigned to the dark fate of her family.

Firing Squad Officer

The Firing Squad Officer commands the firing squad that is supposed to shoot one of Lear’s workers at his command. When they are not quick enough, Lear shoots the man himself.

Fontanelle

Fontanelle is Lear’s daughter and Bodice’s sister. In the first scene, her objection to her father’s killing of a workman makes her seem compassionate, but when she and Bodice lead the rebellion against Lear, it becomes clear that she is immensely cruel. Fontanelle plans the murder of her husband, an effort which fails, but is shown at her cruelest during the torture of Warrington, when she becomes so excited about Warrington’s suffering that the result is a sort of black humor. Her extreme pleasure in the torture contrasts with Bodice’s calm state. Although Fontanelle and Bodice are supposedly working together, they are not loyal to one another; Fontanelle has her own spies. Fontanelle is finally imprisoned by Cordelia and executed. Afterwards, she is autopsied onstage and Lear is moved by the beauty of the inside of her body. In viewing Fontanelle’s autopsy, Lear becomes aware of his responsibility in the formation of his children’s characters. Although she learns nothing herself, in death Fontanelle contributes to Lear’s clearer understanding of his own cruelty.

Ghost

See Gravedigger’s Boy

Gravedigger’s Boy

The Gravedigger’s Boy plays a strong part in teaching Lear about compassion. When he first meets Lear, the Gravedigger’s Boy is living in a pastoral setting with his pregnant wife, Cordelia. The simplicity of his life and his kindness bring about the beginning of Lear’s change. After the Gravedigger’s Boy is murdered by soldiers, he later appears to Lear in his prison cell, now as a Ghost. As the Ghost, he continues to teach Lear as he tries to help him, but the Ghost himself is in a state of continuing deterioration. He is slowly dying and is afraid. Lear, calling the Ghost his boy, becomes his protector, but is unable to save the Ghost from his decline. Meanwhile, the Ghost continues in his protective attitude toward Lear. The two learn to help and teach each other and to show one another true kindness and compassion. Finally, however, the Ghost is mauled to death by maddened pigs, and Lear feels the pain of his second death.

Gravedigger’s Boy’s Wife

See Cordelia

John

John lives with Thomas, Susan, and Lear at the Gravedigger’s Boy’s house. He is more critical of Lear and eventually leaves for the city, asking Susan to leave Thomas and come with him. She stays with Thomas and Lear.

Judge

The Judge, who is clearly under the control of Bodice and Fontanelle, presides at Lear’s trial and concludes that Lear is mad.

Lear

Lear is the play’s title character. The action revolves largely around his growth as an individual. When he first appears on stage, it is as a cruel king bent on building a wall around his kingdom, supposedly to protect his people. His actions, however, soon show his indifference to their lives, as he kills a workman who has accidentally killed another and thus delayed the completion of the wall. When Lear is deposed by his daughters, Bodice and Fontanelle, he begins to suffer and to change through that suffering. When the rebellion first begins, Lear denies that he even has daughters, but he eventually takes responsibility for his part in building their characters. His relationship with the Gravedigger’s Boy, and subsequently with the Gravedigger’s Boy’s Ghost, also changes him as he begins to see the possibility of true kindness. Much of Lear’s change, in fact, comes because of his relationships with other people. As he sees the world through their eyes, he develops compassion and is finally willing to give his own life because of the good it might do others. His final act, an attempt to dig up his own wall, shows the extent of his transformation. It is this transformation that is the center of the play.

Officer

The Officer comes to the Gravedigger’s Boy’s house while Lear is living there with Thomas, Susan, and John. He accuses Lear of harboring deserters and takes the Small Man away to be executed.

Old Councilor

The Old Councilor is loyal to whatever regime is in power. He begins as a minister of Lear’s, supports Bodice and Fontanelle when they are in power, and eventually works for Cordelia.

Prisoners

Four Prisoners appear with Lear in a prison convoy. One of them is also the Prison Doctor who performs the autopsy on Fontanelle and later blinds Lear.

Small Man

The Small Man is a deserter pursued by soldiers. He asks Lear, Thomas, Susan, and John to hide him. Lear tries to protect him, but he is eventually found by the soldiers and taken away to be executed.

Soldiers

Fourteen soldiers have speaking parts in the play, and others appear on stage. These soldiers are a frequent presence throughout the play and are usually seen in the act of killing or torturing people. They are in the service of the various corrupt regimes.

Susan

Susan is Thomas’s wife and lives at the Gravedigger’s Boy’s house with Thomas, John, and Lear. Like Thomas, she is concerned that Lear’s compassion for others will endanger the household, but it is she who leads Lear to his wall so that he can commit his defiant final act.

Thomas

Thomas, his wife Susan, and John live with Lear at the Gravedigger’s Boy’s house after Lear has been blinded and released from prison. Thomas is compassionate, but unlike Lear, he is reluctant to endanger the household by helping those pursued by Cordelia’s army. He is also concerned that Lear’s public speaking will bring trouble. Yet he says he wants to fight for the good of the people. Susan and John want him to leave Lear, but he refuses.

Warrington

Warrington is loyal to Lear. He is captured and brutally tortured under the direction of Lear’s daughters when they first rebel against their father. The daughters decide not to kill Warrington and for a time he lives in the woods and is referred to as “the wild man” by the Gravedigger’s Boy and his wife. He drowns in their well.

Wild Man

See Warrington

Workmen

The three workmen appear in the first scene, where they are seen building Lear’s wall. Their only value to Lear is in their ability to work on the wall. When one is accidentally killed, Lear’s only concern is for the resulting delay in building the wall.

Wounded Rebel Soldier

The Wounded Rebel Soldier was injured fighting in Cordelia’s army. She, the Carpenter, and the other rebel soldiers abandon him to die alone.