King Lear

Another Shakespeare play that I don't really get. King Lear divides his kingdom into three parts to give to his daughters. Cordelia, his youngest, doesn't profess her love for her father, so he banishes her and splits her third between her two older sisters.

Lots of drama ensues, with a subplot of a bastard son of an earl plotting to take the earldom from his father by getting his legitimate brother banished and then killing his father.

It was really confusing. In the end, we have half the character list dead. Almost all of those die in the last act alone. I think only one character dies outside Act V. But I get why he's called Mad King Lear. He really does go insane after the first act. He talks to himself and says things that make absolutely no sense.