Study Questions
1. Who accompanies Goneril on her way to see her husband, the Duke of Albany?

2. What news does Oswald bring to Cornwall and Regan?

3. Why does Cornwall advise Edmund to leave?

4. What happens to Gloucester after the servants bring him back?

5. Where does this scene take place?

6. Why does Gloucester say he took the King to Dover?

7. Who gouges out both of Gloucester’s eyes? Who encourages him?

8. Who draws his sword on Cornwall and wounds him?

9. Who kills the servant of Cornwall by stabbing him in the back?

10. Which characters appear to be the only good ones in this scene?

Answers
1. Goneril is accompanied by Edmund.

2. Oswald tells Cornwall and Regan that the King and 36 of his knights are on their way to Dover.

3. Cornwall says that it is not wise for Edmund to observe the revenge they will take upon his traitorous father.

4. Gloucester is bound to a chair and cross-examined.

5. Ironically, the scene takes place in Gloucester’s own castle.

6. Gloucester tells Regan he took the King to Dover so she would not pluck out his eyes with her nails.

7. The Duke of Cornwall, Regan’s husband, gouges out Gloucester’s eyes in his own castle. Regan encourages him.

8. Cornwall’s servant draws a sword in defense of Gloucester. He receives a fatal wound for it.

9. Regan stabs the servant in the back and kills him.

10. Besides Gloucester, the servants appear to be the only good characters in this scene. Full of compassion, they are unable to bear the cruel treatment of Gloucester.