About a week’s lessons to teach King Lear. The reading guide Qs in the margins of the play prompt the student to carefully understand the language as well as to analyze the affect of diction and details on characterization. The Qs apply terms such as soliloquy, aside, metaphor, characterization, inversion, rhyme, and tone,. Please note that the Qs are written to guide the students to see Lear as one who is aging and suffering from dementia or a mental instability rather than terming Lear as mad