King Lear Project

My English teacher decided to give us our last big project after our exam, but at least we had a choice on what we could do, as long as it had to do with the play King Lear. (but I also had to do a writeup with this) There is a biiig story behind this painting obviously and many things represent ideas and feelings in the play. For anyone who cares, I'll give you a bit of an idea of what's going on :

In the middle King Lear's mouth is being ripped by the "monsters" who represent his daughters. In the beginning of the play, Lear decides he wants to give away power and responsiblity to his daughters but still keep the title of King (of Britain). He will give power to who ever of the three gives a speech telling him how much they love him, a "love test". Regan and Goneril agree to do this but Lear's favourite daughter Cordelia tells him she cannot "put her heart into her mouth" and that how much she loves him is based on what she has done for him. This pisses Lear off and he disowns his most favoured daughter. He gives power to the other two daughters and they rule Albany and Cornwall and they take advantage of their power and rule over Lear. They cause him much stress, and play with his mind. They put his man in the stocks (and of course putting a King's man in the stocks is a huge insult), they reduced his knights to zero for when he visits the sisters (a pride-thing for the King) and they literally leave him out in the cold , lock up their doors and let him suffer.. at this point he has very little. This is why there is lightning (or what is supposed to be lightning) His "Fool" is always there for him, (he is seen at the bottom beside the favoured daughter Cordelia who rules with the King of France after she is disowned but feels awful for what her sisters are doing. Lear realizes his huge mistake but there's not a whole lot Cordelia and the Fool can do, this is why they look smaller, looking at the situation) Lear's mouth is never actually stretched like that of course, it just represents how his 2 *evil* daughters test his limits. They aren't afraid of showing everybody how powerful they are and what they want to do, so this is why they have snakes for hair (some with mouths open..they're supposed to look threatening, just as Lear's daughters are threatening to him)

On the left, the Earl of Glocester's eyes are being plucked out by the Duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband. Glocester has two sons, one biological (Edgar) and one not. (Edmund, who is seen holding the box with Edgar in it) Cornwall is seen with *snake hair* as well because he doesn't hide his *evilness* either, unlike Edmund who is witty and quietly plotting for his own benefit. He wrote a letter and said it was written by his brother Edgar---the contents included a plan to kill their father (to share his money with him since their father will be dead). Edmund shows their father this letter and then he plans to get people to look for him and kill him. (Edmund gains the trust of everyone, he went and told Edgar that their father was extremely mad at him for some reason, and acting concerned, told him to hide) Edgar can't get out of the country and decides the only way to survive in the country is to pretend he is a madman. He strips off his clothes and covers himself in dirt and calls himself Poor Tom. He is seen in a box because he is now trapped in this new lifestyle; he can no longer be Edgar. The person responsible for this happening is Edmund, so this is obviously why he's holding the box. His crown represents power---his power to manipulate, his "creative" powers, and his desire to gain power. He looks like a normal human being, nothing looks changed because he is so good at disguising his wrong-doings!
Edmund's father Glocester is loyal to Lear. When Cornwall and Regan kick him out of their place and leave him out in the cold, they plan to have him killed. Glocester is going against Cornwall and Regan's wishes by helping out Lear. Since Glocester trusts his son Edmund, he tells him that he's helping Lear go to Dover. Edmund tells Cornwall and Regan because he knows that his father will suffer and Edmund himself will become the Earl of Glocester. Glocester's eyes are plucked out because of this. This is the point when he realizes that he was wrong for trusting Edmund and thinking Edgar wanted to kill him. "He stumbled when he saw", and only realized the truth when he became literally blind.
The little man in the stocks is one of Lear's loyal men, Kent.
Well I'm sure many people didn't take the time to read all of that, but it's ok that's for who ever is interested if they are wondering what the hell the painting is about.