This sends Lear into a mad rage and he banishes Cordelia from the kingdom. Meanwhile Regan and Goneril are ecstatic knowing there is more kingdom now for them to rule over. As soon as the sisters gain power they begin to undermine Lear, eventually out casting him and sending him to wander the land amidst a powerful storm. Meanwhile a man named Gloucester, a nobleman loyal to king Lear is also facing family problems. His illegitimate son Edmund is trying to trick him into believing that his actual son Edgar is going to murder him. Edgar is forced to flee because his father now has ordered for his arrest. After Edgar flees, Gloucester learns of the betrayal by Regan and Goneril and he sets out to help Lear. However, Regan and her husband Cornwall, who is a violent and evil man, hear of Gloucester trying to help Lear so they arrest him, blind him, and set him to wander the countryside. He ends up running into his sun Edgar who ironically is running from him. Edgar does not tell his father who he truly is and keeps his disguise as "poor tom". He leads his father to Dover where Lear is. Cordelia is also in Dover leading an army of the French to save her father from her corrupted sisters. The English army led by Edmund ends up victorious and they capture Cordelia and Lear. In the end Edgar learns what his half brother Edmund ultimately tried to frame him for. He challenges him to a duel and wounds him bad enough to where Edmund dies. We also learn that Goneril poisons Regan out of jealousy over Edmund and then kills herself when her treachery is revealed to Albany, her husband. Edmunds betrayal then caused the Cordelia to be executed in prison. When Lear learns of Cornelia's passing he as well dies out of grief. The definition of a tragic hero in a play is a person of power with a major flaw that in the end will lead to his or her demise. Lear personifies a tragic hero in this play through the trusting of his daughters.
