Shakespeare: King Lear and The Tempest
Choose a starting date
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 06 Nov 2025End Date: 11 Dec 2025Thu (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 6 sessions (over -6 weeks)Course Code: HLT290Tutors: Sophie OxenhamFull fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
We’ll consider points of connection and divergence between Shakespeare’s King Lear (1605-6) and The Tempest (1610-11). Both plays concern fathers and daughters, and raise wider questions about family and power, freedom and governance, nature and nurture. What difference does it make when these concerns are seen through the lens of tragedy (King Lear) or through what has come to be known as ‘romance’ (The Tempest)?
Content guidance: The Tempest includes themes of enslavement.
What will we cover?
We’ll be thinking about Shakespeare’s use of genre and language. What can we learn about tragedy from King Lear? What does it mean to call The Tempest a ‘romance’ – is it simply a ‘tragedy with a happy ending’? We’ll enjoy some of Shakespeare’s finest, most powerful language, looking closely at how it achieves its effects.
To develop our understanding, we’ll think about historical contexts and changing critical responses (including recent ‘postcolonial’ and ‘ecocritical’ perspectives). We’ll also consider aspects of the plays in performance. What lies behind the enduring resonance of these plays, and how has that changed over time?
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
-Understand and define some of the ways in which Shakespeare’s language creates character and drama in these plays.
-Understand and define some of the ways in which historical context and performance can inform our reading of the female characters in these plays.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is open to all; you do not need to have prior knowledge to participate.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
A variety of teaching methods will be used, including brief tutor-led slide presentations and readings of short extracts, and you will be invited to take part in group discussion. A digital handout of extracts will be sent to you shortly before the course starts and paper copies will be given on the day.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You will need to buy or borrow your own copies of King Lear and The Tempest to read the plays in full; the Arden Shakespeare (Third series) editions are recommended. Please bring a pen and paper for notetaking.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
The tutor will also be teaching HLT194 Shakespeare's Women: Hamlet, Macbeth and As You Like It. Look for other drama courses in the Literature Programme at www.citylit.ac.uk/history, culture and writing/literature/drama.
Sophie has taught Literature, Performing Arts and Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities for over twenty years, working for the Open University, Leeds University, and a range of Adult Learning Institutions before joining City Lit. Previously she freelanced as a theatre and opera director in community theatre and at English National Opera. She has an MA in Nineteenth Century English and American Literature, and a PhD in Early Modern Life Writing. She brings both experience and enthusiasm to her work with adult audiences.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.