The important thing to consider when considering how an Elizabethan audience would interpret a Shakespeare play is what the common beliefs were at the time. Many followed Protestantism which means they heavily reflected and believed in the religious themes within the play. The great chain being seems unimportant to a modern day audience however the immediate breaking of the chain would have been shocking for an Elizabethan audience as it goes against everything they know. To them, no one shall be greater than the king so when Lear falls down the chain to the same level as plant, it’s really crazy.

People of the time also had very sexist beliefs, it was okay to hit your wife, they were all house maids and the female characters were all acted by males because females couldn’t have a role in society outside of the traditional wife life. This sexism would have influenced the way they interpreted the performance. When they see a female character doing something empowering or outside what they were expected than it was uncomfortable, confronting and off-putting. From a modern day audience’s perspective, our thoughts on Lear turn negative rather soon into the play and even though we know the Goneril and Regan are bad, we don’t see their actions of locking Lear out of the castle as unjustified, however for the Elizabethan audience would think that this is foul play on their behalf.

The reason why a lot of the acting was very script heavy with every line explaining in detail what a character was doing is because the production didn’t have advanced technology or even a large budget. So lighting would have been regular room lighting, actors had to speak loudly as theaters could be rather large and there would be plenty of people talking in the audience.