View Message

What Regan does: she tells her father eloquently how much she loves him, in order to gain a good piece of England to rule, and doesn't mean a word. She refuses to house her father's train (as was agreed upon when he divvied up the land). She turns him out into a tempest, barring her doors (or rather, making Gloucester bar his doors). When Gloucester gives Lear shelter, she and her husband gouge out his eyes and throw him out to "smell his way to Dover". Immediately after her husband's death, she starts a passionate love affair with Gloucester's bastard son, who's also having an affair with her elder sister (the other evil one, not Cordelia).

---

I'd say she's that evil- she reminds me a lot of Lady Macbeth, and that's echoed in the fact that she and Goneril are called "unnatural hags" by an enraged Lear. I don't think it renders the name unusable, I think she's a great character and the name is so much more pleasant than Reagan/Raegan/whatever; I always suggest it to people considering Reagan.

---

Her name may be frequently mispronounced, though. I'm in a production now, and both the director and the actress playing Regan even get it wrong occasionally (much to my dismay). But it's easy enough to correct. Don't go for Reegan, that looks horrifying. Go with Regan.