Series of Death in Act 5

In the final act of this play there is a lot of death involved. Sisters dying over Edmund and his love, Edmund dying in the battle with his brother, the killing of Cordelia, the death of Lear, and finally the “death march” at the end of the play. I wonder why Shakespeare decides to kill everyone off at the end of the play. Why not spread some of them out? All of these deaths play in with the idea of a true tragedy. We all know that a tragedy will traditionally end in death and despair. The final act of the play brings to life this idea.
We know that the first death was the cause of poison.
Regan: Sick, O, sick!
Goneril: (aside) If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine/poison (5.3. 97-98).
This is the same time that Albany is accusing Edmund of being a traitor. Regan shortly leaves to go to a tent, where we later find out she dies.
The next death being Edmund, after Edgar comes in he fights Edmund and later tells him who actually defeated him. Probably leaving him much more defeated. Before Edmund dies, he arranges for Cordelia to be hung in the prison.
I’m not quite sure why Goneril dies. Is it because she is upset that her husband finds out about the letter she sent to Edmund? Is she so distraught that her husband knows the truth of her obsession with Edmund. Maybe he also knows that the poisoning was her doing?
King Lear dies because of the depression of his daughter dying and his old age. I particularly like his one ending speech where he says, “A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! / I might have saved her; now she’s gone for ever!/ Cordelia, Cordelia! Stay a little. Ha! / What is ‘t thou say’st? Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman. / I killed the slave that was a-hanging thee” (5.3.268-273). This makes me feel like maybe he realizes everywhere that he went wrong in the beginning of the play. Lear was a very unlikable character for me in the beginning and this almost redeems him to some degree. He is finally seeing the traitors for who they are and seeing everyone’s true colors. He is also realizing that Cordelia was really the only one who was there for him and he tossed her out in the beginning only to not be able to save her in the end. I believe that he realizes he did wrong to her, but knows he will never be able to take that away.
Still the deaths of everyone are very strategically planned by Shakespeare and I find it very clever that he places the deaths using a type of cause and effect plot. It also reminds me of a “domino effect” type situation. Because one dies, the next must die, and the next, etc.