For The Love Of King Lear
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For The Love Of King Lear
King Lear begins with Lear being at the top of the wheel of fortune, though through the play his luck drasticly changes and hes pushed into poverty and depression. But this is a play of king Lear's road to redemption, no matter how rocky the path may be. Lear's relationship with his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, is, from the beginning, very uncharacteristic of the typical father-daughter relationship. It's clear that the king is more interested in words than true feelings, as he begins by asking which of his daughters loves him most. Goneril and Regan's answers are descriptive and sound somewhat phony, but they flatter Lear. In the end it seems to be Lear’s down fall. Cordelia's response of nothing is honest; but her father misunderstands the plea and banishes her.
Lear's basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances above the reality. Throughout the play, King Lear, is waiting to be reunited with his younger daughter Cordelia. In the beginning of the play, Lear wrongfully disowns Cordelia because he does not get the flattery from her that he wishes to hear.
Through much torment, he is reduced to nothing, Lear realizes that he cannot always get what he wants just because he is a king.
”Here I disclaim all my parental care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to bosom
Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved
As thou my sometime daughter” (1.1, 113-119)
Though the two were not in communication through the majority of the play, they still had love for each other and by the end of the play, their father-daughter bond is reformed. And reformed stronger than before. It’s witnessed as unconditional love between these two characters and a bond that even though was put under a great amount of pressure never broke. It’s amazing how much Cordelia still loves her...
- Submitted by: raymac
- Date Submitted: 10/15/2009 03:31 PM
- Category: English
- Words: 936
- Pages: 4
- Views: 9
- Rank: 159217