preview

Character Analysis Of King Loar's King Lear

Good Essays

Audiences love knowing who is the villain of a story. There's a certain power in seeing something not visible to the other characters, recognizing a seed of hatred blooming behind the scenes. It brings a sense of satisfaction, actively rooting against the antagonist so that the hero can win. Seeing the difference between good and bad isn't easy in real life, but in a fictional world all of the rules change, and the audience knows the truth. In King Lear, Goneril and Regan, daughters to the king, are almost immediately cemented into the role of antagonists due to characters' reactions to them and insider knowledge the audience gains when listening to their private talks. However, we only make this leap because certain characters in the play want us to. But what if those characters are wrong? Maybe the world of the play already believes Goneril and Regan are the villains, but as an outside audience we have the option to give the sisters a chance to prove themselves. Looking at their actions, listening to their words, nothing about the two sisters implies that they're bloodthirsty or traitors to their family. Instead, Regan and Goneril instead seem to be protecting themselves from an unloving and possibly abusive father. In the first scene of the play, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia must tell their dad how much they love him in order to receive their inheritance. Goneril and Regan flatter their dad extensively, but Cordelia refuses to speak because her love is too great to put

Get Access