Dishonesy In Shakespeare's King Lear

After King Lear’s two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan express their love for their father in a flattering speech they were granted their share of the kingdom, and Cordelia his youngest daughter and favorite daughter refused to play along, Lear felts she was disrespectful and she was banished from his sight. Cordelia bids farewell to her sisters, and tells them that she knows they don’t love him, “I know you what you are, and like a sister am most loath to call your faults as they are named.” (1.2.273-275). “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides; who covers faults, at last shame them derides. Well may you prosper!” (1.2.284-286). Once Cordelia left, Goneril and Regan revealed to the audience that they had no love for their father.

In the beginning of the story, as Lear conducts his love test Goneril and Regan kiss the bottoms of their father’s feet in order to gain their desire power. However, when Cordelia does not follow with her sister’s praise Lear feels betrayed and embarrassed by her. He decides to get his revenge and decides to disown Cordelia by saying "Here I disclaim all my paternal care"(pg. 5). The betrayal continues to go back and forth as Lear feels Cordelia’s love is not pure or true meanwhile, Cordelia feels the exact opposite. In this specific part of the story betrayal is being used to portray the easy access to power and success as well as losing it. “Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved, as thou my sometime daughter”(pg.5). Cordelia lost everything from the blink of an eye because her father turned a blind eye to Goneril and Regan’s true intentions.

Goneril and Regan, both of whom have lied to their father, inherit half of the kingdom, while Cordelia, who tells the truth to her father by saying, “I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less” (35), is disowned by her father and left with nothing. By lying, Goneril has imposed a counterfeit perception of herself to her father, leading to her inheritance of half the kingdom. Lear believes that Goneril and Regan love him the most, making them see kind and gracious, while they are actually evil and malicious.

King Lear is shown as a very caring father, yet still a bit self absorbed. In the beginning of the novel King Lear demands that his daughters express their love for him in order to be given a piece of land. This can look as a harmless request, however, it then turns into Lear’s daughters lying to him in order to get land, all except Cordelia. Cordelia appears to be the key to this plot

Lear, left to his own devices, is left in a devastating storm and seeks shelter and help from loyal companions. When discovered that there is a plot to execute Lear, he escapes seeking shelter and protection from his third daughter, Cordelia whom he had banished and disowned from all power and authority. Due to Cordelia protecting her father, she was later executed by Goneril’s and Regan’s forces. And Lear, the former king who had brought upon his own ill fate died due to grief at the death of his youngest daughter, who truly loved him. Goneril and Regan had succeeded in their uprising against their father and overthrowing the hierarchy.

Juliet’s drastic outbreaks and dishonesty are results from her father’s actions that take a toll on her happy ending. Initially, Juliet’s dishonesty to her parents is consistent from beginning to end, including her lies to Lady Capulet about having any feelings toward Romeo. By way of example, when Lady Capulet talks about vengeance towards Romeo, Juliet does not express her true feelings and instead says that, “[she] never shall be satisfied with Romeo, till [she] behold him-dead” (3.5.93-94). That being the case, Juliet keeps her newfound love with Romeo Montague a secret from her parents and does not try to tell her parents about her new feelings. In contrast, if Juliet is honest with her parents about her secrets, then they can step in

After Lear's knights have messed up Goneril's home. They discuss about disparagingly their father. Goneril have ordered Oswald, to be less polite to Lear and his knights, to try to get rid of them. Goneril and Regan tried to be reasonable, but instead of telling Lear to leave, Goneril have ordered her servants to try and upset Lear and leave, so she didn’t have feel much guilt and blame. By the time when Lear turned back to Goneril, she wonders why he needed any at all, since her servants can get him anything he wants. Both daughters have overlooked the intangible importance of Lear's having his own followers around him and continue to live like the king he has been. From this, it showed Shakespeare's thoughts on women having power in a patriarchal society, that they do not appreciate anything and only care about

In the novel, the first act begins with King Lear wanting to distribute evenly his inheritance, including his castle and all his money, to his three daughters but in order to decide what goes to who, he has each girl tell him how much they love him and value him. The two older sisters, Regan and Goneril both satisfy King Lear with their sweet, loving, but fake words, they knew that they had to exaggerate how it is they feel towards him in order to receive part of his inheritance. On the other hand, there was Cordelia, the youngest of them all and whom he describes as his favorite, whom was sincere and told him

Cordelia is Lear's most loyal and loving child and yet she refuses to put on a display of affection and sentimental love before her father's court in order to make her father feel admired. The public display, wholly false, of affected feeling by her sisters Regan and Goneril is enough to ensure that Cordelia will keep quiet in word (which, as her sisters show, can be deceptive) and prove her love through action (which she does throughout the play). As far as words go, she simply tells her father that she loves him "according to my bond; no more nor less" (1.1). This should be sufficient for Lear because it is a statement of fact: Cordelia recognizes the duty she owes her father and is prepared to act accordingly. The same cannot be said for her sisters who attempt to prove their love through flattery. That Lear allows himself to be flattered by their empty words ill-prepares him to receive the meaningful and rich words of the terse Cordelia. By saying next to nothing, however, she says much more than the others. Lear, unfortunately, fails to grasp the fullness of Cordelia's "nothing." This paper will analyze the power of "nothing" in King Lear and show why Cordelia's response of "nothing" to her father is worth far more than the affectation of her sisters.

Even though Kent, a nobleman of Lear’s, disagrees with Lear’s decision of rewarding other daughters and sending Cordelia away to the King of France without his blessing, Lear is unable to identify the truthfulness of his daughters until he recognizes the intentions of Gonoril and Regan. As Lear focuses on the words instead of action, he distrusts Cordelia. Later on, when the body of Cordelia is entered in his arm, he is unbearable and disappoints by the loss of Cordelia as “she is gone forever” (24. 255). On the other hand, if he takes Kent’s words into consideration, he could have more opportunities to spend with his beloved and loyal daughter. Other than Cordelia’s death, her sisters also died by committing suicide and poisons.

One of the major themes of the play is the inability to see things for what they are. Lear’s failure to recognize reality set the plot into motion: He falsely believed that Goneril and Regan loved him, and he falsely accused Cordelia of disloyalty, when in fact, she was the

In this quote Goneril addresses the fact it has never been a secret that Cordelia is King Lear’s favourite daughter. She believes that as he has grown old, he has also grown irresponsible and lacks good judgement. We begin to see Lear irresponsibility when he decides to divide all

Goneril and Regan use Lears pride to render him homeless. They are aware that he loved Cordelia best but

King Lear an imprudent, old man symbolizes selfishness like no other. What is most daunting is the fact that he is adamantly loyal to appearances and ranking in life. He carries a title which most can not even dream of attaining, but wants to give up the position and all the responsibilities that follow it. “ Know that we have divided/ In three our kingdom, and `tis our fast intent/ To shake all cares and business from our age” (1.1.37-39). It is quite understandable if he just wanted to end his reign as king, but it’s another thing when he also wants to bask in the glory of the title and be treated like he still owns it. This egotistical attitude of his is more annoying than anything else, for he brought forth all his problems upon himself, and also unto others. His most arrogant moment is at the very beginning of the play, when he demands his daughters to profess their love for him openly, “which of you shall we say doth love us most?” (1.1.53). The use of his words in this quote is disgusting, it exudes pride, self-importance, and flattery. It’s because of these very words, that Cordelia denied him his right to the, all so selfish public display of love. Although Lear made costly mistakes throughout the play, his love to Cordelia rang

The remainders of Act I and Act II in Eyre’s film focus on the conflict between Lear and his two daughters, Goneril and Regan. Goneril and Regan begin looking down on their father and take away more of his privileges every chance that they get. They reduce Lear’s hundred knights down to fifty. Goneril and Regan’s tone of voice when arguing with Lear about reducing his number of knights down is vehement. Goneril complains about how the palace seems more like a tavern because of Lear’s knights’ demeanor, her voice quivers slightly, making it seem like she doesn’t want to have to argue with her father, in the play this change of tone is absent. This suggests that although Goneril cares more about the way others see her and material objects than the safety of her father. Both Shakespeare and Eyre emphasize the consequences of Lear’s choice to give up his power and give it to his two eldest daughters, Regan and Goneril.