In Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, multiple tragedies occur. The protagonist of the play, King Lear, faults in distinguishing his daughter’s true feelings of love or malice. As a result, King Lear and his kingdom turn into a disaster. Unconsciously, King Lear banished his only hope. Cordelia, his youngest daughter, loves him eternally, yet her loyalty to her father damaged their loving relationship. Although mistreated, Cordelia preserves her adoration for her father. Throughout the play, her personality impacts everyone both directly and indirectly. For example, before she dismisses from King Lear’s kingdom, she affirms, “I know you what you are, and like a sister am most loath to call your faults as they are named,” (I.i.278). This proves
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.
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.
In King Lear, Lear’s conflict of power with his daughters is brought about by his own arrogance, which flaws his judgement and propels his change of heart. When Lear parcels out his kingdom to his daughters, he finds the honesty of Cordelia’s praise to be ungrateful and
Due to this flaw, Lear has given way to the two older daughters to conspire against him. Lear is finally thrown out of his daughters’ homes and left with a fool, a servant and a beggar. This is when Lear realizes the mistake that he has made and suffers the banishment of his two eldest daughters. Lear is caught in a storm and begins to lose his sanity because he can not bear the treatment of his two daughters as well as the error he has made with Cordelia and Kent. Lear also suffers from lack of rest when he is moving all over the place and the thing that breaks him is the death of his youngest daughter, Cordelia. This suffering can be contrasted with other happier times like when Lear was still king and when he was not banished by his two daughters.
Furthermore, King Lear suffers a loss of power which causes him to reveal his true nature when his powers as King and as a father are departed and he is able to see the innocence behind his daughter, Cordelia's, love for him. He is reunited with Cordelia and instantly compelled to beg for her forgiveness: "We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage./ When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down/ And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,/ And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh..." (5.3.9-12). This is unveils King Lear's truly humble and loving nature. In summary, because Cordelia, Gloucester and King Lear all suffer a loss of power in the play, their true natures are ultimately revealed.
Cordelia personifies integrity, honesty and love throughout the play. By her very nature she is unable to flatter or curry favour since dishonesty is not part of that nature. She represents the truth and it is against the backdrop of her loyalty and undying love for her father that we measure Lear’s arrogant behaviour.
It is clear from the beginning of King Lear that Cordelia has an entirely good nature, she remains constant throughout the play, never wavering in her morals. The play begins with Lear deciding that he will have his daughters compete for their divisions of his kingdoms based on which of them can impress him the most with their proclamations of love. Cordelia, however, cannot express her love for her father in words, and refuses to deceive him by doing otherwise, stating that she is “sure [her] love's more richer than [her] tongue” (278-80). She realizes that by holding her tongue she is infuriating her father, but her nature cannot allow her to do otherwise. When King Lear asks her what she has to say, she states “Nothing, my lord.” This shows Cordelia’s inherent good nature by doing what is right in a tough situation. Lear’s lack of understanding of the natural bond between parents and their children leads him to his eventual demise. He is easily mislead by the other sisters, Goneril and Regan’s fake natural behavior when they give their long speeches in order to try and flatter him.
At the beginning of the play King Lear has more power than anyone else, the feeling of power made him think it was okay to ask his three daughters who loved him the most. When his youngest and favourite daughter Cordelia did not give him the answer he wanted by saying, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth/ I love your majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less” (King Lear 1.1.91-93). he started lashing out. Lear clearly values Goneril and Regan fawning over him over Cordelia’s sincere honesty. Out of pride and anger, Lear banishes Cordelia, as well as Kent for defending her. Lear splits the kingdom in half to Goneril and Regan which leads to the deaths of many people in the play. Throughout the play he becomes increasingly shocked when people do not obey him the way they did before and the lack of respect he receives. With his loss of power Lear often responds to these problems with anger saying things like “My curses on her!” (2.4.138). about his own daughter. By the end of the play he recognizes that he takes responsibility for both his own problems and for those of others. King Lear’s actions were the first step to the plays tragic outcome.
Cordelia is the epitome of goodness in Shakespeare’s King Lear. "What shall Cordelia speak?/ Love, and be silent" (I.i.63-64). These words echo a reminiscent time when loyalty to the king and one's father was paramount. King Lear, Cordelia's father, planned on dividing his land among his three daughters, but for a price, the price of their love. While her sisters exaggerated their love for their father to win the "prize," Cordelia stayed true to herself and her loyalty to Lear by not making a mockery out of her feelings for him and playing it cool. She was also not characterized by her openness of her feelings. She was a quiet girl who kept emotions locked inside. Even so, Lear got angry at her response and disowned her. Why such a brutal attack on his daughter? Cordelia is known to be Lear's favorite and he had hoped that he could give her the largest piece of land so he could reside on it with her, but the plan failed. Overall, the King's decision lead him and his
King Lear is frequently regarded as one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, and its tragic scope touches almost all facets of the human condition: from the familial tensions between parents and children to the immoral desires of power, from the follies of pride to the false projections of glory. However, one theme rings true throughout the play, and that very theme is boundless suffering, accentuated by the gruesome depictions of suffering our protagonists experience . There is no natural (nor “poetic”) justice depicted in this pre-Judeo-Christian world Shakespeare presents, as the relatively virtuous individuals (Kent, Gloucester, and Cordelia) in this
Cordelia scarifies many things, throughout this that play, for example, when hen King Lear asked Cordelia how much she had loved him, her response had taken him by a huge surprise. Cordelia answers with “I cannot have her heart into her mouth” in the way that she
King Lear is a character who displays a great deal of anger throughout the course of the play, he often allows his anger to take over him. A lot of things that are said and during the course of the play are due to Lear’s anger which is a leading factor for his insanity. Lear loses his temper during a love test when his daughter does not give the answer that he was looking for, he disowns her calling Cordelia his, “sometime daughter,” (1.1.119) and gives her share of the land to her sisters. This in turn leads to his insanity because in his blind rage he does not acknowledge the sincerity behind Cordelia’s veiled words; unlike her sisters she does not try to flatter her father in order to receive more land, whereas her sisters have their secrets agendas and do not truly love Lear. In addition to this, King Lear is also enraged when the Earl of Kent who is a loyal follower of Lear, goes against the banishment of Cordelia and speaks up in favour of the youngest daughter. Lear is livid with Kent going against him and banishes Kent, as well reminding him that, “if on the tenth day
Even though Cordelia knows Lear does not hear her good wishes for Lear, she nonetheless expresses them. This fact is proof that she displays this pure form of discrete loyalty.
The tragedy of Shakespeare’s King Lear is made far more tragic and painful by the presence and suffering of the king's youngest daughter, Cordelia. While our sympathy for the king is somewhat restrained by his brutal cruelty towards others, there is nothing to dampen our emotional response to Cordelia's suffering. Nothing, that is, at first glance. Harley Granville-Barker justifies her irreconcilable fate thus: "the tragic truth about life to the Shakespeare that wrote King Lear... includes its capricious cruelty. And what meeter sacrifice to this than Cordelia?"5 Yet in another passage Granville-Barker has come much closer to touching on the real explanation. I quote the passage at length.
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