Filial Duty In 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.

During the opening act, King Lear was preparing to divide his kingdom amongst his daughters. This test of love essentially pitted the daughters against each other and signified the sibling rivalry that was shown. He was seeking a verbalized declaration of false affection, instead of a true affirmation from the heart. Goneril and Regan were quick to assert how they adored their father more than the other, while Cordelia was unable to proclaim her love for her father in spoken words. She simply announced, “Wretched as I am, I can’t express in words what’s in my heart. I love your Majesty according to my duty as a daughter. No more, no less” (Shakespeare 27). King Lear disowned his favorite daughter for merely not articulating in words what she expressed in her daily actions. Had a mother been present, she may have required more intent, rather than presumed conclusions and doubt upon their children. The queen could have expressed how the king was acting irrational in the heat of the moment and that perhaps banishment was slightly harsh. After all, it is “from being mothered and fathered, we learn to be ourselves as men and women (Kahn 241).

Shakespeare's good characters, in the play King Lear, are considered good because they are loyal even when they are disguised from or unrecognizable by those to whom they owe loyalty. In addition, their loyalty does not waver even when they are banished or mistreated by those to whom they are loyal. Cordelia, Edgar and Kent are all characters that exemplify this goodness and unwavering loyalty.

In his tragedy King Lear, William Shakespeare presents two families: a family consisting of a father and his three daughters, and a family consisting of a father and his two sons, one of which is a bastard son. While he has the sons basically come out and admit that one of them is good and the other evil, the Bard chooses to have the feelings of the daughters appear more subtlely. At no point in King Lear does Shakespeare come out and blatantly tell his audience that Cordelia is the most caring and loving daughter, while her two sisters are uncaring and greedy, and love their father only when they stand to gain from it. However, via the three daughters’ speeches throughout King Lear, he does

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.

The consequences of this problem appear very early in King Lear. Near the end of the initial scene, Cordelia has already deciphered the evil designs of her sisters. As she is leaving them to live with her new husband, Cordelia says: "Use well our father. / To your professed bosoms I commit him" (1.258-9). She realizes that her sisters are using their pseudo love for their father to garner the power of the throne and to misuse the authority that Lear has given them. Cordelia also points out in this statement that she realizes that her father is stuck in his role as king, unable to provide for himself, thus needing the support of the evil sisters to care for him. And they have little use for him: "Nothing will come of nothing, and since he has

Of the deaths in Shakespeare’s King Lear, the death of Cordelia and King Lear at the end of Act V are most significant in revealing the development of Lear and how his development contributes to the theme surrounding it. The dynamic King Lear is a tragic hero whose fatal flaw, arrogance, prompts his removal from power and eventually the death of both himself and Cordelia. However, by the time of King Lear’s death, his arrogance has been replaced with a compassion which allows him to mourn the death of Cordelia and die from his own grief. Besides redeeming himself for his flawed judgement, the compassionate King Lear of Act V recognizes the loyalty in characters like Kent and Cordelia, while also seeing through the dishonesty of Regan and Goneril which fools the King Lear of Act I. King Lear’s transition from disowning Cordelia because of his arrogance to recognizing her as his only faithful daughter is demonstrated through Lear’s death, which serves as the culmination of his development and a reversal of his character. Furthermore, his death elaborates the theme of how someone’s arrogance may blind them from the reality of others’ intentions, which can be seen through a more compassionate and humble lens.

Although Cordelia appears in Act I, Scene I and disappears until Act IV, she has an enormous impact on the play as a whole. It is generally acknowledged that the role played by Cordelia in King Lear is a symbolic one. She is a symbol of good amidst the evil characters within the play. Since the play is about values which have been corrupted and must be restored, it is not surprising that the figure who directs the action must be embodiment of those values which are in jeopardy – love, truth, pity, honour, courage and forgiveness. Cordelia’s reply does not initiate the tragedy; Lear’s misguided question does that. Her “nothing” sets her father’s tragic journey in motion. There is nothing wrong with her remarks.

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.

All texts can be read and understood, interpreted and represented in many different ways according to the views of the responder and their context. Many different interpretations of “King Lear” have been made, each valuing and highlighting different aspects and themes of the play. It is necessary for these interpretations to be made and adapted in order for “King Lear” to have relevance within the context of the society. Each interpretation of the text extracts and concentrates on certain ideas, issues, themes, values of the play, altering the way the play is received amongst audiences and critics.

Justice, the one essential key to being able to reside in an ordered and supportive world. Justice shown in the play King Lear prove how certain actions can never be taken without repercussions to follow. With justice occurring in the world, people's being identity changes. Attempting to improve oneself from what one's birth order denotes you to be will always cause you to be brought down to one's rightful place through justice. Although mercy plays an important role in the order of a society, justice is the one main fundamental requirement needed between the two in order to live in a favourable world.

Loyalty is being faithful to commitments and obligations. On the other hand there are many ways to display loyalty. One can be loyal to a person, political party, country, religion, or cause. The list is seemingly endless. William Shakespeare’s play King Lear exhibits many forms of loyalty, but one that shines particularly is loyalty to ones selfish needs. However there is a limit to loyalty which most over look. The characters Cordelia, the emotional King Lear, and the vile Edmund all manifest their loyalty to their own self, and all meet their demise. The limit to loyalty is death.

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

Shakespeare’s King Lear fabricated a world of its own, in which distinct virtues and vices were personified by individuals with diverse points of view. With each conflict in the play, the characters’ actions and decisions were parallel to the integrity of their heart and mind, exhibiting the virtue or vice they represented. With this strategy, Shakespeare shares that with trust should come discretion.

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