King Lear Rhetorical Analysis

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 King Lear, also follows Poetics guidelines of tragedy with the death of Cordelia, and Lear’s kommos. In the beginning of the tragedy, King Lear is ready to disperse his kingdom between his three daughters. “Which of you shall we say doth love us most, / That we our largest bounty may extend/ Where nature doth with merit challenge…”, Lear challenges his daughters (I, i, 53-55). Lear desires for his daughters to express their love for their father and he will give the daughter, with the greatest affection, the largest section of land. Regan and Goneril, two of the daughters, express their great love for their father, yet Cordelia, Lear’s favorite, answers with “Nothing” (I, i, 91). Lear, not receiving the answer he wished for, banishes Cordelia without a dowry to marry the King of France. Lear is then faced with being kicked out of his other daughters’ houses and his own kingdom; after these events Lear proceeds to go insane. King Lear even regrets Cordelia’s banishment later in scene one, “I did her wrong” (I, v, 25). Lear’s actions and selfishness cause pity for Cordelia because of her devotion to her father; however, in the end of the tragedy, he is faced with a realization of his mistake which leads to a katharsis of feelings of pity for Cordelia.

In the beginning of King Lear, I immediately saw how King Lear wants his three daughters to express their love for him. I believe that this could illustrate King Lear’s fear of growing old and losing importance. The first two daughters, Goneril and Regan, seem to flatter their father with their expression of love for him. It is obvious to me that Goneril and Regan do not actually love their father at all. In contrast, Cordelia, the youngest daughter, gives an honest expression of love when she says, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love thy majesty according to my bond; no more nor less” (pg. 1257). In return, King Lear believes that Cordelia isn’t truly expressing love since it is not in the form of flattery. This

Do you think Shakespeare intended a speech for his audience that exalted humanity or was this speech cynical and sarcastic.

From Lear’s emotions of disgust towards his ungrateful older daughters, comes words of malice depicting his two daughters as conniving animals which have wounded the parent. Lear proclaimed Goneril and Regan as

During Act 1 Scene 1, Cordelia, Regan and Goneril are surrounding King Lear, who is sitting on his throne. Lear explains to his daughter that he wishes to split the kingdom between his daughters, but before he does, he wants each daughter to express how much they love him. Goneril and Regan both flatter the king with their words. But Cordelia on the other hand, disagrees with her sisters. “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond, no

The sisters are a driving force in the attempt to remove Lear from his Kinghood as soon as possible. They seem to have very little good within their characters and, thus, no redeeming qualities to make them tragic figures. After the opening scene where both Cordelia and Kent are banished Regan states, “Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent’s banishment” to which Goneril replies “Pray you, let’s hit together: if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears this last surrender of his will but offend us” (1.1.298-303). This recitation makes it clear that the sisters care nothing for their elderly father. They are aware of his lack of self-knowledge and rather than fear for how it will bring about his downfall they are more concerned with how his senility will affect them and theirs.

This involuntary inability to see the truth is what leads to the destruction of Lear, Gloucester and Regan’s relationships. Blindness from the legitimacy of one’s words and objectives is evident within these characters who cannot see the truth by the ones they are acquainted with. King Lear is blind to the true intentions of his daughters Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan. Although Cordelia possesses genuine intentions to “love [his] majesty/ According to [her] bond; no more nor less” Lear is oblivious to the fact that Cordelia loves him (1.1.91-92). Due to this blindness obtained by Lear, he banishes Cordelia as well as any relational ties he has with her. Although Lear is blind from the honest and genuine intentions of Cordelia, he is also blind to the cruel intentions of Goneril and Regan which is masked by their kindness. Lear’s inability to see the cruel schemes of his other two daughters, evidently causes Regan to order Gloucester to “Shut up

Lear can not see past the words, all he hears is the words, not the

Throughout King Lear, Shakespeare gives the reader small moments of human goodness to contrast the evil in the play. L.C. Knights describes it as "affirmation in spite of everything," (Coyle). These affirmative actions are clearly seen in response to the immorality, twisted values and evil that are so common throughout this play. These moments are used to give the reader an underlying faith in the human spirit despite the clear role of immorality and a lack of values. The instances of genuine human goodness allow Shakespeare to bring out intense evil and tragedy in his characters and plot without taking away all hope in humanity.

Lear 's lost royal authority now transfers to his two daughters, Goneril and Regan, and they deceitfully use this power against him. Ironically, Lear also falls in status, to a level inferior to that of his own children. Goneril no longer loves him "beyond all manner" and Regan no longer is "an enemy to all other joys" as they have professed in the beginning (I.i. 61, 73). Instead, Goneril reprimands his father for the way his servants and knights have "infected" her home (I.iv.237). Regan follows suit, and insist that "The old man and his people/ Cannot be well bestowed" (II.iv.258). His daughters no longer even respect him. Lear has now lost his identity as a father, since he even confesses that "[He] should be false persuaded / [He] had daughters" (I.iv.227-228). Troubled and confused, Lear reveals his weakened sense of identity when asking "Who is it that can tell me who I am" (I.iv.224). Stripped of authority as king, Lear has now also

Cordelia as we have now established is a pure Elizabethan-Jacobean stereotype, she conforms to all traditional traits which this way of life consists of. Nevertheless, her role is also challenged when she speaks to her father on the topic of love. We expect King Lear to take the sense which Cordelia has and know that her truthful words mean more to him than any false flamboyant expression of gratitude which comes from her older sisters. Yet he accepts it as an act of rudeness and impoliteness, making out that she is not grateful for anything that is done for her, even though she causes the least trouble in the running story. It most certainly challenges the role of the two sisters, Goneril and Reagan, who have given in to jealous and competition over Edmund, who only plays tricks with the two. In terms of the men they are always the ones who will regain power from here until the end. Their roles play as a roller-coaster method, but no matter what they will come out on top in the

King Lear is defined by the figurehead monarch’s quest for what he sees as justice for himself. After Goneril and Regan betray him by refusing to house his nights, King Lear calls upon the heavens avenge him and punish his daughters with a storm. “O heavens,” he implores, “If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Show obedience, if you yourselves are old, Make it your cause. Send down, and take my part” (2.4.217-220). These lines, uttered in the raw emotion of a man who feels wronged by those he loves, are representative of Lear’s temper and distress when things don’t go his way. His daughters’ perceived insult to him spurs a helpless call for justice from the gods, a justice Lear no longer can carry out because he has divested himself of power. Lear’s inability to forcefully delve justice This hearkens back to his overhasty reaction towards Cordelia

King Lear a weary of rule, partitions his kingdom among his three daughters, but he repudiates his youngest and favourite, Cordelia, when she declines to talk about her adoration. King Lear was portrayed as a arrogant, raging old man, who foolishness gave up his whole wealth. We get see this in (act 1, scene) King Lear sit with his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia and their husbands to divide his kingdom. In this scenario Goneril and Regan express their love to King Lear by telling him that they love him more than anything. Goneril expresses her love by telling King Lear that she loves him

Lear’s eldest daughters, Regan and Goneril, prospered in love competition by utilizing fancy dialect. But his youngest daughter Cordelia fails in the competition by saying “Nothing” as statement of adoration. By doing so Cordelia puts King into open mortification. Being a King, Lear could not tolerate his insult before the whole kingdom and angrily dismissed his true daughter Cordelia. He likewise exiled his faithful companion Kent for his unmannerly demeanour in querying about King’s decision