Lear Cordelia Quotes

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.

Gloucester is exactly like Lear in the sense that Lear picked the wrong to disown and turn away from. Edmund, Gloucester’s son who had been gone for 9 years, was extremely jealous of his brother Edgar. Edmund then lies and manipulates both Edgar and Gloucester by telling Gloucester that Edgar is plotting against him and wants to kill him. This then causes Gloucester to become exceedingly angry and sent Edmund out to bring Edgar back to him (Lear 1.2.105). In comparison with that story King Lear turned away from his one daughter, Cordelia, who truly cared for him only because she would not confess her love for him. While his other two daughters, Regan and Goneril, were trying to kill Lear off and take his money and power (Lear 1.1.90-95).

The power that makes Edmund corrupt is trust. He uses the trust to manipulate and control his father for the benefit of himself. He frames his brother by composing a false letter to his father implicating a plot to kill Gloucester, that when “our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue forever.” (1, 2, 55-56) Gloucester replies with “this villain of mine comes under the prediction of mine: there’s son against father” (1, 2, 112-117) This shows that Gloucester had great faith and trust in his son Edgar. To better his plan he goes to Edgar and convinces him to run away. The thought that he would frame his own brother for the chance to gain power shows his corruption, and that he will do anything to have more power. Edmund writes another letter, except this implicates his father in a plot with France to kill The Duke of Cornwall. He does this so that “the younger rises [and] the old doth fall” (3, 4, 25) and he will become the Earl. Edmund is so corrupted and blinded by his quest for power that he is willing to jeopardize his father’s

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).

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.

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.

After having both eyes gouged out by the Duke of Cornwall, Gloucester exclaims: “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused” (3.7.91). Unaware of Edmund’s betrayal, Gloucester had earlier told Edmund about his alliance with France in their invasion of England. Wanting to remove his father from power, Edmund conveys this information to the Duke of Cornwall and as a punishment, Gloucester has his eyes gouged out. This quote is important because it ties directly into the theme of “Blindness vs Sight.” Although he is literally blinded, it is at this moment that Gloucester is able to see the truth. Previously, he believes his son Edgar has betrayed him and therefore places his trust onto his other son, Edmund. Upon losing his vision, he finally regains his sight by realising Edgar’s innocence and Edmund’s treachery.

Here, Lear goes mad and tells Gloucester that even a dog gets obeyed by people who have to obey him and that appearance, authority and power all lead to corruption. He compares himself to the poor when he says that only the poor without power gets into justice and that the society always obeys power even if it is not justified. Even though Lear loses his senses, Edgar still finds out that he has got a point which seems to be reasonable.

Goneril is not loving at all. She fakes her love for Regan and Lear. She has a supposed love with Edward. This is most likely not true love. She never showed true signs of love (even for Albany) prior to her ‘love’ with Edward. It could not have been true love because it was tainted with jealousy. Love is never jealous. When one loves another, they want the other person to be happy and make their own choices. If Edward did prefer Regan, and Goneril truly loved Edward, Goneril would let

Starting the play with the revelation of Edmund’s plans to see his half brother and father’s downfall, we receive an image of a father who cares only for pure bloods of higher class per say. One can conclude that this man is obviously high class and stereo typically favors the older, direct bloodline son, nevertheless, we can’t take a rash conclusion so fast. Thus, we wait for the plot to develop and let us glance into the true selves of the characters further. We come to the knowledge that Lord Gloucester realizes he values his ties with the king to a great extent, him risking and losing his title as lord due to aiding King Lear. Afterwards, we see him come to appreciation of virtues of honesty and his sons after he is captured by the Duke, losing his eyes as punishment. Gloucester as a character has developed greatly, going forth through challenges and misdemeanors against his pride and being, ending disgraced and blind. Yet, he holds a calm sense to himself, valuing what he has left and becoming more than humble with others. This is a transformation worthy of Shakespeare himself, rather impressive at the very least. This man has lived through the betrayal of his bastard child and being blinded violently for helping a distressed king, he has sacrificed much with spiritual values in return. Astounding that he didn’t suicide out of pure remorse that he will never be able to witness the world again. Unfortunately, he does die of a mixture of happiness and shock when he is revealed that Edgar still breathes life, so he has that going for

Gloucester’s two sons; the legitimate and righteous Edgar and the illegitimate, disguised “devil”, Edmund, both whom Gloucester loves equally however due to his ‘bastard’ son, he is blinded and misunderstands Edgar. This act of blindness can be sighted in Act 1, Scene 2 as Gloucester is blinded by Edmond who had given him a letter that he wrote himself, but presents in Edgar’s perspective. Gloucester is speaking to his son Edmund in anger and shock as he did not expect another side to Edgar. Without further investigating the situation, Gloucester immediately believes what Edmund tells him and concludes that Edgar is a "villain". Gloucester's failure to seek both sides of this story before placing all his trust into Edmund's letter demonstrates how Gloucester blinds himself from the truth through ignorance.

Upon reaching Dover Gloucester states that; "[he has] no way, and there want no eyes; [he] stumbled when [he] saw. Full oft 'tis seen our means secure us, and our mere defects prove our commodities" (IV.I.17-21). While telling the old man who accompanies him to leave, Gloucester explains

This quote is coming from Cordelia in the first scene of the first act. Lear has just called his three daughters in and is dividing up his kingdom. The daughters are telling Lear how much they love him in order to influence the decision on dividing the kingdom. Regan and Goneril both lie and say that they love him more than words can express but Cordelia doesn't lie and tells the truth. In this quote, she says, “Lear you have raised me and loved me and I’m returning the favor. I love you just as I should, I obey you, I love you and I honor you. Hopefully, when I get married I will give you my husband and half of my love.” This quote is showing that in King Lear, Shakespeare uses characters to represent something greater. In the story, there are a few main characters that are big metaphors one being King Lear representing madness and insanity. A second being Goneril representing greed and lastly, Gloucester used to show the metaphors of people not opening their eyes to what's actually going on. All these metaphors have an important lesson to them that can be applied into the

Like Lear, Gloucester fails to see the true nature of his children and also invokes the language of nature in blind ways. After wrongly condemning Edgar he calls Edmund a "loyal and natural boy" (II. i. 85).