The Villains of 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.

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.

In truth, this happens rather quickly. By doing this, Goneril is successfully freeing herself from her father. Her plan works and Lear fleas the castle in the middle of a storm. As a matter of fact, Goneril wishes her father would die in the storm. So far, Goneril diminishes all of Lear’s knights, he leaves, and she dreams of his death. If her entitlement wasn’t seen yet, it is now. Currently, she is getting everything that she wants, benefitting herself and hurting others. There is a positive outlook on this event, and it involves Gloucester. Once known that Lear has fled the castle, he decides to go out and help him. This shows great bravery for Gloucester and leads to even more. He brings Lear to a small shelter where he encounters Edgar, disguised as Poor Tom. Edgar tells Lear all about Goneril’s crimes, and he learns that she never truly was the daughter that loved him the most. This was the first good thing to come from Goneril’s selfish actions. But she is not done yet. She follows on to cheat on her husband with Edmund. This was a very selfishly entitled move for Goneril. Edmund wasn’t even committed to her. He had promised his love to both sisters, Goneril and Regan. The two sisters quickly become jealous of each other, and Goneril will soon go to extreme measure to get what she

In this soliloquy, the audience gets its first glimpse of the character of Goneril. The full spectrum of her greed and selfishness will not be revealed until later, but this is certainly a good sample of her personality. Her profession of love is so large that it seems almost artificial, and it also seems motivated by the fact that possession of land is involved. Still, Lear seems immensely pleased by her statement, and requests a similar profession of love from his other daughter, Regan. She obliges, and in her declaration she tells her father that she loves him even more than Goneril does. Regan emerges from her

Goneril and Reagan try to convince Lear that he is old and incapable and to lessen the number of knights he has protecting him. Lear refuses and heads out of the castle out anger that both his daughters refuse to provide him shelter unless he follows their orders. It is at this event that Lear has realized the error in his choices. Lear’s distribution of power had left him defenseless and that his daughters – as if they were men, were taking full advantage of his self-inflicted disability. And the hierarchy that reigned for centuries of a king over his daughters was now destroyed.

Goneril and Regan swiftly begin to undermine the little authority that Lear still holds. Unable to believe that his beloved daughters are betraying him, Lear slowly goes insane. He flees his daughters’ houses to wander on a heath during a great thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool and by Kent, a loyal nobleman in disguise. Meanwhile, an elderly nobleman named Gloucester also experiences family problems. His illegitimate son, Edmund, tricks him into believing that his legitimate son, Edgar, is trying to kill him. Fleeing the manhunt that his father has set for him, Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar and calls himself “Poor Tom.” Like Lear, he heads out onto the heath. When the loyal Gloucester realizes that Lear’s daughters have turned against their father, he decides to help Lear in spite of the danger. Regan and her husband, Cornwall, discover him helping Lear, accuse him of treason, blind him, and turn him out to wander the countryside. He ends up being led by his disguised son, Edgar, toward the city of Dover, where Lear has also been

When Lear has requested to stay with Regan rather than Goneril she replies, “Not altogether so. / I looked not for you yet…” (Act 2, scene 4, lines 230-231). She fails to accommodate Lear when he needs her and puts her sister over her own father. She would prefer her father to be homeless than except him and his entourage into her home.

Goneril feels jealousy towards her youngest sister Cordelia due to her strong relationship with King Lear, something Goneril never had with Lear. Goneril feels as though her father has reprimanded her all of her life and could never accept her. “You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we have made of it hath (not) been little. He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly.” (1.1.290-293)

The personalities between Cordelia and her two other sisters, Goneril and Regan, are very close to opposite, whereas Goneril, and Regan are sometimes considered similar characters due to their behavior towards their father. Cordelia, the youngest daughter of King Lear, is the one favored the most out of the three until she is disowned because she is unable to express her deep love for her father by the words. Goneril appears to be an obedient daughter because she says what her father wants to hear, but when she does not get what she wants, she is merciless, just like her father Lear. He makes it clear that he is just as ruthless as she is when he does not get the correct answer from

Noticing her father’s senile behavior at the beginning, she informs Regan they “must do something, and i' th' heat” (1.1.315). The mastermind of the plan, she formulates a plan to degrade King Lear. Unlike her sisters, King Lear’s misjudgment about Goneril does not last long. When King Lear stays with her, she slowly belittles King Lear by treating him less of a king and more as a commoner. The way she communicates with him also shows she “did not want him there”(Harrison).

eldest daughters all that he has, but Goneril and Regan do not fulfill Lear's needs

The second contention for Goneril's wickedness stems from her ordering Oswald, a steward, to snub Lear's men, and from her extreme exaggeration of the men's supposedly decadent antics. This argument, however, does not take into account the sentiments of Goneril as a married woman, a lady of the house. In saying, "if he dislike it, let him to our sister," she reveals her intent to use negligent servants as a modus operandus for getting Lear out of her castle and on the road to that of Regan (1.3, 14). The mere act of begrudging a former king some of the luxury surrounding his previous position hardly seems

& nbsp;       &nbsp ; The theme of craving for power is also found in both plots. Goneril and Regan can be said to be cold and evil judging from the irrational actions they took to gain the materialistic possessions. Edmund's character cruises along the same tracks - "power and wealth is the goal".

The daughters Goneril and Regan are inspired by their hunger for power and their lust for Edmund. Once Goneril and Regan received their land, they immediately showed no respect to Lear, who gave them the land. In [Act 1 scene 4] Goneril instructs her servant Oswald to show utter disrespect for Lear. Oswald complies and enrages Lear. Soon Lear will find that his two daughters have no loyalties to him.

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.