First off, this play is my jam. One of my favorite dynamics in the show is the relationships between Lear's daughters. I secretly delight in how cunning and terrible Goneril and Regan are, but they're also *cue Jean Ralphio* the woooorst. As I reread Act 1, I admired Cordelia's grace in the face of complete humiliation at her father's hands in front of court. Her unwillingness to pander to her father's ego and choice to refrain from criticizing her father in front of his family and advisors demonstrates her love for him. Acting as foils to Cordelia's behavior, Goneril and Regan gloat about their success over their sister in acquiring large parts of their father's kingdom, discussing their father's degeneration in a manner that suggests they care little for his actual health and more for the power they obtain as he grows older and sicker. Their flattery, when compared to Cordelia's plain speech, sounds all the more false. Because of his their ill-concealed self-interest, I don't feel that bad on when Goneril and Regan mistreat Lear because he heard what he wanted to hear even though he knew Cordelia was a much more devoted daughter.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Sisterly Love
First off, this play is my jam. One of my favorite dynamics in the show is the relationships between Lear's daughters. I secretly delight in how cunning and terrible Goneril and Regan are, but they're also *cue Jean Ralphio* the woooorst. As I reread Act 1, I admired Cordelia's grace in the face of complete humiliation at her father's hands in front of court. Her unwillingness to pander to her father's ego and choice to refrain from criticizing her father in front of his family and advisors demonstrates her love for him. Acting as foils to Cordelia's behavior, Goneril and Regan gloat about their success over their sister in acquiring large parts of their father's kingdom, discussing their father's degeneration in a manner that suggests they care little for his actual health and more for the power they obtain as he grows older and sicker. Their flattery, when compared to Cordelia's plain speech, sounds all the more false. Because of his their ill-concealed self-interest, I don't feel that bad on when Goneril and Regan mistreat Lear because he heard what he wanted to hear even though he knew Cordelia was a much more devoted daughter.
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I have the perfect picture comment for your post, but the site won't let me upload it!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the contrast between Cordelia's speech and the false false flattery of Goneril and Regan is interest. Seriously, Lear is an experienced king who has successfully navigated the waters of court for 50 years. He couldn't tell brown-nosing when faced with it? You make a really good point. I think he definitely heard what he wanted to hear.
I think this post depends a lot on how you see King Lear. In class we talked about how when people age they become a little bit more senile and unable to do the things they used to do with ease. I think that King Lear's outburst demanding love, and then his sudden distrust of Cordelia (he knows she loves him the most) shows that Goneril and Regan just take advantage of the opportunity to pull the wool over the aging king's eyes. I definitely don't take their side when I think about it like that.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me so sad when Cordelia goes to leave and she says that she would rather have left her father in different hands than those of Regan and Goneril. That is really sad to me because the king isn't treated well by them. It brings us to kind of love Cordelia more because we know that even though he got mad at her for not saying how much she loved him as far as totally ostracizing her and making her feel worthless, she still loves him and would have taken care of him more than the sisters. Can't we find so many connections to the Cinderella story?
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