Matthew Wong College English 11 Mrs. Jean-Paul Literary Journals January 11, 2017 Quotation One As Lear argues with Regan he says, “ Thou better know’st the offices of nature, bond of childhood, effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude. Thy half o’ th’ kingdom hast thou not forgot, wherein I thee endowed” (II.iv 201-205) As scene four commences, Lear argues with Regan over Goneril. This quote is significant because it connects to the motif family. This is because you would expect the generosity given to your children to be returned through respect. Lear reminds Regan of everything that he had bestowed to her, that she should express and act on gratitude.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, Cordelia, the youngest and favorite daughter of the king showed a very soft personality. Her honest answer to her father means that she is of pure heart and soul. She has no intention of getting the biggest part of the kingdom. She values family and love over earthly properties such as land and wealth. Unlike her two sisters, she respects her father’s decision and obeys every command that her father gives.
Throughout the play, Nature is a key element in the plot. Lear mentions nature several times when addressing the other characters. He goes against the natural order of things by dividing his kingdom before his death. He goes against his natural father-daughter relationship by banishing Cordelia, and he uses power that he no longer has to throw Kent out from the kingdom. Lear describes his kingdom in a natural sense when giving Goneril her part of the kingdom, “Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests and with champains riched, With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,” (1.1.62-64).
The play King Lear by William Shakespeare is an ultimate in tragic downfall as it depicts an old King and his vassal's children deceive them and remove them from their political positions, as well as their positions as fathers. Throughout the play, Lear and the Duke of Gloucester become less and less important, due to their children's fight for power. As a result of this diminishing importance, both men experience a crippling of their masculinity. Lear asks his daughters, Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia to express their love for him, ”Which of you shall we say both love us most," (Shakespeare, I, i, 56). After he says this, his daughters Regan and Goneril confess to him all their love, telling him that no one will ever have their love like their father does.
They have drifted so far apart that she makes a statement about her partner that is truly saddening. "She knew she had never seen him, he had never seen her, they had met in the dark and had fought in the dark, not knowing whom they met nor whom they fought...in fear and shame she looked at his naked body, that she had known falsely. And he was the father of her children".(Lawrence). The image of the child feeling like ice in her womb goes directly in hand on how she felt at that exact moment when she saw his dead naked body. Two people
In the very beginning when Lear was asking his daughter how much they all loved him, Cordelia couldn’t come up with the right words to say that would express her feeling for her father and accused her sister of exaggerating their love for him. This really angered Lear and so he banished his once
B. W. Schlegel comments on King Lear's state, saying that: The three field dignity of a king, an old man, and a father, is dishonored by the cruel ingratitude of his unnatural daughters; the old Lear, who out of foolish tenderness has given away everything, is driven out to the world a wandering beggar, the childish imbecility to which he was fast advancing change into the wildest insanity…. ( Wilders, 1988:213-214). According to Elizabethans, daughters should obey and submit to their father's authority. On contrary this attitude is broken by Goneril and Regan, who are refused to behave like good, submissive Renaissance women; both of them seem to be ungrateful towards their father. In fact one can say that in King Lear "the children seem to be ungrateful with their parents and the old must be destroyed by the young".(Mure,1965:liii-xliii).
Creon has brought in Antigone to talk to her as he talks: “Had you head my proclamation touching this matter?” (Scene 2.55). Antigone responds back to what Creon had said: “Your edict, King, was strong, But all your strength is weakness itself against The immortal unrecorded laws of God” (Scene 2.59-61). She continues to add on to her earlier statement: “This death of mine Is of no importance; but if I had left my brother Lying in death unburied, I should have suffered. Now I do not” (Scene 2.69-72). She ignores what the law has said about her brother, and gave her brother the proper burial that should be given as the other brother
Shakespeare wants to show us that there is no authority to prevent betrayal as in the case of Edgar and Cordelia. King Lear betrays his daughter Cordelia by misunderstanding her intentions while his other daughters betray him by turning against him. On the other hand, Gloucester misjudges Edgar and he himself is betrayed by Edmund. Another theme in the play is reconciliation. Edger and Cordelia never ask for apology from their parents and both come to save them as Cordelia arrives with French army to save her father and she showers her true love over her father, so does
This shows how Cordelia is going to turn her life around since she was not happy before. We know she was not happy because that is what she said to her father in the first scene. Act 2 scene iv: Quote: "O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars / Are in the poorest thing superfluous. / Allow not nature more than nature needs, / Man’s life’s as cheap as beast’s."