Shakespeare's play King Lear opens with the retiring king asking his daughters to declare the extent of their love for him before he gives them their share of the kingdom. Goneril and Regan comply, but Cordelia says she will tell him "Nothing." As a result, King Lear disowns her.
Why did Cordelia refuse to answer his question? How did she try to defend herself? Do you think Cordelia was right to behave as she did? Should she have tried harder to please her father? Why or why not?
Read what your classmates have said and reply, especially if you think they might be missing something important.
16 comments:
I can relate with Cordelia because I'm not eloquent like my sister is. Also, Cordelia is honest in her answer and tells the king about the dishonesty in her sisters' statements--how could they love only him if they have husbands to love? She tells him of her duty to love him, but also reminds him how she has loved him--in her actions. But because she can't flatter the stuck-up old man, he disowns her. I think Cordelia's been trying a long time to please her father and I think it's high time that a woman makes a stand and tells the man what's what. Even after he disowns her she accepts it!
I believe that Cordelia is intelligent and the most honest of her sisters. She is not going to vie with her sisters in order to declare something as intangible as love! Love is subjective, and objective, manipulative, unconditional, conditional, qualitative, quantitative, and elusive. I would have given the same response as Cordelia did. To hell with proving one's affection. The proof of love is in the giving and taking, the sharing, the caring, the years weathered and the heart's devotion. I cannot measure my love for my husband or my brother-in-law. The love I feel for those two men is very different and occurs and is shown in different ways. The manner in which I love my father is in a different way than I love my husband and brother-in-law (who lives with me and that is why I mention him). I could not name the extent to which I love the men in my life. I could say this: "I love you enough to share my life with you and share your life with you." I think that statements speaks volumes considering that a person can choose who they do and do not want to share their lives with.
I believe that Cordelia wasn't vein like her sisters; or greedy like her sisters; she wasn't going to try and compete with two women who were concerned with nothing more than what they could gain. Cordelia's answer was honest, it was bold, it wasn't conceited, and it wasn't false in order to gain something. Cordelia accepts being disowned because she cannot be untrue to herself and she is wise. She knows that she cannot tell her father the depth of her affection for him, she knows that to put that love in to words, to even be asked to put that love into words is absolutely ludicrous. If I had been her, and I was asked to compete with my sisters for how 'much' I loved my father, being the smart-#@@ that I am, I probably would have said, "I love you enough..." I like Cordelia. Some may think she is a martyr, but I think she is interesting and fascinating to study.
I think her sisters feel they need to prove themselves yet Cordelia tells it like it is. She obviously isn't afraid of what he thinks so tells him what her heart feels. Her sisters felt dishonesty was the best approach to win his favor which is why I think Cordelia did the right thing because she doesn't feel she has to prove anything to him. She spoke from truth and that's all that matters.
First of all it was kind of a stupid test for Lear to try and use to prove his daughters love and loyalty because of course the greedy ones are going to tell him exactly what he wants to hear in order to obtain as much land and power as possible and while Cordelia probably should have chosen better words to tell her father that she wasn't going to express her love for him in words she did the right thing by not sinking to her two sisters level and just saying what Lear wanted to hear and the fact that he got mad and banished her is his problem all he managed to do was loose a daughter.
I haven't read enough to get a good enough handle on Cordelia, but so far I can understand the opening situation in two ways. I understand and actually somewhat admire her for not being such a "suck-up." She seems like a very sincere and intelligent character so far. On the other hand, I am having a hard time understanding why she didn't just explain that to her father. Maybe that is just part of her character though, she finds no need in explaining her motives to anyone.
@Stace: I think that Cordelia did try to explain it to her father, but he was too stubborn to listen. Kent as well as the King of France also tried to tell King Lear that Cordelia is a very shy person. They tried to explain why it was hard for her to say what she really means.
I believe that Cordelia did the right thing when she showed her father that she was not going to shower him with love just to get something in exchange. It seems weird to me that Lear needed his daughters to show him thier affection for him to decide who to give his land and power to. I would have had the same attitude as Cordelia had because I would not want to act fake just to get soemthing that I want, because a father should know if his daughter love for him is true.
I believe that the reoccurring theme of wisdom in King Lear is immediately identified with the relationship between The King and his daughters, as it is apparent to me that neither Lear or his daughters demonstrate that they possess wisdom. I believe that Cordelia doesn't behave smartly, therefore dooms herself.
It is the general consensus that Cordelia is the wisest of these four characters, but perhaps she is being judged on her ethical senses rather than her sense of wisdom. She could have stated her love for her father in a much more efficent way considering her audience. It is my experience that all girls learn to butter up to their fathers and I don't understand why Cordelia could not have kept her honesty and her dignity, yet shown her true feelings of love for her father. How did she not notice that Lear was using his power to feed his ego and oblige his insecurities? I believe the King loves all of his daughters, and Goneril and Regan don't want to embrace that love, but choose rather to for greed and power. How smart is that to deny the love of family? The girls would have gotten the same things that they received and had family to love.
Cordelia chose honor over all else. Perhaps too prideful? She defended herself by stating simple truths to a man that had no reverence for the simple truths.
Cordelia should have tried harder to please her father, as I believe that she could have done it simply with a more subtle approach. Sometimes you just have to speak to different people in different ways.
"Todus Mundi Agit Histrionem" right?
Cordelia does answer Lear's question, but refuses to do so using flattery, which would neither accomplish nor mean anything. She says that she is not able to find the right words, but she really means that she can't find a cliche that her sisters haven't used yet, and that cliches are worthless anyway. Cordelia uses honesty, and does give an answer, she says she loves Lear as is customary and right for a daughter to love a father, and that she would remain unmarried to give all her love to him. I think that she did the best job of describing her love, but Lear just wanted to hear the pretty cliches. So, yes, I do think Cordelia was in the right to not look like a vapid, brown-nosing copycat, and she should not have tried harder, because the fact that she didn't proves she has morals and ethics in the right place. Also, Lear's test of love was flawed in and of itself, because he did not value the real love of his daughters (obviously), nor did he put any value on their actual words, or judge them intelligently just based on the statements. You see, he just went down the line of daughters, oldest to youngest, and gave the worst third to the oldest, the moderate to the middle daughter, and the best would have gone to Cordelia if she had said anything mildly pleasing to him. So the whole structure of the game was flawed by Lear himself before any of his daughters spoke, and why play a game that isn't fair?
Spartan and Stace make good points--why didn't Cordelia at least try to explain further why she couldn't find the words? She's clearly a shy character, but for someone who we say is brave for not "sucking-up," she sure didn't keep up the fight. We consider her as a heroin for not copying her two sisters’ pathetic responses, but she still lived within the confines of the day–marriage was necessary and silence was necessary. She didn’t argue with the king about her meaning because she wasn’t allowed to. But, I guess it’s one step at a time.
I think that we over-analyze Cordelia and her answer (like I’m doing now). I simply appreciate her honesty in a world full of back-biters and snobs. We should all be so honest.
All the good stuff has been said so far...but I admit to them all. Cordelia deserves admiration. If you convey it to nowadays, one sees a lot people who use flattery to achieve goals as Goneril and Regan. They loose their humanity over running for their goals. They don't get it that good, faithful relationships, especially to your parents, are more important than what you get from them to your bank account when the time comes they see the lettuce grow from the bottom up. I mean, she does not deny her love, she puts it only in simple words - clear and impressive. She doesn't make promises she cannot keep. And she thinks her father would understand her message. But he doesn't. He is blind from his own vanity, from his age which lets him long for praise nd love even more than during all his life.
Maybe she could have gone to him and hugged him during these words - to express in a different way what she meant. Ok, we are in a king's house here and distance is usual, but physical contact is often so important to highlight what one wants to say.
I think that Cordelia was just being a good woman. She was jsut being honest with her father. She didnt want to put boundries on her love for her father. Also, she could not compare her love for him with a size of land. I think she was right to behave as she did. In the end, she got what she deserved because she was the only daughter who did not use her father and then disown him. She was also the only daughter who was not killed or betrayed in return.
It is clear from the beginning that King Lear is swimming in narcissism. By his outlandish request to have his daughters compete in telling him who loves him more for a share of land, he sets the stage for his two opportunist daughters, Gonerial and Regan to politic for his grace for their personal wealth and power. They don’t love Lear; this is business opportunity for control. Cordelia could have followed her sisters’ lead but she didn’t have a personal agenda. In Act I Scene I she tells her father she loves, honors and obeys him. She defends herself by trying to reason with Lear by making point that if her sisters are married how can they only love him. She is giving her father the bottom line. She is being honest with him and honesty needs no flattery. Because of Lear’s ego he is willing to sell his wealth and power for meaningless words. Cordelia shows her father love and respect by being selfless and telling him what is true. In a way proving her father and her love for him is worth more than cheap words.
Cordelia should not have had to answer her father's question. Just as a parent shouldn't have to tell a child how much he or she is loved, and the parent shouldn't have to compete with the other telling the amount of love for a child. It would be a very childish for people to ask their parents to compete by telling how much the children are loved. It is the same thing when a parent asks the children to compete with the level of love. Cordelia had every right to behave the way she did. She knew her sisters were just using their father. She was the only honest one in the family. Cordelia didn't need to try any harder. Her father just didn't see how genuine her love really was.
@ Jynx: The way that I took your comment, the first post, it seemed as though you had a totally different outlook than I did. I think that you are a little too hard on Lear. I wouldn't use the phrase "stuck-up old man" because I don't think he was really stuck up. I think he basically just wanted to hear that his daughters loved him. I agree that it wasn't the smartest thing for him to do, but he wanted to know that he was loved. Afterall, Lear was nearing the end of his life. I think that Lear could have done a few things differently, but I don't think he was really "stuck up."
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