I think “the absent mother” had a profound affect on both King Lear and his daughters. Children need to see displays of love and affection, which Lear was incapable or unwilling to portray. He was foolish with his kingdom demanding the respect of being king, with none of its responsibilities. I find Kahn’s definition of the feminine powers somewhat sexist, but also true. I understand how stoicism and lack of emotion can equate to power in a man’s world. However, being patriarchal may have been too detrimental to his relationships with his daughters.
I agree with the first excerpt to the effect, that as the play goes on he realizes his vulnerability, dependence and capacity for feeling. At the beginning of the play, Lear tries to logically split the kingdom by having a competition to see who loves him most, but his daughters trick him. Cordelia does not participate in the charade, because she knows the other daughters are lying, and she loves him the most. King Lear shows a certain emotional immaturity when he creates the competition, because he is demanding a public show of affection. These actions come back to haunt him because when Cordelia refuses to participate, he misunderstands her sincerity. She says nothing because there are no words to express the depth of her love and loyalty to her father, and whatever she did say would be overshadowed by the false praises of her sisters. King Lear does realize his more feminine or emotional side through out the play, and he eventually becomes hysterical because of his inability to realize these emotions. I believe he realizes his feminine attributes, and while he does not become a better King, he becomes more caring and understanding.
King Lear sees weakness in tears, the excerpt defines as “women’s weapons,” I think Lear grows as a person to accept that a human being, and not only a woman, can be fragile and find solace in portraying emotion. His “life time of strenuous defense” has done nothing but made him blind and callous. He does grow as a person, and realizes at the end the error of his ways. He finally grows to the point where he can show his emotions. He realizes how unfair the competition was and at the end is loyal and caring towards Cordelia and even decides to stay in jail to be at her side. This shows a capacity for emotion that the Old Lear never would have been capable of.
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First of all- great introduction to your blog, it came out very strong! :D
ReplyDeleteI love the psychological analysis you have going on here.
King Lear is emotionally stunted it seems, yes, and very immature. Making legislative matters out of a game between your daughters is the act of an insufferable tyrant with the brain of a toddler. It reminds of archery competitions between knights to win the hand of the King’s daughter in marriage. It’s silliness.
King Lear’s “public demand of affection,” to me, is a cry for help. A man his age who is so demanding of said public displays is obviously insecure and unsure of himself, his power and his legacy. He is like a puppy, begging for attention. When Cordelia snubs his request, he gets a huge kick in the ego, and yet again reacts like a child. It’s almost as if he’s a small child screaming “Fine, I don’t want to play with you anyway, now get out of my tree house!”
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Even though he wouldn’t admit it (or even view it as such), King Lear is coming to his “feminine side.” He would be more likely to admit to having come to some kind of wit’s end than admit to having a hysterical hissy fit. But then we see some great change in Lear when he stays in jail for Cordelia- finally, some kind of parental support for Cordelia!
Alex – I couldn’t agree more with your view on Cordelia!! I feel the same way, that she in fact does love him the most and isn’t willing to participate in the nonsense because of this. It saddens me that her sincerity is misunderstood and taken for grated by her father. It breaks my heart that he shuns her because she doesn’t feed him the insincere words of “love” that are given by her sisters. I hate that he does not accept her alternate forms of expression of her love to him. I also agree with you about Lear being callus and blind. Unfortunately, the life that he has lead has caused this for him and he has probably lost all ability of expressing affection and some emotions. It is clear he thinks he needs to be in control of his emotions and he does this by being an ornery old man. I love that he finally does show emotion in the end and that it is in fact toward Cordelia, I think he sees that she is genuine and truly does love and respect him. It shows that he has a special bond with her and makes me think that is why he was so offended that she didn’t sing praises of love and adoration for him.
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