king lear
...s test without hesitation, knowing all that their conceded father wants is to be the most loved and adored person in the world according to them. The two daughters, almost one step ahead of their father, flatter him with much envy and a plethora of compliments to quench his thirst. However, his youngest and perhaps most favored daughter, Cordelia, remains hesitant and quiet when put to the test. Quite fittingly Cordelia is the only one that puts her love into perspective to her father, yet it is not good enough for him. Therefore her honesty is denied and in return gets disowned by her own father, and her share gets turned over to the other two. “I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad/ I will not trouble thee, my child, Farewell. / We’ll no more meet, no more see one another”, (II. iv. 252-254). At this time a servant of Lear by the name Kent, who has been faithful to King Lear, voices that he disagrees with the king’s decision. Once again, King Lear is unable to recognize his true followers, and in fact disowns Kent much like the way he disowns his only true loving daughter Cordelia. By looking back at these chain of events that have occurred, King Lear has in fact left himself vulnerable to many people that he felt he trusted, but in fact, never took the time to step back and analyze the situation, instead of basing his judgment off of his ego. Therefore we later learn that his two daughters Goneril and Regan do not hesitate by attempting to whittle down their fathers’ powers, as they both now realize that the faster their father is diminished, the faster they have control of his former dynasty. The two daughters work almost as a team as they both have the same evil intentions of full betrayal of their father, the man who gave them a great opportunity in life, but instead it is turned against him. By this time, King Lear sets to do what he had in mind as soon as he retires, and that is spend the rest of his days with family that he believes is completely infatuated with him. Unfortunately for the king, he soon finds out that he is being slowly thrown away by his family in exchange for his soon to be given up powers. Goneril is the first daughter to set the scene as of what is about to become of the king’s luck regarding his own daughters. King Lear decides to reside with her, but Goneril thinks this is a great opportunity to start the process of exploiting her father. To start with, she demands that her father rid his majority of knights if he wants to stay there. The king is very appalled by her request, and eventually curses out his own daughter and states that he now realizes that it was a terrible idea to grant her powers after he is gone. It is too little too late for the king, because he is still blind to the consequences that will occur after making his decision of power basing it purely on his ego. Perhaps if he wasn’t so involved with his own persona, he could realize the best fit out of the three daughters. The same predicament occurs with his other daughter Regan, as she joins with her sister in eventually having their father curse them out in a rage and leaves them both. King Lear is so frustrated by these chain of events it is unbelievable. He chooses to march out into a storm after he is betrayed by his daughters, fittingly the daughters that he was convinced loved him the most. The king is still blind to the betrayal that has taken place, and it is pushing himself to the brink of insanity. By this time the king is slowly beginning to realize that he might not have been the great person that he thought he was for his entire reign. He second-guesses himself as he notices the poverty and wonders if there was anything more he could have done to help this problem. It is very ironic that he starts to realize these flaws in himself once it is too late. I am a very foolish and fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour m...