William Shakespeares King Lear - Essay Example

? Cordelia in “King Lear” William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” represents one of the most important tragedies of the period. Written in the 17th century, the play exposes the relationship between King Lear, the emperor of Britain, and his three daughters and how the conflict within the family resulted in a drastic tragedy. Among the multiple fatalities in the play, that of Cordelia, King Lear’s youngest daughter, is the most tragic because she is the heroine of the play and displays positive characteristics. Indeed, Cordelia is the most likable and significant character in the play because of her virtue, her love and her loyalty. These specific traits of her personality are overwhelmingly present throughout the whole play. Cordelia symbolizes virtue in “King Lear” because she truly believes in principles and repeals flattery in any form. Her refusal to participate in the game about the love test her father organizes in order to determine which daughter loves him the most reveals her true virtue. Unlike her sisters, Goneril and Regan, who exhibit their prowess of flattery in order to gain their father’s trust and, therefore, his wealth, Cordelia chooses to remain silent. She understands that the love she feels for her father cannot be measured by the words she utters during the show. When her father prompts her to express her love, she simply answers: “And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love 's / More richer than my tongue” (Lear 1.1). Even though she refuses to assimilate her love for her father to a simple display of words, her father fails to understand her message and considers this refusal to be about her pride or disobedience. This misunderstanding will be very costly to her and lead to the tragic events that follow. Even her father’s insistence and the threat that she may lose her family and her inheritance if she does not express her love for her father was not enough to make her change her mind. She states: “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty / According to my bond; nor more nor less” (Lear 1.1). This strong determination to stick to her values regardless of the outcome demonstrates her truthfulness and honesty, symbols of her virtue. Besides, this expression of her virtue makes Cordelia lose not only her home and family but also the dowry supposed to secure her a future home. She would not even deny her principles to guarantee herself a safe inheritance and power as did her sisters whose supposed love for King Lear was not genuine because they put forward their personal interest. Her sincerity leads to her banishment and loss of her inheritance. King Lear asserts: “Here I disclaim all my paternal care, / Propinquity and property of blood, / And as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee, from this, for ever) (1.1). This scary statement does not discourage Cordelia who defends her principles until the end. Even the loss of her dowry and the eventual loss of a potential husband do not deter her from her convictions. Here is the answer she serves the Duke of Burgundy who refuses to marry her because she lost her dowry: “Peace be with Burgundy! / Since that respects of fortune are his love, / I shall not be his wife” (1.1). This possibility to say no even in this precarious situation demonstrates her strength and her ability to face challenges. Luckily, the king of France recognizes her worth, adheres to her values and reveals: “: Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; / Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised! / Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon: / Be it lawful I take up what's cast away” (1.1). This deserved recognition saves her from homelessness and depravity and offers her a new home, a new family even though she has to undergo exile. Moreover, Cordelia expresses much love throughout the whole play. Her refusal to participate in the love exhibition game solely resides in the deep and true love she feels for her father. Her awareness of the flattery her sisters, Goneril and Regan, are using to impress King Lear in order to gain access to his wealth and power explains her refusal to participate in the game. Her love is so profound and sincere that she does not need to show it in public or even compare it to the so called love of her sisters. Through her silence, she tries to get her father to understand the depth and purity of her love and warn him about the villainy of her sisters even though King Lear does not comprehend the message. However, Kent understands the intensity of Cordelia’s love and attempts to sensitize King Lear in vain: “Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; / Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound / Reverbs no hollowness” (1.1). Lear’s failure to comprehend the reality of Cordelia’s love will lead to the chaos and tragedy in the play. Furthermore, Cordelia’s love does not just concern her father but all her surrounding, including her future husband. Indeed, she criticizes her sisters for claiming to fully love their father while they are married. Even though she loves her father dearly, she reserves half of her love to her future husband: “That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry / Half my love with him, half my care and duty: / Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, / To love my father all” (1.1). This recognition and consideration for her future husband demonstrate the expansion of her love and her true sincerity. In addition, Cordelia’s love comes out when she becomes aware of her sisters’ mistreatment of her father and comes back home to rescue him. Despite her banishment and exile, she puts forward her love for her father and his well-being over her own safety. Her reunion with her father embodies the return of order and puts an end to the prevailing chaos in the kingdom. Their reconciliation shows the power of forgiveness over hatred. This reunion provides happiness to both of them and reveals the importance of family and the joy it may provide its members. Talking about her father Cordelia informs: “My mourning and important tears hath pitied. / No blown ambition doth our arms incite, / But love, dear love, and our aged father's right: / Soon may I hear and see him” (4.4). Her actions are solely based on her love for her father and the need to rescue him from Goneril and Regan, who have seized his power and wealth and rendered him insane. This concern for her father’s safety reveals her love for him and brings some light on the love test at the beginning of the play. It turned out that the sisters who vowed devotion and love to King Lear ended up disrespecting him and abusing his power while Cordelia who was banished, came back to save her father and expressed her love. She says: “O my dear father! Restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss / Repair those violent harms that my two sisters / Have in thy reverence made” (4.7).This reflection shows that she is very compassionate and forgiving, but not revengeful or angry. She handles well her father’s capture and her own, which reveals her maturity and self-control. Another characteristic of Cordelia represents her loyalty to her father, which comes out when she risks her own life to put an end to her father’s predicament. Despite her banishment, she is loyal to her father and organizes an army to rescue him from her sisters. She strongly believes in principles and sacrificed home, family and wealth for them; yet, she repeated the same process to save his father. This time, she leaves her husband and her new country to rescue a father who dispossessed her of everything. In the first time, she left home because she was defending her principles but this time she left her adoptive home to express her loyalty to a father who once questioned her love. This filial gratitude and loyalty represent a real strength. She courageously fights to liberate her father, thereby, proving her loyalty to her father and risking prison and death. Even when she becomes a prisoner with her father, she philosophically accepts her condition through these words: “We are not the first / Who with best meaning have incurr’d the worst / For thee, oppressed king, I am cast down” (5.1). She basically sacrifices her well-being, her security and her freedom to liberate her father. This commitment shows how valuable her father is for her and that she is willing to risk her freedom for him. King Lear responds to the above statement through these words: “Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia / The gods themselves throw incense” (5.3). This assertion shows that father and daughter have been reconciled and that King Lear understands and appreciates Cordelia’s efforts to help him. The reference to the gods indicates that she has once again her father’s blessings, withdrawn earlier during the love contest. This genuine exchange between father and daughter symbolizes the restoration of the truth, the recognition of true love and the revelation of the true identity of the greedy and spiteful sisters, Goneril and Regan. Cordelia’s loyalty to her father costs her own life because the plotters considering her to be an obstacle to the realization of their dreams hanged her. Her strangulation in her prison cell symbolizes a loss of voice since the plotters fear her voice of wisdom and the influence it may have on people. Her death makes the play more tragic because it embodies the death of an innocent who plays around the rules. It allows King Lear to understand the true identity of Goneril and Regan and how far they can go in their search for power and wealth. He claims: “A Plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! / I might have sav’d her, now she’s gone for ever! / Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha” (5.3). This sad cry exposes the degree of his pain and frustration as he realizes the evil of those surrounding him, to whom he willingly transferred his power. The death of Cordelia, his banished daughter who did not inherit anything but risked her own life to save him, confirms her loyalty. She pays the price of her own life to liberate her father and restore order in the kingdom. This strangulation also proves the wickedness of Goneril, Regan and their accomplices who are responsible for Cordelia’s death. Their villainy and greed drive their father to insanity and cost their sister’s life. Cordelia was conscious about her sisters’ spitefulness when she warned: “Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides: / Who cover faults, at last shame them derides” (1.1). This prophetic statement comes true through the greed and wickedness of Goneril and Regan and their mistreatment of their father to serve their own purposes. Unlike them, Cordelia lives according to her principles and dies in the noble mission to liberate her father. William Shakespeare’s Cordelia is a tragic heroine who lives and dies with her principles. Her clear difference from her sisters and her ability to challenge her father represent the root of her characteristics based on virtue, love and loyalty. Upon King Lear’s decision to divide his kingdom among his daughters and the requirement that they express how they love him, Cordelia remained silent and refused to participate in what she knew was just a game. She distinguishes herself from her sisters who flatter their father in order to get his power and wealth. Though absent for most of the play, Cordelia’s presence is felt through the attitudes of her sisters and her father’s madness. Despite her banishment, dispossession, denial of dowry and exile, she succeeds in overcoming all these obstacles and forgiving her father. The awareness of her father’s suffering in the hands of her own sisters urges her to risk her own life in an attempt to rescue him. This courageous effort establishes her virtue, love and loyalty to not only her father but all her surroundings. Work Cited Shakespeare, William. “King Lear.” Shakespeare.mit.edu. The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 1993. Web. 23 Jan. 2013. Read More