King Lear Essay

King Lear’s three daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia are the storyline with King Lear’s illegitimate claim to power. Goneril and Regan side together as Cordelia, the youngest daughter, truly loves her father, while the other two just want the power of control (Davis, 2018). King Lear tests his daughters’ love to him. When testing his daughters, King Lear bans Cordelia from the kingdom because of his misjudgment and mindset. During this test Cordelia refuses to flatter her father causing her being banned from the kingdom. Shakespeare shows Cordelia to be truly a loving character toward her father and truthful toward her wicked sisters (Bevington, 2014). Goneril and Regan only pretend to love their father to gain power. Goneril and Regan reveal to the audience their true feelings toward their father after Cordelia leaves to be with the King of France. The sisters plot their plan to discredit their father and his knights. Regan confronts Kent and has him put in the stockades because he is loyal to King Lear. The plan to get their father out of the kingdom to gain all of the power shows their true feelings toward the king. The difference between the three sisters is that Goneril and Regan were just about getting the power from their father even if they had to lie to him to get a part of the

Although the army is successful in helping King Lear reconcile with Cordelia, both are captured by Edmund and order to death. While waiting execution, Edgar is able to kill Edmund and before his order to cancel the execution of King Lear and Cordelia, Cordelia is killed. King Lear carrying his dead daughter sees his mistakes and understands which daughter truly loved him to the end. King Lear dies soon after Cordelia’s death from a broken heart. The irony in this play is that King Lear had to see his daughter dead before he realized she was the only one that truly loved him (Lawrence,