In the first scene of King Lear, the king asks his daughters to give flowery speeches of love in order to determine who would receive the greatest share of his land. When asked what she has to say, Cordelia, his youngest, famously replies with "Nothing, my lord." She then goes on to explain that her love for him is so great that no words could do it justice, and trying to frame her feelings in flowery speech would be to mock them. This, of course, lands her in a world of trouble and sets off the action of the play.
Her reasons for not at least attempting to give a speech are hard to fathom, but I believe it comes down to this: Cordelia is the youngest child, and her two older sisters have overbearing personalities and, evidently, a gift with words. Also it is revealed soon after her rejection of his game that Cordelia is the king's favorite child, and the one he most wished to spoil with wealth and love.
Cordelia was probably used to being her father's favorite, but in this case felt from the first that she had been placed in a contest she couldn't win with the given rules. So, whether out of simple honesty, a desire to bend the rules and win in an unexpected way, or just a youngest child's spite at what seems an unfair situation, she refuses to play Lear's game. She might be condemned by audience members for her seeming petulance, and all the problems it causes, but quite apart from the necessity of setting the play in motion, she would really not be the same character if she had reacted in any other way.
5 comments:
When Cordelia was asked to profess her love for her father, wasn’t she saying that she loved him as she should love her father, no more and no less? I didn’t get the same interpretation as you did for that part of the reading.
Other then that I do agree with you that Cordelia is feeling the pressure from her overbearing sisters. I think Cordelia knows that she is her father’s favorite but also knows that she will not win the given contest given the terms like you have already said. Maybe this shows how Cordelia cracks under pressure, and is not a strong character.
I'm going to have to disagree with your rather interesting interpretation of Cordelia's actions. I personally believe that Cordelia didn't answer her father because she truly loves her father and felt that words could not express that love. I do agree with your statement that Cordelia's older sister have VERY overbearing personalities and they definitely have a gift with words.
I'm not sure that I'd agree with your statement about Cordelia feeling she was in a contest that she couldn't win; I felt that she was being honest with Lear while her sisters were telling him what he wanted to hear.
I suppose, depending on how the rest of the play unfolds, that she may have known her sisters were lying and answered him in this way to be seen as a better daughter later in the play.
I really liked how you bring up something that a lot of people can relate to... even nowadays. The fact that Cordelia embodies characterististics of the "youngest child sydrome" is something that may help others when they try to understand her. I think that her decision to not profess her love of her father, shows that she knows that their is problem of language. Language cannot also capture what the speaker is trying to get across. The crisis of signification is something that writers still deal with today.
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