King Lear | Lear's Daughters

In the first excerpt, A. C. Bradley views Cordelia as a superlative figure who combines many of the individual virtues of Shakespeare's other heroines: a loving nature, a tender heart, resolution, and dignity. In the second excerpt, Edwin Muir discusses Goneril and Regan as representatives of a new political order. In the early 1600s, when the play was written, the medieval concept of communal traditions was giving way to modern notions of political rule—ones that emphasized effectiveness rather than principles.

A. C. Bradley
[Bradley's remarks about Cordelia have been frequently cited by subsequent critics, even by those who profoundly disagree with his perspective on Lear's youngest daughter. He views her as a superlative figure who combines many of the individual virtues of Shakespeare's other heroines: a loving nature, a tender heart, resolution, and dignity. In Bradley's judgment, Cordelia ought not to be blamed for her imperfections—touches of pride and personal antagonism, an inability to speak of love, and her insistence on telling the truth rather than showing...

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