King Lear Group

Question:


readingbooks17
Student

Is Lear a good father?

Rate question:

Posted by readingbooks17 on Friday January 26, 2007 at 1:38 PM and tagged with father, king lear.

Answers:


  1. brendawm Teacher
    High School - 9th Grade

    eNotes Editor

     Lear's basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances above reality. He wants to be treated as a king and to enjoy the title, but he doesn’t want to fulfill a king’s obligations of governing for the good of his subjects.  An important question to ask is whether Lear develops as a character—whether he learns from his mistakes and becomes a better and more insightful human being. In some ways the answer is no: he doesn’t completely recover his sanity and emerge as a better king. His values do change over the course of the play.  He realizes his weakness and insignificance in comparison to the awesome forces of the natural world, he becomes a humble and caring individual. He comes to cherish Cordelia above everything else he places his own love for Cordelia above every other consideration, up to the point that he would rather live in prison with her than rule as a king again.  Therefore, the answer as to whether he is a good king or not is difficult to say precisely; however, he is most definitely a better person.

    Rate answer:

    Posted by brendawm on Monday July 9, 2007 at 1:33 PM

  2. revolution
    revolution Teacher
    Doctorate

    No, he was not a good father. He showered a lot of attention and love towards the youngest daughters and neglect the two older ones, which brought about a lot of resentment and hatred among them.

    Lear was very vain, egotistic and proud. He engages in a very foolish game when he asks his daughter to proclaim their extent of love towards him, which destroys the whole family and cause mayhem ravaging throughout the land.

    Rate answer:

    Posted by revolution on Thursday July 16, 2009 at 6:38 AM