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dekauke
dekauke

What are the ironic reversals in King Lear?

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Posted by dekauke on Monday April 6, 2009 at 2:10 PM and tagged with characters, cordelia, goneril, irony, king lear, regan, themes.

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  1. mshurn
    mshurn Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    Among other ironies in the play, Lear's tragedy is rooted in these two.

    The daughters whom Lear loves and trusts the most and to whom he gives up his kingdom are the daughters who love him not at all and who betray him completely. Goneril treats her aged father with contempt, excercising the very power he gave her to abuse and humiliate him. When Lear turns to Regan for aid, she instead supports her sister in this cruelty. Because of the betrayal of these two daughters, Lear ultimately suffers beyond endurance and slips into madness--not the comfortable old age he believed he would enjoy with his two loving daughters caring for him.

    The second basic irony in the play involves Cordelia. As the daughter who loves her father the most, the one who loves him enough to tell him the truth, Cordelia is disinherited and banished from her own country. Lear banishes Cordelia out of towering ego and foolish pride. It is Cordelia, however, who treats her father with tenderness and unconditional love at the end of his life, and it is Cordelia's death that plunges Lear into his deepest agony.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/kl/character-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/kl/summary
    http://www.enotes.com/kl/themes

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    Posted by mshurn on Saturday April 11, 2009 at 10:40 PM

  2. pmiranda2857
    pmiranda2857 Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Another ironic reversal in King Lear is represented in the relationship between the King and the Fool.  The Fool is wiser than the King.

    Another ironic reversal is when Gloucester becomes blind, he sees more clearly who his loyal and devoted son truly is, Edgar not Edmund.

    In their desperate rivalry for Edmund, the two sisters, Goneril and Regan end up dead.  Love leads to pure hatred which results in vengeful behavior and death.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/kl/summary
    http://www.enotes.com/kl/themes

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    Posted by pmiranda2857 on Sunday April 12, 2009 at 10:06 AM