Lear is motivated by love for his daughters and his reactions to their apparent love or lack of it for him. Time and again, and increasingly as the play progresses, all three daughters let him down, to his way of thinking. The progression of his madness is exacerbated not only by the emotional damage that this lack of love causes him, but by the physical effects of being shut out onto the moor.
As he reacts to their actions and his view that they are being unreasonable--such as in refusing to allow the full complement of his men to accompany him--he rants and rails against them. He calls for dreadful curses such as barrenness to attack them.
It is easy to see all these things as indications that Lear hates his daughters. But it is also possible to understand his motivations from the other perspective. Lear does not hate his daughters; he loves them too much. His madness progresses in large part from his realization that they are unworthy of his love. He refuses to believe they have rejected him: "They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder." It is when he understands that this rejection is complete that his heart breaks as he sees that his very sanity is in danger.
No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
In sum, Lear loves his daughters. The realization that his love has led him astray, including that Cordelia alone reciprocated his love, is what ultimately breaks and then kills him.
No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall—I will do such things,—What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep No, I'll not weep: I have full cause of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad! (Act II, Scene 4)
King Lear must continue to express how much he hates his daughters Goneril and Regan throughout the play in order to explain why he doesn't go back and live with them on their terms. He doesn't have to suffer cold, exposure, and hunger. They have both said in Act II, Scene 4 that they would be happy to accommodate him without his hundred knights. He would have a whole staff of servants to look after him and access to the best food and wine. His daughters are no doubt heartless, but they would both like to ease their consciences by taking good care of their father in his old age. Their husbands Cornwall and Albany would also be content with such a satisfactory solution to the problem. It doesn't look too good for any of them, the daughters or their husbands, to have the King wandering utterly destitute in the open country after he has given them his entire kingdom. Shakespeare not only made Lear outraged and furious, but he also made him a little bit insane. (When Lear says in the above quote, "O fool, I shall go mad!" it is to inform the audience that Lear is already beginning to lose his mind.) Lear has to be both angry and insane not to realize that he should go back to his daughters on their terms. (He might make some kind of bargain to have his knights receive modest "severance packages" and some accommodation to be made for his Fool.) Lear wouldn't have to consort with his daughters or his sons-in-law at all. He could probably have a whole suite to himself and live out the rest of his life in comfortable solitude. He has to be both ungovernably angry and insane, as Shakespeare has portrayed him, to endure the foul kind of homeless existence he suffers after the end of Act 2. At his age, such hardships can lead to an early death. In Act III, Scene 2, even his Fool counsels,
O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing: here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool.
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