Lear's control and power over his daughters

         Lear's respect towards his daughters and the control he                                               has over them

The novel I've studied and will be writing about is King Lear by Shakespeare.

In King Lear, in terms of cultural context, we see just how much control and little respect fathers can have for their daughters.

Fathers had complete and utter control over their daughters, their life choices and usually had little respect towards to them because women were seen as inferior compared to men. We see this in King Lear through out the play.

 Lear has complete and utter control over his daughters and their future. The example that I'll be using is Act I, Scene II when King Lear is choosing his daughters suitors.This is cultural context in a sense that fathers got to choose their daughters husbands and the daughters had absolutely no say in whether they wanted that husband, let alone if they wanted that husband at all. This is completely normal for women and are very much so used to it as we don't see any of them protest against is, indicating they're used to have absolutely now power in their life and the choices they make. We can see that this affects women as Goneril hates her husband, Albany. We can see that she despises him because at the end of the play she falls for Edmund and orders him to kill Albany so they can be together. This could have been avoided if Lear had let Goneril choose a man who she actually liked but that realistically would have never happened in that time period.

Lear also has usually very little respect for their daughters and their dignity. The example I'm going to use is in the same scene, when Lear spirals into a fit of rage after Cordelia doesn't tell him how much she loves him. In the scene, we see how quickly Lear snaps at Cordelia even though he refers to her as his favorite. After calling her many hurtful names in front a room full of potential suitors, her sisters and important individuals, he then begins to offer to the remaining suitors. He doesn't do it a pleasant way but he makes her out to be burden and as if she's a cow getting auctioned off at a farmers market. "Take her or leave her" he says to Burgundy who turns her away considering she's now powerless and has nothing to her name. Cordelia probably isn't used to this considering Lear openly exclaims that she is his favorite. How much did he actually love Cordelia if he was able to disown her so quickly? This shows how little respect for her.

We sometimes see Lear intertwining the two (the two being having little respect and having power over his daughters. The example I'm going to use is when Lear curses Goneril to be infertile.This is a huge deal as back in Elizabethan times women were seen to be practically useless to society so their main purpose was to birth and raise children for the husband so for Lear to take this away from Goneril is an act of pure hatred towards her and power over her, not only because he's her father but also because he's King which makes him think he's got more more of an advantage when it comes to talking to the gods. I think that the reason why Goneril and Regan have so little respect for him when he really was vulnerable is because of how little he had towards them when they were growing up considering Cordelia was noticeably his favorite which must have made them feel worthless if your father, the one who's meant to love and protect you, makes you feel second best.

Comparative Essay:

The origin of parents respect and power over their children is seen in both texts. Both texts have characters who have parents who have so much control over them yet little respect towards them. 

In King Lear, Cordelia especially is the character who Lear had so much power over and so little respect towards. Even in the first scene we see how Lear gets to choose who Cordelia marries. He's choosing who Cordelia is going to spend the rest of her life with and isn't factoring in her happiness or who she actually likes. In terms of respect, when Cordelia refuses to tell Lear how much he loves her as she doesn't feel the need to, he spirals into a fit of rage and then somewhat raffles her off to the remaining suitors leaving Cordelia mortified as it was in a room full of her sisters and other powerful figures. Lear disowns Cordelia in a sense here. He no longer wants anything to do with her as she defied him and went against what he wanted. A similar situation is seen in the movie Pride. Joe, a gay man, is growing up in a homophobic England where being gay is the ultimate no-no. After Joe's dad find out he's gay his parents, especially his father, spiral into a fit of rage. We cant exactly tell what's being said because the scene is blurred out but we know that his parents are furious with him. They aren't factoring in that Joe can't help who he loves, but they want to force him to like women. Similarly, Lear is choosing who Cordelia and not factoring in her preference. Therefore, there is power and control over children in both texts.