Comparative of 'King Lear', 'Pride' and 'Silas Marner'

Comparative of 'King Lear', 'Pride' and 'Silas Marner'

Opening Comparative Statement

Developed Comparative Statement

Text

Comparative Link

Restatement

Key Word

 'King Lear', 'Silas Marner' and 'Pride' all deal with a theme of dysfunctional family. The texts reveal families that experience dysfunctionality. In the first scene, Lear starts off by causing an argument between his daughters which gives the initial evidence of dysfunctionality within his family. Lear says," Which of you shall we say doth love me most?" This one line immediately sets off the argument that defines the play. Each of the sisters must tell him how much they love him to receive their share of the kingdom. When he does this, it forces conflict within the family. The two older sisters compete against each other to profess their love of Lear, while the younger one (Cordelia), the one who actually loves him, is banished from his life because she refuses to take part in the madness. This family is very clearly dysfunctional because they do not operate normally, with conflict and verbal abuse occurring continuously. Lear has a favourite daughter (Cordelia) who he then shuns based on her apparent lack of love for him. This is terrible parenting and makes the whole family dysfunctional. While the whole family is dysfunctional, this is almost entirely King Lear's fault. During the sisters' upbringing, Cordelia was the favourite, which made the other two harbour resentment for her and their father, Lear. However, this train of thought begs the question- where is the mother? If the mother of the daughters had been present during their upbringing, perhaps the family wouldn't have been so dysfunctional. This partially lifts the blame off of Lear's shoulders.

Similarly, in 'Pride' by Matthew Warchus, bad parenting results in a dysfunctional family when Joe's parents do not accept his sexuality. Joe's parents discover that he is gay when they find pictures of his gay life in his room. When Joe returns home, he is greeted by his father shouting at him and his mother crying silently. His mother then tries to manipulate him into being straight again. She says "It's such a terrible life Joe, it's so lonely... hiding from everyone at work... keeping secrets..." This is the epitome of a dysfunctional family, with Joe’s mother manipulating him instead of comforting him or accepting him who he is. This is evidently emotional blackmail from Joe’s mum, which leads to further dysfunctionality within Joe’s family. Joe had kept his sexuality secret from his family because he knew his parents would react in a negative to his being gay. Joe keeping secrets leads dysfunctionality within his family, but the dysfunctionality was already present, because he was afraid of coming out to his parents. Before His parents found out, Joe's brother in law was seen being homophobic, and throughout the film there seems to be a homophobic culture in Joe's family and neighbours. This fear of his parents finding out his sexuality made him be more and secretive and deceitful, which led to further dysfunctionality. Joe kept secrets because he knows his parents would react in negative ways to his being gay.

This dysfunctionality takes a different shape in 'Silas Marner'. Godfrey and Nancy love each other very much, but when they realise they cannot have children, the dysfunctionality begins to creep into their family. When Godfrey reveals his secret, the dysfunctionality in his family is both heightened and subdued. It is heightened because he had been keeping a secret during all their years of marriage, but also subdued because the secret brings hope of having a child at last. However, unlike the other families in ‘King Lear’ and ‘Pride’, they resolve their dysfunctionality. They try to adopt Eppie, but when she refuses, they accept their fate of never having children, and move on with their life. However, the Cass family once was much more dysfunctional than this. Before Nancy married into the family, there were arguments and blackmailing between the two Cass brothers, and like in ‘King Lear’ there was no mother. This is very important because a missing parent often leads to a dysfunctional family. In ‘Pride’ although both parents are present, the father does not seem to have any interest in his son’s life which can be just as bad. In the Cass family, both brothers were holding many different thigs against each other and threatening to tell their father, but when Dunstan dies, the Cass family is no longer dysfunctional which shows that the hateful relationship between Dunstan and Godfrey was the root of the problems in their family, which in turn stems from the fact that the mother is missing.

Dysfunctional families are prominent in all 3 texts, and at the root are often due to missing parental figures and squabbling siblings. In ‘King Lear the mother of the sisters is missing, and the sisters are divided and then turn against each other. In ‘Pride’ the father is effectively missing because he has no interest in his son’s life. Lastly, in ‘Silas Marner’ the mother of the Cass family is missing like in ‘King Lear’ and the siblings squabble just like ‘King Lear’. Although the families are all dysfunctional, the Cass family is the odd one out because they resolve their conflict, even if it takes the death of a family member to do so.