Summary:
King Lear by William Shakespeare with the meaningful theme of love in family bond still remains as a well-known tragedy attracting many generations of readers, especially for those who want to explore the complicated family bond between parents and children.
Ten years ago, as a little girl, fairy tale was the most favourite kind of my reading. The happy ending in every fairy tale made me enjoyable very much. Sometimes, I got some meaningful lessons for myself from the story I had read. To some extent, like a fairy tale, King Lear by William Shakespeare also brings back to me the memories of those days, that is overwhelmed by the story about King and princesses. However, it is obviously not a fairy tale because of its tragic ending and its profound philosophies of life. Love in family bond is one of the meaningful themes in King Lear that I am interested in most of all.
To begin with, King Lear's trust in the deception of love of his two first daughters -Goneril and Regan - tragically brings him to his cruel fate at the end of the play. Ironically, King Lear starts his tragedy by trying to quantify the love of his three daughters " Which of you shall we say doth love us most. That we our largest bounty may extend." That means the love given by word of mouth surely gives him great pleasure. So, Goneril and Regan skillfully take advantage of it. Their overstatements about their love secretly hide their strong desire for wealth and fame that the King promise to give them. I wonder if it is human weakness when one can easily make a mistake by being fond of flattering words. King Lear is an example of this. Proverb said that "all that glitters is not gold." But in the play, King Lear is very appreciate for Goneril and Regan's flattery. He strongly believes in these exaggerative declaration of love such as " I love you more than word can wield the matter. Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty" spoken by Goneril or ."..that I profess. Myself an enemy to all other joys ... In your dear Highness' love" spoken by Regan. Of course, as far as we can see, at the end of the play, both of them betray their words completely. After possessing what they want, they glacially abandon their poor father, leave him in his poverty and loneliness. So, what they call love from the "true heart" is just their deception to their poor father. Perhaps it is much painful for King Lear to realize the truth of his two first daughters' dishonest words. But it is the fact that he can not deny for his misjudgement from the beginning.
Next, as I said before, there is a favour of fairy tale in this play. That is the appearance of King Lear's youngest child who always remains faithful to him- Cordelia. In spite of King Lear's coldness to her, Cordelia's unconditional love is still unchanged. She makes me think of a poor little princess standing beside her father who intentionally ignores her for her honest words " Unhappy that I am, I can not heave. My heart into my mouth, I love you Majesty. According to my bond, no more no less." The fact that she can not blurt out her loyalty to her father in the way of her two sisters deprives her of her father's affection. Also, there is no wealth and fame for her. I think not only King Lear but also Cordelia has to suffer the misery. Though she wants to be a daughter being loyal, dutiful and honest to her father, King Lear denies recognizing that fact. How sufferable we are if we know that our true love has no meaning to the one we love. However, Cordelia still devotes all her true love to her father without any requirement for response. She takes no regret of it even when being deserted and exiled by King Lear. More than that, she persistently proves her unconditional love when she tries her best to cure and heal King Lear's distress later. Thus, misjudgement on Cordelia's loyalty is also another mistake of King Lear which causes his tragedy.
At last, Cordelia's unconditional love is still undying at the end in spite of her fatal fate. As the main theme in each fairy tale, the Deception finally has to give way for the Truth. Cordelia's loyalty is then recognized by her father. Honestly, I was deeply moved by the meeting between King Lear and Cordelia. Until that time, they have a chance to reunite their family bond which they seem to lose forever by King Lear's blindness. King Lear tries to ask for Cordelia's forgiveness " I know you do not love me, for your sisters. Have as I do remember, done me wrong. You have some cause, they have not." In replying to him, she earnestly says that " No cause, no cause." Evidently, she shows that her affection to her father is everlasting. She is still a little daughter who adores and loves her father for no reason and regardless of how sufferable she is when she is ill-treated by him. One more thing, if it were not Cordelia's true love for King Lear, how could she bears the harsh situation- having a desperately poor and distressed father. In fact, she can not use flattering words to express her love, but what she does for her father is much greater than that. Fortunately, after travelling exhaustedly a hard and painful road of his life, King Lear finally can learn the truth and the deception of his daughters' affection. But it is too late for him to correct his mistakes. Cordelia's death is an unbearable anguish to him. In his grief, he cries out that " Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life. And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more. Never, never, never, never, never..." Perhaps never in his life could he have a chance to make up for Cordelia- his little beloved daughter. His recognition of his wrongs to her seems to come too late. Lacking the perception of true love at the beginning costs him a high price that he has to pay for by the tragedy of his life.
To sum up, King Lear by William Shakespeare with the meaningful theme of love in family bond still remains as a well-known tragedy attracting many generations of readers, especially for those who want to explore the complicated family bond between parents and children. We as the readers have great impression on the catharsis through the thread of the story. We get to know some meaningful messages for ourselves about human nature. As human beings, we tend to be falsified by the external expressions. So, we must try to be careful and thoughtful whenever we make a judgement about something. Misjudgement can cause the mistake that sometimes we have no chance to correct. We also learn that true love is a precious gift . In spite of how harsh life is, it still exists and should be treasured in every man's life.
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