King Lear Essay | Critical Essay #13

King Lear Critical Essay #13

A. C. Bradley and John F. Danby represent the traditional, prevailing view of Cordelia as the ideal female, endowed with tenderness, resolve, dignity, and unfailing love. Marilyn Gaull emphasizes Cordelia's obedient nature and argues that she represents the divine or transcendent love which created and sustains universal order. Danby further asserts that in the love test, Cordelia demonstrates courage, self-confidence, and poise; her self-assurance, he argues, should not be confused with pride, he argues.

J. Ginger links Cordelia's actions in Act I, scene i with her penchant for bluntness and honesty. In contrast, Simon O. Lesser judges that her actions in the play's opening scene are influenced by anger toward her father and resentment of her sisters-emotions which impair her judgment and prevent her from giving her father the praise and reassurance she knows that he needs. Lesser detects an incestuous element in the love between Lear and his...
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