Shakespeares King Lear - Suffering of Cordelia in King Lear Essay

The tragedy of Shakespeares mogul Lear is made far more than than tragic and painful by the presence and suffering of the kings youngest daughter, Cordelia. While our kind-heartedness for the king is somewhat restrained by his brutal cruelty towards others, there is nothing to dampen our emotional response to Cordelias suffering. Nothing, that is, at first glance. Harley Granville-Barker justifies her incommensurable fate thus the tragic truth about life to the Shakespeare that wrote great power Lear... includes its capricious cruelty. And what meeter sacrifice to this than Cordelia?5 Yet in some other passage Granville-Barker has come much closer to touching on the legitimate explanation. I quote the passage at length.   It will be a fatal error to present Cordelia as a meek saint. She has more than a touch of her father in her. She is as proud as he is, and as obstinate, for all her sweetness and her youth. And, being young, she answers uncalculatingly with ostentatio n to his pride even as later she answers with pity to his misery. To miss this likeness betwixt the two is to miss Shakespeares first important dramatic effect the decently old man and the frail child, confronted, and each unyielding... If age owes some valuation reserve to youth, it may be thought too that youth owes to age and sire something more--and less--than the truth...6 Again he sums it up Pride unchecked in Lear has bounteous monstrous and diseased with his years. In her youth it shows unspoiled, it is in flower. But it is the said(prenominal) pride.7   As in his portrayal of Desdemona, here too Shakespeare has presented a adult female of beauty and culture. Her demeanor is gentle and refined though not lack in strength or determination. Her emotions are deep, pure, loyal and e... ... speak When federal agency to flattery bows? To plainness honours bound When majesty falls to folly. (I.i.144-8)   The immediate case is the order for his own exile from the kingdom and his donning a disguise so that he may continue his service to Lear. It is noteworthy that none of the real evil characters in the drama have yet taken a conscious initiative. Up to this point everything centers around the interaction of Lear, Cordelia and Kent and all the flagitious sufferings which follow have their source in this encounter. To rightly comprehend King Lear, we must see the true significance of the court and the direct family between it and the tragedy that follows. We must discover the source of the great long suit and direction which finds expression in the action of the drama, and carries it to its inexorable conclusion.