CORDELIA By Jenny and Laura

Significant Quotations ‘Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth: I love your majesty according to my bond, no more nor less’. (pg 104) – At the start of King Lear, Cordelia refuses to join her two sisters in exclaiming her love for her father in the hope of getting a third of his kingdom. King Lear takes this to mean that Cordelia doesn’t love him, so he refuses to look at her and disowns her as his daughter. When Cordelia comes back into the play, she is the Queen of France and she converses with Kent about her father. ‘cure this great breach in his abused nature; Th’untuned and jarring senses O wind up of this child-changed father!’ (pg 236) Shakespeare often uses the metaphor of discord in music to portray mental disorder and this can be seen above. It is clear that Cordelia misses her Father and wants to help him. Cordelia blames her two sisters for Lear’s descent into madness and this is shown when she says, ‘repair those violent harms that my two sisters have in their reverence made’. (pg 237) Cordelia then meets her father at the end of the play and Lear realises how foolish he has been to cast her out of his kingdom. He cannot believe his luck that he has found her again and holds onto her tightly whilst telling her it will take divine intervention to separate them again. She tells him that they ‘are not the first who with best meaning have incurred the worst’. (pg 245) They then walk of stage and the next time we see Cordelia is when Lear enters ‘with Cordelia in his arms’ (pg 259), after she has been hanged.

Character Development At the very beginning of King Lear, she stands apart from her two sisters and this shows her independence and the strength of her character. She refuses to give in and declare her love for her father like her other sisters do. This power is immediately juxtaposed with the vulnerability we see when King Lear throws her out of his kingdom. The King of France declares his love for Cordelia and, as if she has regained her power from another male figure, she leaves to become the Queen of France. The audience do not meet Cordelia again until the very end of the play when she finds herself imprisoned with her Father. She shows no anger towards her father or her sisters and seems to have forgiven them. She is still shown to be a strong woman, in control of her emotions, and it is King Lear who weeps when Cordelia is hanged.

Relationship with Other Characters She is the sister of Goneril and Regan and the daughter of King Lear She marries the King of France She can be compared with the Fool as in some regards they are quite similar She is respectful and loyal to Kent when they meet at the end of the play.

Do their actions or speech link them to any of the themes in King Lear? Family relationships – Cordelia is thrown out of the family and refuses to compete with her sisters for a piece of the kingdom Sight – Lear banishes Cordelia from his sight as he believes that she doesn’t love him and cannot bear to look at her Filial ingratitude – Cordelia is abandoned by her Father when she wont describe her affection for him Truth – Cordelia always tells the truth and is the only ‘good’ sister. She never takes on any disguise or lies Feminine power – She is shown to be a very strong willed, independent woman and this is seen when she follows France to carry on with her own life, without her fathers protection or love.

Critical Readings Some interpretations of ‘King Lear’ believe the fool and Cordelia to be a double role – this is seen in the last lines of the play when Lear laments, ‘And my poor fool is hanged’ when talking about Cordelia. Gradually we realize that the Fool is Cordelia’s surrogate during her absence. The two never appear in the same scene and hardly even refer to each other, but we have been casually, and very subtly, made aware of their mutual love. There are similarities between Cordelia and the Fool, most obvious is the fact that like Cordelia, the Fool is a truth-teller. Shakespeare subtly links the two characters together through Lear, for example, as the Fool keeps teasing Lear, Lear mutters to himself, ‘I did her wrong.’ It is clear that by ‘her’ he means Cordelia. Despite her absence, Cordelia is present to him in his Fool. Instead of threatening him with whipping, Lear, in the midst of his own suffering and madness, treats him with the utmost tenderness, affectionately calling him ‘my boy.’ It’s his indirect way of expressing his love and regret for his cruelty to his only true-hearted daughter.