Issues of gender & power in King Lear
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Issues of gender and power infuse King Lear, a play in which Shakespeare addresses questions about the responsibilities of kings and the rights of succession. King Lear is a foolish old man who allows his desire to have a quiet old age color his judgment about his rights and responsibilities as king of England. He has to make judgments on the specific question of gender and power when he must decide about his three daughters and how to divide his kingdom among them. It is his failure to judge the worth of his daughters correctly that leads to his downfall because he has false ideas about the importance of power and how it is to be used responsibly as well as about judging the women he should know much better than he does. Such questions were important in the Renaissance era of Shakespeare as they were in the earlier historical period of King Lear, and much of what Shakespeare has to say about Lear and his concerns were issues in his own time. King Lear's first error is in thinking that he can abdicate his responsibilities and give away his realm while still retaining those aspects of his power that he prizes. In effect, Lear wants to be treated as king without having any of the responsibilities of king. He decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, and to help him decide how to make the division, he asks that each of them profess their love for him. The two older sisters give fulsome praise to their father, but the youngest, Cordelia, speaks quietly of
. . .
howing greater wisdom as a ruler and as a man than King Lear has shown. The relationship between Cordelia and her husband is mutual, supportive, and also serves the interests of their subjects and their kingdoms.
In the society of Shakespeare's time, children owed allegiance to their parents as the people owed allegiance to their king. One of the major philosophical beliefs of the period is seen as vitally important in King Lear, and that is what was known as the Great Chain of Being. It governed every aspect of life in some way because it explained the proper place for every person and every thing:
Hierarchy was the guiding principle of all realms of existence. . . The Great Chain of Being, stretching from the lowliest creature in the natural world all the way up to God, connected these worlds to each other, and the hierarchy of one was mirrored in the others (Papp and Kirkland 28).
The king occupied a particular place, as did each of his subjects, and Lear's tragedy is that he fails to understand the nature of the place of the ruler. This idea of a proper order was evident even in the way people were expected to dress:
Nowhere was this principle clearer than in the rigid clothing laws, which detailed who could wear
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1417
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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