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 her love and of her duty to her father. This enrages the old man, who refuses to give her any of his kingdom. She has failed to indulge in the excessive flattery of her sisters and is now rejected as a daughter because Lear is more affected by outward show than by true worth. This attitude parallels his failure as a king. He is more enamored of the outward show of kingship, the power and the praise, and less by the substance, the responsibilities of leadershi...