Reflections on King Lear

In the beginning of Shakespeare's King Lear, the king is portrayed as wanting both total control and total dependency (Kahn). He wants his daughters to say what he wants to hear about their love for him. When he does not get what he wants he goes into a rage that is played by some actors as jumping up and down on the table in a very childlike posture. The king is very used to getting what he wants, and to be told what he wants to hear. Later on, he regrets this desire by claiming, "They flattered me like a dog...They told me I was everything. Tis a lie"(4.6.96,104). As Lear's understanding grows he is filled with regret for his need to be flattered. This, after all is what began the whole problem; Lear wanting Cordelia to express her love for him the way he wanted to hear it. Lear was getting old, and he was ready to enter his second childhood. He gave away the responsibility of the kingdom, and he had hopes that Cordelia would be a nurse to him in his old age. She would act like a mother figure to him. The sisters, Regan and Goneril represent a masculinity, and absence of the mother figure in the play. They are power hungry, ambitious and self-seeking. A mother figure is kind, forgiving and other-serving. It is also interesting that though Regan and Goneril both were already in a married state, yet the two women were not mother's themselves. It is as if they did not have the capacity for motherhood. Perhaps Lear is able to see in his two daughters what his own life has been about. As he is forced to step out of his kingly robe he is able to see many of the faults that came with his patriarchy rise in Goneril and Regan. He wishes things were right between himself and Cordelia, and it is shame, not pride that forbids their re-uniting. When they are united, and about to be taken to prison, Lear has been brought to a position of forgiveness and he tells Cordelia, "let's away to prison. We two will sing like birds i'th' cage...I'll kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness...we'll live, and pray, and sing...and laugh at gilded butterflies"(5.3.8-13). In order for Lear to understand his human dependency, and therefore the need for forgiveness both of himself and Cordelia, he first had to go through a process of purification which was given to him by mother nature. In the storm, Lear realized there was something greater than himself. He could not command the thunder and lightning. The image of Lear prancing about covered in wild plants shows his connection with the lessons of mother nature, "crowned with rank fumiter and furrow weeds, with hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckooflowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow"(4.4.3-5). It is through these feminine forces-the power of nature and Cordelia's real love- that the king begins to open to his emotional side and release his pain. He found the capacity for feeling and forgiveness. The beauty of the lips that match the action give rise to true power.