Goneril and Regan, King Lear

Goneril and Regan, King Lear

  • Submitted By: mmdd
  • Date Submitted: 05/15/2010 3:36 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 742
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 785

The characters of Goneril and Regan are especially memorable in the play due to their coldness and bestial nature. From the very beginning of the play, their ‘filial ingratitude’ casts them as selfish and callous villains. Through them Shakespeare is able to show how low humans can sink in order to satisfy their egoistical needs. Goneril and Regan mirror the most deplorable human traits and thus manage to both allure and repulse the readers.
Goneril is the stronger character of the two sisters. Her actions towards others speak louder than words. There is no other character in the play who is more ruthless, barbarous or cruel than Goneril. Her power, her cleverness and her emotional strength inveigle the reader. She is a strong and capable leader. All of these characteristics are flaunted in the very first scene where both sisters deceive their father. The hypocrisy of the words “I love you more than words can wield the matter, dearer than eyesight space and liberty, beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, no less than life with grace” is indisputable. Her last words in the first scene prove her deceitfulness - “We must do something and in the heat”. She is smart and cunning and knows what she has to do to achieve her ends. Thus a reader stays tuned to see how her character develops.
Her ingratitude and contempt for her father is astonishing. She indulges Lear’s foolish vanity and then turns against him. Her reference to Lear as ‘an idle old man that still would manage those authorities that he hath given away’ portrays her complete ingratitude. The fact that she takes advantage of Lear’s misjudgement of character really exposes her as a heartless creature. For this reason, it is not surprising that animal imagery dominates in the play. Throughout the play Goneril is depicted as a ‘detested kite’, a ‘sea-monster’, ‘a devil’, ‘a fiend’, ‘a vulture’.The loyal Kent condemns both Goneril and Regan as “dog-hearted daughters” and Lear himself curses on Goneril...

Similar Essays