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Themes in King Lear (Motifs / Themes (Betrayal/filial ingratitude…

- - - - "I have no way, and therefore I want no eyes. I stumbled when I saw". (Gloucester)
    - - "I have doner her wrong" (Lear) "O my follies! Then Edgar was abused, Kind Gods forgive me that, and prosper him" (Gloucester
- - - - "Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life and thou no breath at all?" (Lear to dead Cordelia)
  - - - Favourtism - Lear favours Cordelia over his other daughters. Gloucester claims to favour his sons equally yet society facours the llegitimate.
      - Role reversals / filial ingratitude
        
        Cordelia cares for Lear
        
        Edgar cares for Gloucester
        
        Goneril and Regan reject their father and take advantage of the power given to them and of his age and vulnerability
        
        The Fool recognises that Goneril and Regan will attempt to control their father with their new power.
        
        "Monstter Ingratitude!"
- - - - Edmund betrays Edgar to gain his father's trust.
      - Goneril and Regan turn on each other after they have gained power as they both lust after Edmund.
    - - Goneril and Regan betray Lear and then are raised into the highest power in England.
        
        "pelican daughters" (Lear about Goneril and Regan)
      - Edmund betrays Gloucester to gain his title and power
      - Lear feels as though Cordelia betrayed him.
        
        "Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee from this forever.".
  - - - "I will preserve myself; and am bethought / To take the basest and most poorest shape.
      - Hardens and prepares him to defeat Edmund at the close of the play.
    - - Provides him with wisdom by reducing him to humaniyty. Thus Lear learns humility/ modesty.
  - - - KING LEAR: Absolute ruler, evoking grandeur and authority, representing God and the reigning partriarchy of kinship until the love test. Then he refuses questioning or wisdom of his lords, Shows vanity, and is a foolish, egotistical old man.
        
        Previous greatness shown through Cordelia's, but largely Kent's, devotion
      - Stripped of the authority of kingship (made obvious by Goneril's complaint about the knights), Lear is a man without identity.
        
        Lear: "Does any here know me? This is not Lear... Who is it that can tell me who I am?