Goneril and Regan
Who are Goneril and Regan?
Lear's eldest daughters, between whom he divides control of Britain when he retires
Regan is married to the ruthless Duke of Cornwall, Goneril to the loyal Duke of Albany
They unite to take Lear's remaining power and to fight Cordelia's forces, yet are themselves mortal rivals for the love of Edmund
Eventually, Goneril poisons Regan and, when challenged over her actions, stabs herself to death
Equally evil
Initially Goneril seems to be the dominant sister. She decides that something must be done to ensure that Lear's rough treatment of Cordelia does not extent to Regan and herself. It is also Goneril who raises the issue of Lear's knights and provokes the first confrontation with her father in Act 1 scene 4.
Up to this point Regan seems happy to follow Goneril's course of action. But we get hints of her particular brand of sadism in Act 2 scene 2 when she urges Cornwall to inflict further punishment on Kent and then in Act 2 scene 4 she leads the onslaught against Lear
The sisters are now vicious equals. Both participate in what is for many the most horrific scene in the play, the blinding of Gloucester, Goneril suggests the method of torture, 'pluck out his...eyes!', and then Regan assaults Gloucester, tearing a hair from his beard, and egging her husband on to further cruelty
Subversive figures
Lear's elder daughters can be seen as subversive figures who share many character traits. Both are threatening and autocratic, cold and ambitious. Both lust after Edmund in a predatory and unfeminine way. They are masculine in other ways, too.
Goneril denies Albany's authority as well as traditional morality, arrogantly asserting her own power when she says, 'the laws are mine, not thine'
Regan may not be an adulteress, but she is a murderess, like her sister. She does 'man's work' when she runs the servant through with a sword in Act 3 scene 7
Goneril and Regan's vindictive assertiveness would have been particularly shocking to a Jacobean audience. Renaissance models of femininity required women to be quiet and submissive
AO3 CONTEXT
Among Lear's highest praise for Cordelia is that her voice was 'soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in a woman', but his elder daughters subvert all the accepted codes of feminine behaviour. They set out to destroy the family and the state. They are agents of chaos and misrule.
The terror the sisters inspire is emphasised by the animal imagery in the play and by the abhorrence of female sexuality exhibited, especially by Lear
Remorseless and inhumane
We might recognise the validity of their complaints about Lear in Act 1 scene 1; we might sympathise with them because they are not Lear's favourites; we might reflect that they have been constrained by limiting ideas about womanhood and in reaction assert themselves with courage and ambition
Nonetheless, we still have to abhor them as evil. Even Edmund comments on their bad natures. Jealous, treacherous, immoral - these two display all the most distressing features of inhumanity, murdering and maiming without remorse
The best that can be said for Goneril and Regan is that they are energetic in their pursuit of self-gratification. Ultimately we are obliged to reject Goneril and Regan utterly, even if there is a horrible fascination in watching them work
AO3 - The way the play is staged will shape our perception of whether Goneril and Regan are two of a kind or contrasting in their personalities. In the 1983 Granada TV production they enter together and behave similarly throughout, and in the 1988 BBC TV version, they wear identical grey outfits, both treatments which emphasise their resemblance
AO3 - When Ian McKellen played Lear, he was so struck by the contrast between Cordelia and her sisters that he wore two wedding rings, implying that they were the offspring of different marriages. However in Act 4 scene 3, Kent states that Lear had all his children by the same wife