Character Analysis Of Cordielia In Shakespeare's King Lear

Character Analysis of Cordielia

In Act 1 Scene 1 of King Lear by Shakespeare, due to his age, King Lear decides to split his land amongst his daughters. In order to decide who receives which parcel of land he asks his daughters to proclaim their love for him, in which to expose who is most deserving of a part of the kingdom. Though both her sisters, Goneril and Regan, speak of their great love for their father, Cordelia barely says anything at all. Cordelia being absent, silent, or doing nothing at all is a reoccurring theme throughout the play. She is most active in Act 1 Scene 1 but does not show up again until Act 4 and then dying in Act 5. Though the emptiness in Cordelia’s actions point to a greater theme of nothingness prevalent in the entire play, her intelligence is in keeping quiet and only saying what she knows to be true.

Cordelia

An example of these speech patterns is, “obey you, love you, and most honor you” (1.1.98). She is silent on stage as her father gives all the land away to her sisters, as Kent stands up against the king’s mistake, and as her suitors enter. After her father has disowned her and insulted her to her suitors she finally tells her father, “If for I want that glib and oily art, to speak and purpose not,” meaning she is at a lack of words to describe her love (1.1.243). She then continues to say, “But even for want of that for which I am richer: a still-soliciting eye and such a tongue as I am glad I have not, though not to have it hath lost me in your liking” (1.1.243). She truly believes that this lack of words makes her honorable, even if it causes her to lose her father’s love. She has the philosophy that saying little and meaning what you say is more important than being ostentatious. In Shakespeare’s plays, the blunt, concise people are usually the ones who possess the wisdom and truth that most of the characters cannot