Deception and Unconditional Love in King Lear

Ten years ago, as a little girl, fairy tale was the most favourit kind of my reading. The happy ending in every fairy tale made me enjoyable very much. Sometimes, I got some meaningful lessons for myself from the story I had read. To some extent, like a fairy tale, King Lear by William Shakespeare also brings back to me the memories of those days, that is overwhelmed by the story about King and princesses. However, it is obviously not a fairy tale because of its tragic ending and its profound philosophies of life. Love in family bond is one of the meaningful themes in King Lear that I am interested in most of all.

To begin with, King Lear's trust in the deception of love of his two first daughters -Goneril and Reagan - tragically brings him to his cruel fate at the end of the play. Ironically, King Lear starts his tragedy by trying to quantify the love of his three daughters " Which of you shall we say doth love us most. That we our largest bounty may extend." That means the love given by word of mouth surely gives him great pleasure. So, Goneril and Regan skillfully take advantage of it. Their overstatements about their love secretly hide their strong desire for wealth and fame that the King promise to give them. I wonder if it is human weakness when one can easily makes a mistake by being fond of flattering words. King Lear is an example of this. Proverb said that "all that glitters is not gold." But in the play, King Lear is very appreciate for Goneril and Regan's flattery. He strongly believes in these exaggerative declaration of love such as " I love you more than word can wield the matter. Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty" spoken by Goneril or ."..that I profess. Myself an enemy to all other joys ... In your dear Highness' love" spoken by Regan. Of course, as far as we can see, at the end of the play, both of them betray their words completely. After possessing what they want, they glacially abandon their poor father, leave him in his poverty and loneliness. So, what they call love from the "true heart" is just their deception to their poor father. Perhaps it is much painful for King Lear to realize the truth of his two first daughters' dishonest words.