King Lear Quote Analysis

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The quote that I chose for my “The words from King Lear literally” assignment can be found in Act 1, Scene 4, line 285-286:
Lear: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child!”
Lear is talking to Goneril and is swearing and shouting at her, because he is outraged over his own daughter’s treatment of him and that she intends to throw him out of her castle.
After King Lear bequeathed his entire kingdom to Goneril and her sister Regan, he believed that his daughters would care for him in old age. However, the two sisters sole interest lies in acquiring their father’s power and money, so each of them refuse to accommodate him and his 50 knights.
In Scene 4, Lear finally realizes that Goneril does not truly love him as proclaimed in Scene 1, when she put her father above all else; Lear now sees her for who she really is and realizes that he banished the wrong daughter Cordelia, who had been honest in pronouncing that she loved him according to her bonds, no more nor less. …show more content…

He states that it is worse to have a thankless daughter, than to be bitten by a serpent. In the bible, serpents are a representation of Satan. I believe this statement symbolizes that King Lear thinks Goneril is even worse than the devil himself. At the time when King Lear was published, in 1608, the people in England were mostly Christian, very religious and God-fearing. This lifestyle enhances the significance of Shakespeare having the boldness to write about serpents, which were seen as representations of Satan, a subject that was best

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