King Lear’s Personality.
's basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances above reality. He enjoys being flattered and portrayed as an almost god-like figure who deserves constant praise from all those that he comes across. Lear is aging at this point and cannot cope with all the hassle and fuss of a Kings’ duties, so he decides to split his duties and kingdom amongst his 3 daughters. He wants to be treated as a king and to enjoy the title, but he doesn't want to fulfill a king's obligations of governing for the good of his subjects. Similarly his test of his daughters demonstrates that he values a flattering public display of love over real love. He doesn't ask "which of you doth love us most," but rather, "which of you shall we say doth love us most?" We conclude that Lear is simply blind to the truth and asks this question in an almost ignorant way (basically fishing for compliments), but is already his favorite daughter at the beginning of the play, so presumably he knows that she loves him the most. Nevertheless, Lear values and 's efforts in outdoing each other in an almost ‘auctioning’ of expressing feelings.
An important question to ask is whether Lear develops as a character, whether he learns from his mistakes and becomes a better and more insightful person or not. In a way the answer is no, as he doesn't completely recover his sanity and emerge as a better king. But his values do change throughout the play. As he realizes his weakness and insignificance in comparison to the awesome forces of the natural world and also since he lives as a peasant, he becomes a humble and caring individual. He comes to cherish Cordelia above everything else and he cherishes any little thing that she does for him. In this play we also admire Cordelia’s patience and true love for her father, even though he put her through so much pain and hardship. Rather than despising Lear for banishing her, Cordelia remains devoted, even from afar, and eventually brings an army from a foreign country to rescue him from his tormentors. Lear, meanwhile, learns a tremendously cruel lesson in humility and eventually reaches the point where he can reunite joyfully with Cordelia and experience the balm of her forgiving love. Lear's recognition of the error of his ways is vital to reconciliation with Cordelia, not because Cordelia feels wronged by him but because he has understood the sincerity and depth of her love for him. Towards the end of the play he changes finally more as a person and would rather be with cordelia and love her rather than having all the ‘glories’ of kingship.
