The Role of Gender in Shakespeares King Lear
Kirby Southerland November 11, 2012 English 2010 The Role of Gender in Shakespeare’s King Lear The famous tragedy, King Lear, was written by William Shakespeare between 1603 and 1606 and later revised. [Originally titled The True Chronicle of the History of Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters and later The Tragedy of King Lear, which was a more theatrical version, many modern editors shorten the title, though most insist that each version has its individual integrity that should be preserved.] Lear’s daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordeila, are three of the main characters in the play. [The daughters are all treated differently, as Goneril and Regan flattered their father in elaborate terms, Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia was straight forward and honest, though she felt she did not need to express her love for him in elaborate ways in public, and because of her silence, she was banished from the kingdom.] The mistreatment of women in general by all of the men in the play, but mainly by the king himself, is evident throughout King Lear, with the description of them being “promiscuous and disloyal,” and thus their role in the play was very miniscule. Cordelia is the exception to the promiscuous and disloyal stereotype, as she is portrayed as being a more ideal daughter, by the standards set by Shakespearean times, though according to