Blog: King Lear. 10/07/09.

Response to Coppelia Kahn’s “The Absent Mother in King Lear.”



1. "But what the play depicts, of course, is the failure of that presence: the failure of a father’s power to command love in a patriarchal world and the emotional penalty he pays for wielding power. Lear’s very insistence on paternal power, in fact, belies its shakiness; similarly, the absence of the mother points to her hidden presence . . . . When Lear begins to feel the loss of Cordelia, to be wounded by her sisters, and to recognize his own vulnerability, he calls his state of mind hysteria, 'the mother,' which I interpret as his repressed identification with the mother. Women and the needs and traits associated with them are supposed to stay in their element, as Lear says, 'below' – denigrated, silenced, denied. In this patriarchal world, masculine identity depends on repressing the vulnerability, dependency, and capacity for feeling which are called 'feminine.'"

RESPONSE: I agree that King Lear represses his emotional or “feminine” side in order to keep the upper hand as king and as a man. Especially for the time period it was normal for men to have the “power” while women were merely expected to play the roles of wives and mothers. When Lear decides to divide his kingdom he suggests the best way to determine which of his daughters gets the best share is to see who loves him the most. Goneril and Regan proclaim their love (and their obvious desperate attempt to woo him) while Cordelia, the innocent daughter of the three, notes that there is nothing she can say to describe her love for her father. I believe the best way to put this particular thought together is to describe it from a feminist’s point of view: How like a man to put on a contest for his own ego. Displeased with Cordelia’s answer, he banishes her. By the end of the play, Lear has discovered Goneril and Regan’s true objective and feels guilty for the wrong done onto Cordelia. In his guilt and emotional state, Lear refers to it as “the mother” – because by expressing these certain emotions, it is very “feminine” of him.




2. "Despite a lifetime of strenuous defense against admitting feeling and the power of feminine presence into his world, defense fostered at every turn by prevailing social arrangements, Lear manages to let them in. He learns to weep and, though his tears scald and burn like molten lead, they are no longer 'women’s weapons' against which he must defend himself."

RESPONSE: It is after he understands what Goneril and Regan truly wanted – and in the wrong done to Cordelia - that Lear lets his “feminine” side out. He weeps and asks for Cordelia’s forgiveness: “You must bear with me. Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish” (Act IV-Scene VIII). It’s after this great discovery that Lear allows his “masculine” walls to break and he learns to allow himself to feel the “feminine presence.” He no longer uses the “women’s weapons” but can cry like any woman or man can.





3. This passage relates to the reunion scene with Corelia (Act 4, Scene 7): "These are the tears of ashamed self-knowledge, manly tears caused by a realization of what his original childish demands on his daughters had led to. In this scene, which I want to compare with the next scene with Cordelia, Lear comes closer than he ever does later to a mature acceptance of his human dependency."

RESPONSE: When Lear cries, I see him crying as a man who has let his emotional walls down. I don’t think anyone views this scene and thinks: “Ppfff, men don’t cry.” He cries because he has realized what he’s done through his childish and egotistical act of asking his daughters “Who loves me the most?” I agree that he does accept reality in a way that it’s not just a “masculine” versus “feminine” world. Lear knows he has done wrong to Cordelia and how foolish it was to ask his daughters who loved him the most – since that question appears to be the catalyst for when the story drastically changes. I see how he accepts his “human dependency” – especially when he’s not sure if Cordelia is alive or dead – in his heartbreak, he collapses and dies. It’s almost as if Lear needed the love of his daughters to survive. The betrayal of Goneril and Regan drive him mad, Cordelia’s return restores Lear’s sanity, and Cordelia’s (questionable) death lead Lear to his own death.