After had seen the first part of the movie in class, I
thought that Cordelia was a strong, feminist who would stand up for herself.
She did not flatter her father the way he sisters did, which I interpreted as
an opposition to the patriarchy imposed by her father, the King. Cordelia is
honest when telling her father, “...love your majesty. According to my bond,
nor more nor less” (Shakespeare, 2007, p. 09). She contrasts her sisters’ insincere speeches.
Where is Cordelia after this?
She is absent almost the
entire play.
She appears at the beginning and then reappears in the end of the
play. She represents “a clear example of the prototypical ´Shakespearean woman’:
absent, silent or dead”(Donat, n.d., p. 04). On act 4, she is no
longer the same women. She has no voice and has become an obedient daughter,
while her sisters now have a more powerful speech and they are the ones who
defy the King.
Cordelia is restored to the patriarchic power and is now against
what her sisters has done “Repair those violent harms that my two sisters. Have
in thy reverence made!.”
Has she lost her entire power? Yes. And no. She now
commands a group of soldiers, so she still has some control and power. But I do not think she is powerfull enough any longer.
However, the King’s will become true. She
finally gets the love of his favorite daughter. But how? In prison, during act 5.
When King Lear and Cordelia go to prison, he is monopolizing her love. Besides,
does she even speak during this act? She barely talks during the fifth act
which can be seen as she has been silenced.
Moreover, do you remember how she
dies? By strangulation. This is the last clue. She has being silenced and by
strangulating her, Shakespeare is telling you that she no longer possess a
voice.
So, is Cordelia a real feminist who possess power
and will, or is she just a wanna-be feminist who once had control but now she
has been consumed by the old order?
Cordelia at the beginning
Cordelia at the end.
Sources
Del Carmen, R. (2013, March 3). Brainchild:
Your Phoelea: Feminist Views in Shakespeare’s
King Lear [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://phoelea.blogspot.com/2013/03/feminist-views-in-shakespeares-king-lear.html
Donat, B. (n.d.). Jornades de
Foment de la Investigació: ARE THE FEMALE CHARACTERS
STEREOTYPED IN KING LEAR AS DEMONISED OR SANCTIFIED
WOMEN? Retrieved
from Universitat Jaume I website: http://www.uji.es/bin/publ/edicions/jfi5/female.pdf
Shakespeare, W. (2007). King Lear. B. Raffel & H. Bloom (Eds.). New Haven: Yale
University Press.
From my point of view, Cordelia is a real feminist, she prefered to stay in silence rather than say something just because of pleasure his father; even though she loved him, she didn't say what he wanted to hear. But at the same time, she, by the end of the play, has been consumed bythe old order as most of the authentic characters of Shakespeare's play. It is because of this that she remind me a little bit to Ophelia as both are very obedients daughter, but the biggest difference is that Cordelia is not consumed by other's wills.
ResponderEliminarIf you pay attention to the way she died, you can notice that she has been consumed by the old order; as you pointed out, she has been silenced, in contrast to the first scene in which she deciced not to say something.