Yes, that is the situation we are presented in King Lear. When the king asks his three daughters to tell him how much they love them, two of them, Goneril and Regan, almost run out of words in the rush to tell express their "love" towards their father. However, the daughter whom Lear expected the most from, Cordelia, is the least effusive.
Deeply hurt by this, Lear decides to give all of his goods to the other two, just because he was not content at all with Cordelia's reply. And this is something common nowadays; even though it should not happen, there are parents who slightly or notoriously express their preference for one of their children and, therefore, they think that child will be the most effusive when showing love.
However, when they play advances, we realize that Goneril and Regan seem to easily forget all that deep love for their father; they start to attempt to diminish his power, and to care less about him. Why? Because they already had their inheritance, there was nothing else they could take from him.
And that daughter, the one that Lear was most disappointed of, was the only one who tried to save him; even though she was not able or did not want to express her love in words, she expressed it in actions. This leads us to another matter; do actions speak louder than words?
Parents should not expect anything from children, because they can be highly disappointed. Actually, it is said that we should not expect anything, from anyone. There is a quote, it is said that the author was William Shakespeare; I am not that sure about it, but anyway, I like it, so here it goes:
“I always feel happy, you know why? Because I don’t expect anything from anyone. Expectations always hurt. Life is short, so love your life, be happy and keep smiling.”
So, some questions to think...
Do actions speak louder than words?
What do you think about parents' expectations?
Further Reading:
Further Reading:
I do believe that actions speak louder than words, sometimes we expect people to do what we would do in the situation, but they don´t, and that´s the moment when we feel disappointed, sadly that happens a lot; however, it is important to mention that although people don´t do what we expect, they do things differently but we are not always able to see it. So be prepared to be surprised for the unexpected actions of those who surround us, that speak louder than words.
ResponderEliminarIntersting topic. But I think the real problem here is pride, and not expecting something from others.
ResponderEliminarWe as children, will always expect our parents to be the best ones in the world, therefore, it is no rare to think that our parents will expect us to be the best sons in the world. The problem comes here when parents think that being the best son in the world is doing what they want us to do with our lives, not "paying" them tribute but to live the way they lived theirs. Sadly, some parents are too pride to accept that some things change and that we do not want to live their lives, we want to live our own. However, this does not men to become rebels.
There is no problem with doing whatever we want, but if we want our parents to respect our lives, shoudn't we first respect theirs and all what they have done for us? The love of a mother, the love of a father is deathproof (most of the cases). Just like in the play, when Lear finds out that Cordelia had always been the good one.
I think that is the message of the play. Being a good son, being a good parent is a matter of action, not a matter of saing nice words.
I find myself in accord with you Kathy because I have always thought that actions speak louder than words. Most of the times words are used in order to hide something and for me they mean nothing...because when a person says something and the his/her actions are different that instantly leads to disappointment. I know my point of view sounds a bit negative, but I am trying to be realistic.
ResponderEliminarIn the case of parents expectation's is the same...I mean we don't have to wait anything from anyone and, as future parents, we only need to be aware of raising a good and honest person.