We were just starting to talk about the theme of love in King Lear, and the subjectivity related to it. That no matter how you express yourself, your inner thoughts, your subjectivity the world always has other plans for you, the world is always conspiring against you. When you say I love you, it never means what you really feel, but it always means something like... I made a mistake and I´m saying this because I screw it up!
In King Lear the misinterpretation of what is love is evident. King Lear makes his daughters express their feelings towards him through words, expressing their subjectivity in their own way. And what Lear expects from them is that they use the most flourishing words to express affection. What King Lear wants is to hear his daughters expressing something that they may feel, because they are a family, but the problem is that what he expects is not what he receives from all the three girls.
What I realize in this point and what I remember when I was reading the book is the famous quote that maybe some friend may have told you at some moment… “The fact that someone does not love the way you wanted to, it does not mean that he/she does not love you with all his/her heart”.
This phrase works accordingly with what King Lear thought of Cordelia (the only daughter that remain silent after Lear asked them to express how much they love him in order to divide the kingdom- a not very wise decision-) he felt terrible upset, not because of Cordelia´s feelings towards him (because he knows that his daughter loves him) but because his vanity has been damaged, since he is not valued of the flourishing words he looks forward to receive.
And here I remember the famous song of Haddaway, What is love? A questions that makes you feel uncomfortable because what we always expect about love is what is posted in magazines, in Facebook pages or silly songs. But love is a much more complex feeling that most of the times hurts, and hurts terrible. Maybe because what you receive is not what you want, or is expressed in the words that you don’t want to hear at best, or what you never hear, because is expressed through actions. Something that we did not comprehend until we understand that words are a moment and a moment happens and did not lasts.
So... what we want? A feeling that lasts or just empty rethoric?
References
- Shakespeare, W. (2007). King Lear. Yale university press: New Haven and London.
-Friedlander, E. (2005). Enjoying Kig Lear by William Shakespeare. Retrieved Nov. 18, 2014 from http://www.pathguy.com/kinglear.html
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