Family Relationships In King Lear

One theme that is consistent in all of Shakespeare’s plays is that of family dynamics. King Lear is a tragedy that accounts for the loyalties and betrayals between multiple characters within a single family. The relationship between Lear and his three daughters, as well as the daughter’s relationships to each other are analyzed. In King Lear the responsibilities of parent to child, child to parent, and sister to sister are scrutinized. Shakespeare’s play questions the obligations and duties that family members hold for each other. Familial bonds are tangible ideas that modern day readers would have experience with and gravitate toward. Contemporary audiences would be able to identify with the trials of familial responsibilities that Shakespeare …show more content…
They lie about their love for their father to gain land and authority. When Goneril and Regan are asked to describe their love for Lear they make outrageous responses like loving him more than “eyesight, space, and liberty” (1.1.55) and are “enemy to all other joys” (1.1.72) but his happiness. The older daughters have planned to degrade their father in his old age; from Act 1, scene 1 the audience knows they plan to “strike while the irons hot,” to set their cunning plans into motion. However, Lear also does not seem to be the most nurturing of paternal figures either, and at times he curses his daughters very intensely. In Act 1, scene 4 Lear prays that Goneril is sterile or has monstrous a child, and in act 2, scene 4 her hope lighting will blind her and “infect her beauty” (155). The relationship between Lear, Goneril and Regan is callous at best. There is little consideration for each other’s thoughts or feelings. The way they treat each other is as far away from familial as possible. Audiences can identify with, or disassociate from, the relationships shown between Lear’s family. Everyone has family that they don’t get along with; and while Lear is an extremely harsh example of family dynamics, readers still are attracted to the horror of their bonds, and care about what happens to their …show more content…
They are the people who you are supposed to depend on. Your parents, siblings, husbands, or wives- they are the ones who support you, protect you, love you, and who you in turn love, support and protect. Therefore the family dynamics in King Lear are heartbreaking. They are so skewed, so damaged by pride and jealousy and that Lear and his daughters end up more like enemies than a functioning family. Their dynamics literally kill each other. There are pieces of their relationship that everyone can relate to, a favored younger sibling, mean older siblings, aging parents, and a crazy uncle. However, there are also pieces of their relationship that shock readers. How can these people call themselves a family? Who could treat members of their family like