King Lear Forgiveness

Compassion and forgiveness are one out of the four dominating and prominent themes in William Shakespeare's play, King Lear. In the play, many characters are betrayed and hurt by their loved ones. This sets the stage for the drama in the play. Only through compassion and forgiveness can they forgive each other until tragically they all die. The Cordelia who is not only betrayed but also disowned and banished by her father, King Lear finds a way to forgive Lear at the end of the when he begs for her absolution. In the middle of Act One, Scene One of the play, King Lear, the Divine King of England in the era of B.C., banishes and disowns his youngest daughter, Cordelia. However, King Lear banishing his daughter is through no one else’s fault but his own. The drama of the play begins to set in when Lear asks, “Which of you shall we say doth love us most, / That we our largest bounty may extend/ Where nature doth with nature challenge” …show more content…
Lear fails to recognize that his older daughters only said what he wanted to hear in order to get what they wanted. And that Cordelia, the daughter he loves the most, did not want to flatter him because she assumed that Lear was aware of her love. And as the reader continues to read the play they become aware that King Lear regrets banishing and disowning Cordelia. Readers may wonder and actually become annoyed and ask why Cordelia could not just proclaim her love for her father and flatter him like her other sisters chose to do? When Cordelia refused to flatter him, he not only tells her that, “nothing will come of nothing,” but later on in the play he banishes and disowns her, “Here I disclaim all my paternal care/ Propinquity, and property of blood/ And as a stranger to my heart and me” (1.1.125-128), I sympathize with Cordelia because I recall my own experience of being disowned and essentially banished by my biological