What is the name of King Lear's daughter?
Cordelia (King Lear) Jump to navigation Jump to search. character in King Lear. Cordelia is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragic play, King Lear. She is the youngest of King Lear's three daughters, and his favourite.
How many children did King Lear have?
The story of King Lear, despite its original portrayal, is apocryphal. The mythological aspects that send us to the ancient origins of the story are the numbers of the daughters he had – three. The three children is the common theme in the myths and fairy tales all over the world.
How does King Lear divide his kingdom among his daughters?
By dividing his kingdom among his daughters, Lear gives them the power to dictate his own future, just as a father has control over the future of his children. Because Cordelia is the daughter he loves most, Lear expects her to care for him as he hands over his power to his children and advances into old age,...
Why does King Lear go to the middle daughter Reagan?
Offended, King Lear goes to the middle daughter, Reagan, to complain and to spend some time in her house, but she is outright hostile, not even letting him stay. Finally the revelation comes to the old former King.
Who were the daughters of King Lear?
Shakespeare's great tragedy, King Lear, is the story of Lear's fall from power after dividing his kingdom and subsequently being betrayed by his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.
Who is the eldest daughter of King Lear?
GonerilGoneril is the oldest daughter of King Lear, and is married to the Duke of Albany. She is also one of the play's principal villains.
Who is the second daughter of King Lear?
ReganRegan Lear's second daughter. Regan joins forces with Goneril to destroy their father. Regan initially appears less harsh than her elder sister, but in the end, she proves to be as blood-thirsty as Goneril.
What did King Lear expect his youngest daughter to say?
What does he expect of his daughters? Lear demands that his daughters affirm their love for him. He asks, “which of you shall we say doth love us most?” Lear expects his three daughters to offer him rivaling speeches and declarations of love and affection.
Is Goneril a queen?
Set seven years before Shakespeare's legendary play King Lear, Queen Goneril is seen through the eyes of his three daughters fighting a patriarchal system at odds with their aspirations.
Who are Regan and Goneril?
Goneril and Regan, King Lear's two elder daughters, and Edmund, Gloucester's illegitimate son, are the children who turn against their elderly fathers.
Who kills Cordelia?
So it is with King Lear's Cordelia. Her death, and the way Shakespeare chooses to present it, is easily one of the most tragic scenes ever put on stage. Lear and Cordelia have been captured by Edmund, but Lear doesn't even seem to mind because he's so happy to be with the daughter that he thought had left him forever.
Who is Regan's husband?
the Duke of CornwallRegan is Lear's middle daughter. She is married to the Duke of Cornwall. The Earl of Gloucester is loyal to the king. He has two sons, Edgar and Edmund.
How many of King Lear's daughters are married?
The aging King Lear of Britain, lacking a male heir, has decided to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril (married to the duke of Albany), Regan (married to the duke of Cornwall) and Cordelia (whose hand in marriage is sought by the King of France and the duke of Burgundy).
Who was King Lear's favorite daughter?
CordeliaGoneril and Regan, Lear's older daughters, give their father flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear's youngest and favorite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father. Lear flies into a rage and disowns Cordelia.
Why was Cordelia hanged?
Cordelia is hanged in King Lear because she supports her father against Edmund and her sisters. Edmund has both Lear and Cordelia imprisoned.
How did the two older daughters lie to Lear?
Q2. How did the two older daughters lie to Lear ? Ans: The eldest one said that he was dearer to her than her eyesight or even her life, and that no child had ever loved her father more than she loved him. The second daughter said that she was the happiest whenever she was able to serve him.
Who is the character in King Lear?
character in King Lear. Cordelia. King Lear character. Cordelia, by William Frederick Yeames. Created by. William Shakespeare. Cordelia is a fictional character in William Shakespeare 's tragic play King Lear. Cordelia is the youngest of King Lear's three daughters, and his favourite. After her elderly father offers her ...
How does Lear give his daughters power?
By dividing his kingdom among his daughters, Lear gives them the power to dictate his own future, just as a father has control over the future of his children . Because Cordelia is the daughter he loves most, Lear expects her to care for him as he hands over his power to his children and advances into old age, much like how a mother cares for her baby.
What does Cordelia do to Lear?
Unlike her father and sisters, Cordelia is able to differentiate love from property. Feeling outraged and humiliated that Cordelia will not publicly lavish love on him, Lear banishes Cordelia from the kingdom and disinherits her. The Earl of Kent objects to her treatment, and is subsequently banished as well.
Who was the ruler of the kingdom in the happy ending revision?
In Nahum Tate 's "happy-ending" revision The History of King Lear (1681), which replaced Shakespeare's original version on stage for decades, Cordelia marries Edgar and becomes ruler of the kingdom.
Who are the two suitors in the book The Earl of Kent?
The Earl of Kent objects to her treatment, and is subsequently banished as well. Her two suitors, the Duke of Burgundy and King of France, are then summoned. The Duke of Burgundy withdraws his suit upon learning that she's been disinherited, but the King of France is impressed by her honesty and agrees to marry her.
Why did Cordelia's father exile her?
Her father Lear exiles her as a response to her honesty when he asks for professions of love from his three daughters to determine how to divide the lands of his kingdom between them. Cordelia's sisters, Goneril and Regan, give deceitfully lavish speeches professing their love, flattering his vanity. Cordelia, seeing right through her sisters' ...
Who is King Lear's daughter?
Offended, King Lear goes to the middle daughter, Reagan, to complain and to spend some time in her house, but she is outright hostile, not even letting him stay. Finally the revelation comes to the old former King. Driven mad by grief, he runs away and disappears in the thunderstorm.
Who are the daughters of King Lear?
The daughters of King Lear differ drastically one from another. Two elder ones named Goneril and Regan can be seen as selfish and lying, pretending to maintain a pretty picture of family love and not really caring about the feelings. The younger one, Cordelia, is kind and gentle, though shy and modest and unable to express her affection ...
Why does Goneril want King Lear to dismiss half of his knight?
Goneril demands that King Lear dismisses half of his knight (his only guard and source of power left), because her house is not a tavern and she is not obliged to entertain and feed all these people. She even threatens to get rid of them (and her father) by force.
What is the conflict in King Lear?
The main conflict in “King Lear” that drives all the plot and causes the tragedy that brings most of the cast to their death is the desire of the King to test this natural order. He sets the test for each of his daughters: each of them has to prove her love to her father. The self-obsession of King Lear and his desire to be flattered ...
What is the father-daughter relationship in King Lear?
The story of King Lear, despite its original portrayal, is apocryphal. The mythological aspects that send us to the ancient origins of the story are the numbers of the daughters he had – three. The three children is the common theme in the myths and fairy tales all over the world.
Who is responsible for the father-daughter relationship in the book?
Despite Goneril and Regan being evil throughout all the story and committing so many atrocities, King Lear is indeed the one to blame. He is the one responsible for father-daughter relationship, as an adult he should care not only about physical well-being of all his children, but also about their emotional needs and morals.
Who does Cordelia reunite with?
Cordelia manages to reunite with King Lear – now a poor, half-mad beggar in rags, who understands how wrong he was as a king and as a father for all this time. They have too little time together, Cordelia is only able to say that she still loves him, despite everything King Lear did to her.
When was King Lear written?
There is no direct evidence to indicate when King Lear was written or first performed. It is thought to have been composed sometime between 1603 and 1606. A Stationers' Register entry notes a performance before James I on 26 December 1606. The 1603 date originates from words in Edgar's speeches which may derive from Samuel Harsnett 's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603). A significant issue in the dating of the play is the relationship of King Lear to the play titled The True Chronicle History of the Life and Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters, which was published for the first time after its entry in the Stationers' Register of 8 May 1605. This play had a significant effect on Shakespeare, and his close study of it suggests that he was using a printed copy, which suggests a composition date of 1605–06. Conversely, Frank Kermode, in the Riverside Shakespeare, considers the publication of Leir to have been a response to performances of Shakespeare's already-written play; noting a sonnet by William Strachey that may have verbal resemblances with Lear, Kermode concludes that "1604–05 seems the best compromise".
Why is Lear mad?
The situation is now a reversal of parent-child roles, in which Lear's madness is a childlike rage due to his deprivation of filial/maternal care. Even when Lear and Cordelia are captured together, his madness persists as Lear envisions a nursery in prison, where Cordelia's sole existence is for him.
Why is the King of France shocked by Lear's decision?
The King of France is shocked by Lear's decision because up until this time Lear has only praised and favoured Cordelia (" ... she whom even but now was your best object, / The argument of your praise, balm of your age, ..."). Meanwhile, Gloucester has introduced his illegitimate son Edmund to Kent.
What is the play Lear based on?
Both versions are based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear relinquishes his power and land to two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane and a proscribed crux of political machinations. The first known performance of any version of Shakespeare's play was on St. Stephen's Day in 1606.
When was King Lear first filmed?
The first film of King Lear was a five-minute German version made around 1905, which has not survived. The oldest extant version is a ten-minute studio-based version from 1909 by Vitagraph, which, according to Luke McKernan, made the "ill-advised" decision to attempt to cram in as much of the plot as possible. Two silent versions, both titled Re Lear, were made in Italy in 1910. Of these, the version by director Gerolamo Lo Savio was filmed on location, and it dropped the Edgar sub-plot and used frequent intertitling to make the plot easier to follow than its Vitagraph predecessor. A contemporary setting was used for Louis Feuillade 's 1911 French adaptation Le Roi Lear Au Village, and in 1914 in America, Ernest Warde expanded the story to an hour, including spectacles such as a final battle scene.
Who did Lear give equal shares to?
The Earl of Gloucester and the Earl of Kent observe that, by dividing his realm between Goneril and Regan, Lear has awarded his realm in equal shares to the peerages of the Duke of Albany (Goneril's husband) and the Duke of Cornwall (Regan's husband). Kent objects to Lear's unfair treatment of Cordelia.
Is King Lear an allegory?
King Lear is thus an allegory. The older society, that of the medieval vision, with its doting king, falls into error, and is threatened by the new Machiavellianism; it is regenerated and saved by a vision of a new order, embodied in the king's rejected daughter.

Overview
Cordelia is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragic play King Lear. Cordelia is the youngest of King Lear's three daughters, and his favourite. After her elderly father offers her the opportunity to profess her love to him in return for one third of the land in his kingdom, she refuses and is banished for the majority of the play.
Origin
Shakespeare had numerous resources to consult while writing King Lear. The oldest source in print was Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain, c.1136. This is the earliest written record of Cordelia. Here she is depicted as Queen Cordelia.
Role in play
In Shakespeare's King Lear, Cordelia is briefly on stage during Act 1, scene 1. Her father Lear exiles her as a response to her honesty when he asks for professions of love from his three daughters to determine how to divide the lands of his kingdom between them. Cordelia's sisters, Goneril and Regan, give deceitfully lavish speeches professing their love, flattering his vanity. Cordelia, …
Cordelia as a mother figure
When Lear offers his kingdom to his three daughters, a role reversal occurs in which the daughters become mother figures for Lear. By dividing his kingdom among his daughters, Lear gives them the power to dictate his own future, just as a father has control over the future of his children. Because Cordelia is the daughter he loves most, Lear expects her to care for him as he hands over his power to his children and advances into old age, much like how a mother cares f…
Performance on screen
• Florence Pugh, in King Lear (2018) Amazon Dir. Richard Eyre
• Romola Garai, in King Lear (2009) PBS Dir. Sir Trevor Nunn and Chris Hunt
• Julie Cox, as Claudia Lear in King of Texas (2002) TNT Dir. Uli Edel
Further reading
• Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres. Ivy Books, 1996. Print.
• Fischlin, Daniel and Fortier, Mark. Adaptations of Shakespeare. Feinstein, Elain and the Women's Theatre Group. Lear's Daughters. 215–232. Routledge, 2000. Print
• Hamilton, Sharon. "Shakespeare's Daughters". 151–175. McFarland & Company, 2003. Print
External links
• PBS Production of King Lear
• King Lear Films
• King Lear Video Clips on YouTube
• The True Chronicle Historie of King Leir Text (1605) by Anonymous