Essay
King Lear essay on Cordelia as a tragic victim
- Module
- Aspects of Tragedy
- Institution
- AQA
King Lear essay on Cordelia as a tragic victim
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By: aoifejmoore • 1 year ago
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‘ULTIMATELY IT IS HARD TO SEE CORDELIA AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN A TRAGIC VICTIM OF MALEPRIDE’ TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW?
A tragic victim is viewed as someone whose downfall is due to someone else’s mistakes or views. In
King Lear, Cordelia can be seen as this because she fell a victim to King Lear’s egotistical love test,
where she consequently experienced her downfall, being banished from the country, because she
didn’t satisfy her father’s needs. Alternately, she is also seen as a divine-like figure and a symbol of
hope, showing that perhaps she isn’t a victim of pride because she rose above it, as shown at the
end of the play.
It is clear to see Cordelia as a victim of King Lear’s pride as the start of the play when he brutally
“disclaimed all parental care” during the love test. The tragedy here is that Cordelia was only
punished for not fuelling his ego with empty words such as “dearer than eyesight, space and liberty”,
opting to go with integrity instead. Here, the rule of three heightens the contrast between Goneril
and Regan by showing how desperate they are for power and don’t mind deceiving King Lear for
their selfish needs. Goneril and Regan rose to power because of male pride and Cordelia, who was
cast out for saying “nothing” further highlights how integrity was undermined because of King Lear’s
pride. Because the love test was a game to boost King Lear’s ego, and Cordelia failed to abide by his
rules thus making her a tragic victim of male pride, it is clear to the audience why he lashed out so
harshly. This is shown with Shakespeare’s use of the metaphor “come not between the dragon and
his wrath” when Cordelia refused to submit to his game. This further emphasises King Lear’s
arrogance because despite him dividing his “kingdom”, consequently losing his power, he still
believed he still had authority throughout the first act of the play, reiterating his excessive
superiority. So it is hard to see Cordelia as anything but a victim of male pride because she was she
was cast out of Britain for not fuelling King Lear’s game.
On the other hand, it is also viewed that Cordelia is a symbol of hope for the audience and the
characters in the play. The audience is show how she is “queen over passion”, which displays the
contrast between her and King Lear because she remained regal at the start of the play and didn’t
act impulsively. This provides hope to the audience because it shows that she is above King Lear’s
pride and it is perceived that she made the best of the situation she was put it, thus highlighting how
she was never a victim of male pride.
Similarly, the assonance “holy water from heavenly eyes” is used to reiterate the view that Cordelia
isn’t a victim of male pride, but a divine-like figure. This is done because the audience is given the
impression that she is higher up on the chain of being which is evident as after being “disclaimed”
from King Lear, she didn’t experience a downfall, but instead at the end the audience is shown how
her king and loving nature hasn’t changed. This is highlighted when she commands King Lear to “not
kneel” emphasising how King Lear’s love and regret for Cordelia overpowers his pride and is willing
to submit to Cordelia because after his long journey of suffering, he wants to again reside in her
“kind nursery”, again showing she was never a victim.
However, it can be argued that Cordelia was a device used by Shakespeare to make the tragedy
more intense, therefore subjecting her to the passive role of women during the Jacobean era. This is
done as Shakespeare builds suspense throughout the play, making the audience anticipate when
King Lear and Cordelia will meet, giving the audience hope. The simile “we’ll sing like birds in a cage”
grants the audience hope that their reunion will be liberating and forgiving by comparing it to
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