A parent-child relationship is described as the closest bond two human beings can have. Hence why being betrayed by a parent is an outcome almost as bad as death. In William Shakespeare’s beloved play King Lear, two characters suffer great parental betrayals; the youngest and favoured daughter of King Lear, Cordelia, and the legitimate son of the noble Gloucester, Edgar. When comparing the two betrayal’s, one must consider the following criteria: What affect did the betrayal have on both characters? Secondly, one must consider the reason for the parental betrayal and the role one played in it.
Using these criteria, it is evident that in King Lear, Edgar suffered the greater parental betrayal. When thinking of betrayals, one automatically thinks of how great the impact was. In Edgar’s case, he received the worst of it. Edgar had a brother named Edmund. Edmund was a result of their father’s affair, making Edmund the illegitimate son of Gloucester. In the Elizabethan era, bastards were treated as the lower class, they would never receive their deserved inheritance and were often not trusted as much as their siblings. This led to great jealousy between Edmund to Edgar.
Edmund began to challenge societal norms. He questions why his rights are taken away for the sole reason that his father had an affair. Due to this, Edmund creates a plan to earn the inheritance he feels he deserves. Edmund then forges a letter convincing Gloucester that Edgar schemed to kill him for the inheritance. This is where the parental betrayal begins, Gloucester unquestionably believes Edmund, leading to the disownment of his only legitimate son. In a series of dialogue between Edmund and Gloucester, Gloucester says “O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter!
Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain- worse than brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him. I’ll apprehend him. Abominable villain! Where is he? ” (1. 2, 75-77) In this quote, Gloucester states that he will arrest Edgar. Not only did Edgar “lose” his father, but Gloucester is seeking to arrest him, forcing him to go into hiding. Being disowned by your father is one thing, but having your father try to arrest you is even worse. As the play continues, Edgar hides in Edmund’s room, when suddenly Edmund tells him he needs to run away due to Gloucester’s enragement.
As Edgar gets chased out of the castle and hides in a tree, he comes to a realization that he is a fugitive not knowing what he did wrong. On account of this Edgar ecides to go into hiding and disguise himself as the lowest of the low. Edgar says to himself “Whiles I may ‘scape, I will preserve myself, and am bethought to take the basest and most poorest shape that ever penury in contempt of man brought near to beast. ” (Shakespeare 2. 3, In 5-10) In this quote, Edgar explains his disguise. He’ll disguise himself as a beggar, losing all human traits.
During the time of the play, society believed in the Elizabethan concept of The Great Chain of Being. In this instance, Edgar challenged the chain. Edgar, who was once near the top of the chain, dropped all the way to the bottom. There was very little in between his new disguise and truly becoming a beast. There’s no worse impact a betrayal can have than changing your identity. Overall, it is evident that Gloucester’s parental betrayal has a very negative impact on Edmund. It led to him having to become a fugitive and losing all family, and it forced him into changing who he really was.
Looking at Cordelia on the other hand, her parental betrayal didn’t impact her as negatively. Cordelia was the youngest out of three daughters, yet she was the most favoured by her father. As the play begins, Cordelia is about to make a decision whether he marry the King of France or the Duke of Burgundy. As this happens, Lear decided to give his inheritance away under the condition his daughters, including Cordelia, told him how much they loved him. When Cordelia refused to do so, Lear was outraged, removing the dowry that Cordelia deserved and disowning her as a daughter.
During the time King Lear took place, people got married for the sole purpose of receiving the dowry. This fact meant that it was very unlikely that the Duke of Burgundy or France would still take her hand in marriage. The Duke of Burgundy didn’t want Cordelia for who she truly was. To he Duke, Cordelia just came with the last name Lear and with the riches that came with being a part of the royal family in England. Lear continues to bash on Cordelia, making the chances of her getting married even slimmer. However, Cordelia stood up for herself in a room full of nobility, a feat never seen at the time.
Cordelia’s bravery in this instance impressed France and he says, “Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor, Most choice forsaken, and most loved despised… Thy dowerless daughter, King, thrown to my chance, is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France. Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy can uy this unprized precious maid of me. – Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind. Thou losest here, a better where to find. ” (Shakespeare 1. 1, In 259-272) In this quote, France sees Cordelia for who she truly is, and asks for her hand in marriage, the lack of a dowry meant nothing for him. Cordelia, herself, was the real dowry.
Throughout this sequence of events, Cordelia challenged the Great Chain of Being like no other. Cordelia started as a princess, heir to a third of England and the King’s favourite daughter. This puts her very high up on the Great Chain of Being. As the scene continues, she gets disowned and he’s no longer nobility, making her mere average. Towards the end of the scene, as France proposes, Cordelia jumps back to the top of the great chain, surpassing her previous spot. In terms of power, Cordelia wasn’t negatively affected whatsoever, the betrayal somewhat helped her move up the chain of being.
The lack of dowry, led to the Duke not marrying her, which in turn helped her move up the chain as being queen is ranked higher than duchess. However, in this chain of events, Cordelia was negatively impacted in a different way. As previously stated, Cordelia was the favourite daughter of Lear. This leads the udience to believe that they had a really close relationship growing up. However, the sequence of events in Scene 1 lead to the disillusion of the relationship between Lear and Cordelia. When Cordelia refused to say her love for Lear, Lear says “…
For by the sacred radiance of the sun, The mysteries of Hecate and the night, By all the operation of the orbs From whom we do exist and cease to be– Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity, and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian, Or he that makes his generation messes To gorge his ppetite, shall to my bosom Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved As thou my sometime daughter. ” (Shakespeare 1. 1, In 110-122) In this quote, Lear disowns Cordelia as his daughter.
He removes all family ties between them and compares how he feels for her with how he feels about cannibalistic savages. Thus, not only did Cordelia lose her dowry, she lost her father. As previously stated, Cordelia and Lear were really close, and for her to lose that relationship is heartbreaking. As the play continues, the audience learns that Cordelia still cares for Lear even after the betrayal and does everything in her power to ave him. Thus, it is evident that Cordelia was positively and negatively impacted by the betrayal.
She went up the Great Chain of Being, but lost her father. While both Edgar and Cordelia were affected by their father’s betrayal, Edgar received the worst of it. To begin with, in terms of power, Edgar suffered most. Edgar dropped to the very bottom of the Great Chain of Being, while the end result of Lear’s betrayal resulted in Cordelia actually rising to the top of the chain. In terms of family, Edgar and Cordelia suffered similar tragedies. Both Cordelia and Edgar lost a father but, Cordelia had it worse.
In the play, it is evident that Lear and Cordelia were very close while little is known about how close Edgar and Gloucester really were. To add on however, Edgar was additionally affected in a different way, Edgar was forced into a change of identity. To change who you are can be seen as an outcome almost as bad as death. He not only lost all ties with his father, but he lost all ties to the world around him. He had to literally change who he was as a person. In conclusion, on the measure of impact and affect, it is evident that Edgar suffered a greater parental betrayal than Cordelia in King Lear.