Cordelia Flashcards
Marilyn French - AO5
“She does not feed Lear’s delusion of control.”
(Aside) “What shall…
Cordelia speak? Love and be silent.” - Cordelia (1:1,61)
(Aside) …I am sure my…
love’s // More ponderous than my tongue.” - Cordelia (1:1, 77-78)
“I cannot heave // My…
heart into my mouth: I love your majesty // According to my bond; no more nor less” (1:1, 90-93)
AO2: Addressing him in terms of ‘majesty’ show respects, yet are not hyperbolic but still show Lear’s authority. This reflects her altruistic nature which we can contrast with Goneril and Regan. Bond also connotates something unbreakable, foreshadowing her loyalty to Lear. ‘no more nor less’ is idiomatic.
AO3: ‘bond’ could have links to the great chain of being?
“Nothing, my…
lord.” - Cordelia (1:1, 86)
AO2: Addressing him in terms of Lord show respects, yet are not hyperbolic but still show Lear’s authority. This reflects her altruistic nature which we can contrast with Goneril and Regan.
‘Nothing’ - recurring motif, symbolises truth
“You have begot me, (…)
bred me, lov’d me // I return those duties back as are right fit. Obey you, love you, and most honour you” - Cordelia (1:1, 95-97)
AO2: Tripling in Cordelia’s speech simplifies how she regards Lear, furthering her honesty and providing a contrast with Goneril and Regan. Lexis also shows how Lear truly loved Cordelia - showing he is not an entirely bad person. Emotive language.
AO4: Lear’s punishment far outweighs his crimes in regards to Cordelia. He punished her yet she was killed.
AO3: Father’s demanding/expecting respect and obedience from their daughters.
“The jewels of our father, …
with wash’d eyes / Cordelia leaves you. I know what you are.” - Cordelia
AO2: “The jewels of our father” - A pointed comment to Lear, Goneril and Regan are metaphorically jewels, representing an ‘outward show’ in the way an attractive surface can mark an unpleasant ‘inner reality’.”wash’d eyes” - motif of sight, Cordelia can see the truth even through tears.
Cordelia’s later comments make it quite clear to the audience that Goneril and Regan are as bad as their father if not worse. Yet Cordelia still loves Lear, and is already forgiving him. The only reason, in fact, that the audience retains some sympathetic interest in Lear is that characters like Cordelia and Kent continue to love and respect him.
AO4: Cordelia can see clearly even through tears juxtaposes Lear’s myopia. C can see was L cannot
What does Gentleman say about Cordelia’s tears in Act 4, Scene 3
Gentleman: “The holy water from her heavenly eyes.” (4:3, 30)
AO2: Soft alliteration of ‘h’ sounds reflects Cordelia’s gentleness. Biblical overtones.
Lyrical language and images of richness - the pearls and diamonds - are used to describe the blessed relief that comes from the ‘holy water’ of Cordelia’s unselfish tears. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare took great care to show that the action was set in pagan England. But in presenting Cordelia as a redemptive power, his language is charged with biblical overtones - most especially in the next scene where Cordelia takes up her father cause with words “O dear father! It is thy business that I go about” (4:4, 23-24) that echo those of Jesus in the Gospel of St Luke, (‘I must go about my father’s business’ 2:49)
“Mine enemy’s dog, Though
he had bit me should have stood that night Against my fire” - Cordelia (4:7, 36-38)
AO2: Metaphor/hyperbole - even though Lear heart her should wouldn’t have left him out in the storm. Emphasises her kindness and care.
AO4: Pathos - encourages us to pity Lear, he has been treated worse than a dog.
AO3: Elizabethan belief in The Great Chain of being. Emphasises Lear’s fall from top to bottom. He is now being treated lower than animals.
“Her voice was ever…
soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in women.” - lear
AO2: Triplet + adjectives - Cordelia = angelic and fragile
AO3: Jacobean gender attitudes - women were expected to be subordinate (“low(er)” in status than men). The adjective “low” is also significant as women were lower than men in the great chain of being, on par with animals. Women were expect to obey. They were expected to be dutiful and nurturing. Cordelia is describes as the perfect example of what was to be expected of women in the Jacobean era. She is an image of the societal norms and is complimented for this.
AO5: Coppelia Kahn suggests that the play is about ‘male anxiety’
Kathleen Mccluskie feels it is an ‘anti-feminine’ play. “The feminine must be made to submit (Cordelia) or destroyed (Goneril and Regan).
“Do you see this? Look on…
her, look, her lips, Look there, look there!” - Lear (5:3, 309-310)
Lear thinks Cordelia is breathing
AO2: - Recurring motif of sight. Repetition reflects Lear’s desperation, which is cathartic. Pointing out Cordelia’s lips is significant because they always spoke the truth and Lear’s inability to see the truth is what led to his downfall. The truth-teller has died showing the corruption of justice/society under this new rule.
Elton on Cordelia’s death and Gloucester’s blindness
Elton says that Cordelia’s death and Gloucester’s blindness “are the actions of an upside-down providence in an apparently deranged universe”
John Danby
‘Of this Nature and kindness Cordelia is the full realisation. She is the norm by which the wrongness of Edmund’s world and the imperfection of Lear’s is judged.’ - John Danby
Kathleen McCluskie
“Cordelia’s return is a restoration of the patriarchy, of the old order”
Kathleen McCluskie
Kathleen Mccluskie on feminism
“The feminine must be made to submit (Cordelia) or destroyed (Goneril and Regan).”
