love/hate

love/hate

1. Lear & Cordelia

   • genuine love for father - ironic as this causes conflict. L demands articulated and hyperbolic love which C refuses to do.
     • C - plain speaking: "according to my bond: no more, no less." C can't express pr quantify her love as L desires: "my love's more ponderous than my tongue."
       • Like C - K's pain speaking love results in conflict and banishment.
       • "Why have my sisters husbands if they say they love you all?" - Expresses something profound about nature of filial duty and love. - invoking commandment whilst simultaneously pointing out the impossibility of a truly compassionate person being able to love in the exaggerated way demanded
   • conflicting attitudes of L - genuine love? - banishes C after calling her 'our joy'. She is then called 'sometimes daughter'.
     • Conflict of royal family - implies national conflict - potential conflict with France - cosmic chaos.
   • Love is quantified - love test - "which of you shall we say doth love us most" = conflict - between siblings and L & C when she shows true love and loyalty. - L is confronted with his mistreatment of love later on in the play.
     • C: "Obey you, love you, and most honour you" - rhetoric - blunt way of expression. - direct and unfeeling? - no poetic imagery or affectionate symbolism unlike G & R = honest and sincere? but is epitome of love. simple sentences structure highlights her good intentions and lack of own individual motives.mirrors her humble, virtuous intentions.

2. Gonerill & Regan

   • superficial love for father
     • They use hyperbolic language and are fickle/changeable - loves spoken and articulated.
       • Mckellon production - emphasis on their fear. - use blank verse, iambic pentameter and then shift to prose at end of speech. - reveals hypocrisy, jealous & appear to be scheming & conspiratorial. Conflict in rivalry between siblings & parental preference = motive for G & R's cruelty.
         • Love for Edm which causes hatred between sisters and leads to their deaths.
       • Sisters hate of C - jealous of L's favouritism. "He always loved our sister most".
   • L: "Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty, And thou art twice her love."G & R use L's measurements of love against him in a vicious attempt to rid him of his retinue and any last element of authority and power. - L is instigator of his own tragic downfall. - S warning us - human affection cannot be measured. Love and statistical quantities shouldn't be mixed.

3. Edmond & Gloucester

   • Superficial love & deception to acquire inheritance.
     • Edm's illegitimacy and women's femininity puts them in a vulnerable position - inheritance primogeniture.
       • 'He replied to me "thou un-possessing bastard"' - Edm acting as vicitm - S is reming us of what drives Edm - lack of love as he's shunned in society - bastard son.
         • error - treatment of illegitimate son - epithets - "whoreson", "knave", "issue" - typical of tragedy - G misjudges his sons
         • Edm - hate for Edg - jealousy of preference from father and of primogeniture - mirrors G & R relationship with L.
   • G: "Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide" - contrasting view of love - sees it as a destructor. Foreshadows tragic narrative of play and break of unity. G's naivety of his own tragic downfall makes foreshadowing technique also a motivation for pathos, engaging the audience and heightening the tragedy.
   • Edg - proud to be son of G - genuine love, but lie of hatred which separates them.

4. Husbands & Suitors

   • C & suitors - love as fickle - B's love is conditional upon a dowry - materialistic, women are commodified. F shows more genuine love as he respects her for her true love and loyalty - "richer for being poorer"

5. Familial love as driving force for conflict

   • L sets up concept of love and family - ironic as seems that he tears it apart.

6. Familial love - love relationships - sibling relationships