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Parental Ineptitude

1. Cornwall

   • Cornwall's speed at accepting Edmund into his family demonstrates his gullible personality.
     • Edmund's ability to disguise his anger in a deceiving manner makes Cornwall an easy target.
       • Cornwall's willingness to foster Edmund is motivated by a misplace sense of loyalty.
     • Cornwall searches for confirmation from Edmund of his love and respect for Gloucester, which causes him to state, rather than to question, his loyalty: "Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father / A child-like office" (2.1.105-106).
       • Cornwall makes no effort to check the truth of the accusations against Edgar.
         • He grasps at the opportunity to embrace Edmund's pretended loyalty: "[You] shall be ours" (2.1.114).
           • Cornwall's statement indirectly emphasizes the childlessness of his own marriage.
             • It is possibly his own lack of a son that blinds him to Edmund's deception which leads him to approve Edmund as his stepson: "I will lay my trust upon the; and thou shalt find a dearer father in love" (3.5.23-24).
               • Cornwall applies a questionable logic in blaming Edmund's half brother, Edgar.
                 • Cornwall believes that Edgar behaves the way he does because of Gloucester, which is to say the fault is hereditary.
                   • What escapes Cornwall is the cause he seems to recognize could be equally applicable to the son he is so anxious to claim for his own (Edmund).

2. Lear

   • Lear proves himself guilty of favouritism when he advises that he will "express [his] darker purpose" (1.1.35).
     • This purpose is to grant Cordelia a portion of the kingdom "more opulent than [her sisters]" (1.1.85).
       • Lear's partnership with Cordelia creates jealousy from which his two other daughters, Regan and Goneril, suffer.
         • Lear's actions by the apportioning of the land before all three of his daughters have spoken, make the test of love to which he submits meaningless.
           • Regan comments on Lear's avoidance of his daughters' expectations when in answer to Lears statement "I gave you all" (2.4.247) she replies, "And in good time you gave it" (2.4.248).

3. Gloucester

   • Gloucester has spent his life denying Edmund's existence.
     • Gloucester admits that he has "so often blush'd to acknowledge him, that now [he is] / braz'd to it" (1.1.9-10).
       • The willingness to disown his fatherhood could explain his lack of knowledge of Edmund's character.
         • Edmund's nine-year absence from England, might explain why he does not know his son.
         • This becomes evident when Gloucester is confronted with the letter that supposedly comes from Edgar.
           • Gloucester shows a significant amount of ignorance concerning his legitimate son when he looks for Edmund's confirmation as to Edgar's handwriting: "You know this character to be your brother's" (1.2.59), he asks.
             • Gloucester's need to accept the word of a person who has little contact with Edgar or himself during the past nine years proves the little knowledge he has of his family.
               • This lack of concern, a paternal failure that aligns Lear's, is one of the causes of Edmund's rage.
                 • Both Cornwall and Gloucester's willingness to accept Edmund confirms their parental ineptitude. A feature that they also share with Lear.

4. Work Cited: Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Gen. Ed. Alfred Harbage. The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Toronto: Viking Penguin, 1977.

   • Shakespeare's KING LEAR By: Neville F Newman

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