King Lear – King Lear is often considered Shakespeare’s best play and I guess it just depends on who you ask. Not being old yet myself, I still think it’s Hamlet, but maybe as I get older I will better understand. I definitely think it’s the most relatable play outside of the confines of the theater because there’s two pressing dynamics at play here: parents to children, but also children to parents. And while these might seem the same dynamic, I mean specifically the idea that if you are a parent, odds are you were once a child. And that doubling that happens all the time in literature where a parent has to reckon for the first time with knowing both sides of things.
And that’s the thing about parents of course, is often when they get there, they forget what it meant to be a child. In the play, King Lear is getting old and wants to retire more or less so that he can enjoy some amount of life away from everything. He tells his three daughters: Goneril, Cordelia, and Regan, that rather than dividing things up in a primogeniture way (the law being murkier with daughters) he will give the largest bequest to the daughter who proves she loves him the most. Two of the daughters see this for the opportunity it is, and the third, Goneril, sees it for the insult it is. Regan and Cordelia (with their attendant husbands) kiss the ring and Goneril, who actually does love him the most is disgusted and offended and exiled. The trauma of all this (and of course retirement) sends Lear into madness. He’s not alone as his faithful servants, who know that they will be on the chopping block as the two bad daughters duke it out, also send themselves into their own exile. Of course things begin to circle back as Lear begins to regain himself and he learns not who loves him the most, but who he can trust the most. All in time for a big war.