King Lear-Feminist Lens

Today I would like to apply one of the critical lens to an insightful interpretation of King Lear.
This is one of the 4 options for our final analysis essay. I am going to be looking at King Learin the perspective of a feminist critic. The feminist lens examines the language and plot of
the story in order to find things that are gendered. Many of the female critics look at the
female characters and sees how they are stereotyped. The feminist lens looks at the
relationship between female and male characters and their different roles in society.
 Almost half of the main characters in this novel are
females. They include Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan. Overall, the females are represented
as evil and selfish beings. Goneril and Regan are portrayed as the two daughters that bring
Lear into the pitiful state he is in. However, at the end, these two are destroyed by their
own selfishness. On the other hand, Cordelia is portrayed as the pure and innocent one.
Like many of the women who were favored at that time, Cordelia stayed quiet and absent
for most of the play. She was introduced in the first scene and then banished from the kingdom,
absent for most of the play. Cordelia is finally brought back in the last few scenes of the play.
Although she was gone for most of the play, she played a major role in the play.
Cordelia was the one daughter was faithful to her father. Unlike the bad reputations
Goneril and Regan gave to the audience, Cordelia was shown as a very loyal daughter,
forgiving her father for all the wrong he did to her.
Feminist critics would be outraged while reading King Lear because the females are
portrayed as very wicked characters. The three daughters were forced to answer the
question of how much they love their father. Even when Cordelia answers truthfully,
she is punished for her honesty just because Lear does not appreciate her answer.
Two of the main characters are also portrayed as liars and selfish self-centered
beings. Goneril and Regan are two women whom Shakespeare described as daughters
that cannot satisfy with what they have. First they try to take over their father's kingdom.
They don't care if their father is killed or goes insane as long as they get what they
want. Regan also takes part in plucking Gloucester's eyes, characterizing her as
cruel and unforgiving. Later, these two sisters cannot satisfy with the husbands they
have, both eyeing the same guy, Edmund. They go as far as killing each other because
of him. Because most of the women are not shown in a positive light, Shakespeare is
portraying the females as very selfish people. The women who are honest and think
of others are either punished for their honesty or made to stay quiet. Cordelia, the only
"good" female in the play was ultimately put to death, symbolizing that the good
females do not always survive at the end.