Summary: Act 4, scene 7 He only partially recognizes her. He says that he knows now that he is senile and not in his right mind, and he assumes that Cordelia hates him and wants to kill him, just as her sisters do. Cordelia tells him that she forgives him for banishing her.
As Cordelia's army prepares to meet that led by her sisters and their husbands, she is reconciled with Lear, who begs her forgiveness.
He realizes his decision to banish Cordelia was contrary to his very nature (and implicitly, his love for Cordelia), and blames his head for letting foolishness in at the same time judgment went out. Finally, Lear calls upon the gods to make Goneril barren as punishment for the way she treated him.
When Cordelia proclaims that she is motivated not by ambition but by “love, dear love, and our aged father's right,” we are reminded of how badly Lear treated her at the beginning of the play (4.4. 29). Her virtue and devotion is manifest in her willingness to forgive her father for his awful behavior.
Lear, howling over Cordelia's body, asks, “Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, / And thou no breath at all?” (5.3. 305–306). This question can be answered only with the stark truth that death comes to all, regardless of each individual's virtue or youth.
Soon may I hear and see him. In Act 4 Scene 7 When Lear is finally reunited with Cordelia he redeems himself by fully apologizing for his actions towards her and his subsequent death is therefore even more tragic. Cordelia's death finally hastens the demise of her father first to madness then death.
His last words are: “Look on her, look, her lips, / Look there, look there!” (V. iii.). In his dying moments, Lear still has not accepted that Cordelia is dead.
His two older daughters, Goneril and Regan, offer poetic speeches but his youngest and favourite daughter Cordelia refuses, declaring 'I love your majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less'. Lear is angry and disowns Cordelia, giving her share of the kingdom to her sisters' husbands to divide between them.
Why do you think King Lear was unhappy about Cordelia's reply? Ans: King Lear was unhappy about Cordelia's reply because his two elder daughters had expressed great love for him, the elder saying that he was dearer than her own life and the middle daughter saying that she was happiest when she was with her father.
Lear curses Goneril
He curses her never to have a child or if she does, that it make her life a misery so that she understands how it feels to have an ungrateful child.
Cordelia is King Lear's favorite daughter until she refuses to flatter the old man and gets booted out of the kingdom without a dowry. Soon after, she marries the King of France and raises an army to fight her wicked sisters and win back her father's land.
Lear sees Cordelia's reply as rejection; in turn, he disowns Cordelia, saying that she will now be "a stranger to my heart and me" (I. 1.114). King Lear then divides his kingdom between Goneril and Regan, giving each an equal share.
In his retelling of the rule of King Lear, Shakespeare rejected the happy ending found in the histories that were his sources. He gave the play one of his bleakest endings, with both Lear and his daughter Cordelia dying. This resolution shocked and dismayed audiences at the end of the 17th century.
By refusing to take part in Lear's love test at the beginning of the play, Cordelia establishes herself as a repository of virtue, and the obvious authenticity of her love for Lear makes clear the extent of the king's error in banishing her.
Burgundy rejects Cordelia when he discovers that she will bring him no dowry or inheritance. Burgundy, who cannot love Cordelia without her wealth, is guilty of selfish motivations.
But Edmund has other plans, as he makes clear after Lear and Cordelia are led to prison. Edmund orders his officer to stage Cordelia's death as a suicide. Without hesitation, the officer accepts Edmund's orders, seemingly unconcerned about killing the king and his daughter.
Lear says publicly that he loved Cordelia more than his other daughters and hoped to spend most of his retirement with her. This suggests that the sisters already know that Cordelia is their father's favourite, which may have affected their relationships in the past.
Answer and Explanation: Cordelia represents goodness and loyalty in King Lear. She is honest, pure, and brave. At the beginning of the play, she refuses to unduly praise her father even though she knows that doing so would be politically advantageous for her.
Cordelia, who is portrayed as an honest and direct woman, tells him she loves him as she could ever love her own father. Infuriated by what he perceives as her lack of love and respect, Lear banishes her.
Cordelia sacrificed herself so that Mallory could rise as Supreme, going back in time and killing Michael before he could come into his own as the ender of days. But unbeknownst to the witches, another Antichrist was born to take his place—to Timothy and Emily, the lovers seen in Outpost 3.
She remains loyal to Lear despite his cruelty toward her, forgives him, and displays a mild and forbearing temperament even toward her evil sisters, Goneril and Regan.
In William Shakespeare's King Lear, king Lear's hamartia (tragic flaw) is his arrogance and excessive pride. King Lear's tragic flaw of arrogance is what causes him to lose his daughter Cordelia (the one who truly loves him). Because of Lear's pride, he disowns Cordelia and loses his most faithful servant, Kent.
The situational irony at this moment highlights the ignorance of King Lear and is amplified when Cordelia ends up being the only one to stay loyal to him. The two eldest daughters whom he had praised for their flattery actually ended up betraying him, as a result of his blindness towards their false motives.
Cordelia's not the only one who forgives Lear's terrible behavior. Even after Kent is banished by his king (for no good reason, we night add), he still finds a way to serve his "enemy king." Kent disguises himself as "Caius" so he can get a job being Lear's servant.
An important question to ask is whether Lear develops as a character—whether he learns from his mistakes and becomes a better and more insightful human being. In some ways the answer is no: he doesn't completely recover his sanity and emerge as a better king.