Naturalness

• 'I love your majesty according to my bond' - Cordelia (1.1) 


  • accepts her duty to love him as a father in a natural parent/child bond
  • loves him as she should - shouldn't need to express it hyperbolically
  • love test = unnatural - reversing the natural order of parent/child relationship
• 'we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and the stars' - Edmund (1.2)


  • Edmund evades view of fate
  • believes people should accept what they've done & accept responsibility for fault of actions - people make own decisions & choices
  • subtly suggests adultery of father blamed on fate - condemning father's views
  • Edmund is guided by his own will
  • conflict of old ideas of what is natural & new ideas of what is natural
  • Edmund is not bound to any morals - 'natural' to take what he wants
• '(Kent is put in the stocks)' - (2.2) 


  • Kent's public humiliations also demeans & insults the king
  • imprisonment is an offence against nature - the king should be accorded the respect of his subjects, just as the aged should be afforded the respect of the younger members of society
  • Cornwall's actions reflect the upheaval occurring in nature, where the old are no longer revered and the king is no longer honoured
  • Lear is, indeed, in grave danger from Cornwall.
• '[Regan plucks his beard]' - (3.7)



  • Regan has no basic respect for age or rank
  • Gl is an earl & elderly statesman - pulling of beard rejects structure of nature, which provides that older members of society be revered for their age and wisdom
  • loss of traditional ranks of power
• 'Enter Lear [crowned with wild flowers]' - (4.6)


  • now crowned w something futile - contrast to A1 when crowned w something heavy & powerful - comments on what he gave away
  • power shifts & power goes
  • now king of nature rather than of human society