The Dysfunctional Family of King LearIn his tragedy King Lear, William Shakespeare presents two families: a family consisting of a father and his three daughters, and a family consisting of a father and his three daughters two sons, one of whom is a bastard son. While he essentially has his sons come out and admit that one of them is good and the other is evil, the Bard chooses to bring out his daughters' feelings more subtly. At no point in King Lear does Shakespeare come out and brazenly tell his audience that Cordelia is the more caring and loving daughter, while her two sisters are indifferent and greedy and only love their father when they can benefit themselves from it. However, through the speeches of the three daughters throughout King Lear, she provides subtle hints about the daughter's personality, and it is through these implications that the audience discovers the extent of each of the daughter's characters. As you would expect, most of these revelations and implications about the daughter's personality emerge during the first act. One of the best attributes of King Lear is that the main action of the play begins almost immediately. There's little of that introductory stuff that there usually is in plays, stuff that usually amounts to nothing. Instead, in the first scene of King Lear, the audience immediately sees what will be the main story of the play. Of course, it is also in this opening scene of the play that the audience gets its first glimpse of the three daughters. It is a decisive taste. After Lear announces that he will divide his land among the three, he announces that he wishes to hear each of his daughters profess their love for him, to see who loves him more. The very fact that a father should demand such a… middle of paper… his way, and that he spends his last moments with Cordelia, begging her for forgiveness without realizing that she has already forgiven him, because this is the type of the person he is. In King Lear, the audience never finds out why Cordelia is so much kinder and more caring than her sisters. In the end, though, it doesn't really matter. What matters is the lesson Shakespeare teaches the audience. There is no need to talk about the truest form of love, and it is Cordelia who possesses this truest form of love. The public sees it. In fact, the audience picks up on this fact immediately in the first act, which is why that act was covered more in this essay. Lear himself recognizes this, but unfortunately it is a little too late.WORK CITEDShakespeare, William. King Lear in the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth edition, volume I, New York: Norton, 1993.