OK SO
I missed one REALLY obvious parallel and so I gotta tell you all about it now.
CADEROUSSE = RODERIGO
For all of you who are like “who’s Roderigo?” And “what does Caderousse have to do with Roderigo?” It’s ok. I’ll tell you the similarities right now.
SO They both have this “friend” who gives them bad advice in a way that sounds like good advice, so they take the advice, which turns out to not end too well for them. And that “friend” ends up stabbing them and they die. But they happen to have a letter in their pocket at the time listing the crimes of this “friend”, which is later found and used against the “friend”. SO YEAH I THINK IT’S A PRETTY GOOD PARALLEL.
ANYWAY HERE’S THE REST OF THE LIST-
Maximilien- Romeo
Valentine- Juliet
Franz- Paris (?)
La Carconte (cad’s wife)- Lady Macbeth
Benedetto- Edmund of Gloucester
Edouard- that one kid from Coriolanus (?)
Fernand- Othello
Danglars- Iago
Albert- Hamlet
Heloise- Goneril/Regan (?)
Edmond- Macduff
Villefort- Macbeth
for the character ask: leeeeeear
who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite
OK NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT LEAR
So. He’s an idiot. An absolute idiot. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s an abusive parent or anything, because that’s more of a headcanon and not directly for the text. But based on his actions in the play alone I’d say he’s an absolute idiot. He literally goes from “oh yes my favorite daughter is Cordelia I love her so much” (and anyway dude why are you choosing favorites?? Now you just gave your other two kids valid reasons to hate you!) to “Oh man I hate Cordelia she’s the worst because she won’t play this game called “Praise me endlessly!””.
I mean I’m no therapist. But I think he maybe should go see one. Is there such a thing as family therapy? If there is the Lear family and the Gloucester family should definitely go.
By the end I sort of felt bad for him because he was finally getting it that he messed up. Maybe if he would have had more time alive he would have realize that he mistreated all 3 of his daughters and not just Cordelia. But nope. He died before he could figure that out.
Also I guess I should take into account that he did the standard Shakespeare character move of “going mad”. Which probably has a medical term nowadays but I’m no doctor so I’m not going to try to diagnose him. Anyway. Regarding said madness. Maybe some of his actions could be excused as just early signs of said madness and not really his acting out of free will? Idk. I’m not a doctor.
So that’s that I guess.
How invested I am in the main plots of King Lear: 2%
How invested I am in Edmund’s side plot of King Lear: 98%
Me: yeah I like King Lear
My teacher, who also likes King Lear: you have excellent taste then.
Me, internally: if you ask me who my favorite character is, you’ll be taking that back in a millisecond
