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.