King Lear | Love
In the first excerpt, Marilyn Gaull argues that King Lear depicts two kinds of love: divine love, associated with universal order, and erotic love, associated with chaos and destruction. When Lear abdicates his royal responsibilities, the critic asserts, he plunges his kingdom into a state of spiritual and emotional disorder. In the second selection, Simon Lesser notes that the king looks chiefly to his favorite, Cordelia, for love and praise. The extraordinary intensity and possessiveness of his love for her makes Lear more vulnerable to disappointment, Lesser argues.
Marilyn Gaull
[Gaull argues that King Lear depicts two kinds of love: divine love, associated with universal order, and erotic love, associated with chaos and destruction. When Lear abdicates his royal responsibilities, the critic asserts, he plunges his kingdom into a state of spiritual and emotional disorder. Gaull suggests that Lear's choice of corrupt, erotic love over divine love results in a transference of sexuality; the king becomes emasculated as he is gradually stripped of the symbols of his traditional role, while at the same time Goneril and Regan increasingly...
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