Reminder of my big question: What are the boundaries between love and sacrifice? Or do they exist?
Sacrifice didn't seem to be a big part of King Lear. In fact, the exact opposite was true. When I first decided on this question I was considering the kind of love we think of when we think of our sigficant other, or our family, or our friends...In most cases this coincides/coexists with sacrifice...hence the term sacrificial love. I seem to have forgotten the other kinds of love.
In Lear, sacrificial love is hard to come by, if nonexistent. The closest examples I can think of are Cordilia: she gives up her position and standing with her father for the truth. Kent: his loyalty could be deemed a sacrifice. Mostly, the book consists of self love, the opposite of sacrificial love. Goneril and Reagan's selfish lies to their fathr and secret scheming...Edmund's betrayal....perhaps this is what makes it a tragedy.
What have I gathered from Lear? If love and sacrifice are the same thing, they can't exist without the other--the true love package includes sacrifice free of charge. Without either, the love is defunct.
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I would protest your claim that sacrifice plays a minor role in the play.
ReplyDeleteThe most compelling characters are those who sacrifice (and, unwittingly, are the emodiment of sacrifice). Edgar, by all means, sacrifices so as to not cause unneeded instability (he could've dueled his brother). Lear's sacrifice is the greatest--he divests himself amidst the forlorn so as to feel as they do--his soul (read: Heart, read: Cordelia)buckles in the presence of realization and giving over to the realization that his has wronged the innocent.Here, his realization of love brings an end to his eartly life.