Playwright: William Shakespeare
Character: Goneril
Part of the Play: Act 1 Scene 3
Setting: Goneril's house
Play's Context: The play follows a man and his three daughters. King Lear has three daughters Goneril the eldest, Regan the middle and Cordelia. He is deciding to split up his land between his daughters so he asks each of them how much they love him. Goneril and Regan are hungry for Lear's power so the lie to his and say they love his with everything however the youngest Cordelia says that she can only love him as much as she can because she must also love her husband. Because Lear thinks Cordelia doesn't love him he sends he away. In doing so he gives his land to Goneril and Regan who abuse this power as they chuck their father out of their life. He goes made but Cordelia returns with an army to help return her father to the throne but she is killed and later King Lear also dies. During the play Both of the other sister's die due to their manipulation of power and the only people to survive is Cordelia's husband and King Lear's Best friends son Edger.
Goneril's Monologue:
"By day and night he wrongs
me. Every hour
He flashes into one gross
crime or other
That sets us all at odds.
I’ll not endure it.
His knights grow riotous,
and himself upbraids us
On every trifle. When he
returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him.
Say I am sick.
If you come slack of
former services,
You shall do well. The
fault of it I’ll answer.
Put on what weary
negligence you please,
You and your fellow
servants. I’ll have it come to question.
If he distaste it, let him
to our sister,
Whose mind and mine I know
in that are one,
Not to be overruled. Idle
old man
That still would manage
those authorities
That he hath given away! Now
by my life,
Old fools are babes again
and must be used
With checks as flatteries,
when they are seen abused.
Remember what I have said.
And let his knights have
colder looks among you.
What grows of it, no
matter. Advise your fellows so.
I would breed from hence
occasions, and I shall,
That I may speak. I’ll
write straight to my sister
To hold my very course.
Go, prepare for dinner."
Goneril is the oldest of three sisters. She only really wants power and she and her sister Regan both deceive their father in order to get it. Goneril is married to the Duke of Albany and they both are just as manipulative as each other as they both assist in taking out Gloucester's eyes and Goneril even goes as far as killing her sisters. Goneril is defiantly one of Shakespeare's evilest women as she kills her sister Regan with poison so that she can have an affair with Edmund even though she is already married. However her grief does catch up with her because when Edmund's half brother Edger mortally wounds him, Goneril runs off and commits suicide.
My View:
I believe that Goneril is so angry and hungry for power due to the fact that she is a woman in a man's world and she feels that she has been neglected by her father for so many years. She is also jealous of what her sister Regan and Cordelia have which is love so there forth her jealousy leads her to do horrible thing. I think the only way to make her natural to me if I was to play her would be to play on the idea that she actually is a very hurt and troubled person and she believes the only way to feel better is by going to the extremes. I i was to play her as just being angry fro power I think I would not find the characters truth as I am not angry for power.
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