King Lear as a Person

I am going to start off by saying that I think King Lear has many flaws as well as triumphs.  Overall, I do not think he is that good of a ruler, because I personally think that he is lazy.  One quality of a ruler is that they must rule the people, with authority, but take into consideration the thoughts and beliefs of the people. An example that shows King Lear being a bad ruler is when he lets his daughters take control of  his land, but he still wants to have the power.  This shows that he is lazy and wants them to fulfill the obligations of a king, and do all the hard work that is involved, while he sits back and enjoys the power of being a king.  He is immature for putting his daughters in charge of his land mainly because of the manner he picked them.  He asked them "Which of you shall we say doth love us most" showing that he only cares about what they say, rather than if they actually love their father or not.  In this instance he chooses public display of affection over real love. 

I am 100% on Cordelia's side and I think that she does the right thing when she states that she loves her father because he is her father.  She is being honest, and not lying to Lear in this case, which I think shows trust and bravery.  Despite the fact that Cordelia is Lear's favorite daughter, he doesn't accept her plead for fulfillment of duty to her father, but instead is blind to her case, and accepts the false plead from his two other daughters Goneril and Regan.  I think King Lear will regret this decision in the end, and wish he would have chose Cordelia to control the land instead of his other two daughter, because they are selfish, and want the land just to feel like they have power.