In the play, “King Lear” by Shakespeare, there is a huge importance in honesty. The importance of honesty within “King Lear” is what keeps individuals sane, prevents chaos and helps to improve relationship structure. Although honesty contributes to those things, dishonesty can do the opposite. There are two characters that display honesty throughout the entire play, Cordelia and The Fool. Not only are there characters who display honesty, but also plenty of characters who display dishonesty. The two characters that really displayed dishonesty are Goneril and Regan, King Lear’s eldest daughters. Their dishonesty causes their father to go insane, causes chaos and destroys their relationships.
Cordelia is honest right from the start of King Lear.…show more content… Goneril and Regan do not care about King Lear whatsoever, they only care about his power. When King Lear decides to split up his kingdom between his daughters, they both lie about their feelings for him. “Sir, I do love you more than words can wield the matter,…..I love you as much as any child has ever loved her father, with a love too deep to be spoken of. I love you more than any answer to the question “How much?”” (Scene 1, Act 1, 57-63) Goneril was the first daughter to “confess their love” to King Lear. He was very pleased with Goneril and then asked Regan to share how much she “loved” him. “I find she names my very deed of love—Only she comes too short, that I profess myself an enemy to all other joys...And find I am alone felicitate in your dear highness' love.” (Scene 1,Act 1,71-77) Regan says that Goneril already said most of what Regan was going to say, but then she expands and talks about how much more she loves him. Cordelia says that she loves him no more and no less than a daughter should love her father. He ends up banishing her and divides his kingdom between Regan and Goneril and their husbands. After he splits up the kingdom, he tells them that he will be living with them for periods of time. King Lear first decides to go live with Goneril. Shortly after, Goneril complains that his entourage are…show more content… Goneril tells Albany that she is trying to protect them from King Lear, but Albany thinks she’s over exaggerating. She claims that she knows more than him about her father and that what she’s doing is for the best. “How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell. Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.” (Act 1, Scene 4,352-353) Albany explains that maybe she is trying to make it better for them, but she could be making things worse instead. Another relationship that was affected by Goneril and Regan’s dishonesty was their relationship with King Lear. In the beginning of the play, he loved them and thought they loved him, even though they were lying. Goneril and Regan kept lying to King Lear and made him go crazy. They wanted his power and land and they were going to get it. They were very rude to King Lear by the way they acted,treated him and spoke about him. Not only did their dishonesty affect their relationship with King Lear, it also affected their relationship with each other. At first, they both have the same idea in their mind, become the most powerful. They decide to work together to get King Lear completely out of power. Their plan works out pretty well, until they both fall in love with the same guy,