(Minute 8:45-11:20) I liked how this video connects the story of King Lear with parenting. This video explains the role that parents play when there is a division in their family.
While ‘King Lear’ may not be useful for new parents, it certainly offers a manual of unintentional advice. Both father figures, Lear and Gloucester, make many mistakes regarding their relationship with their children. In the end, however, it is how these children choose to treat their parents that really defines the events of the play. Both the good and the bad aspects of Lear and Gloucester’s parenting are exposed by their various offspring.
King Lear is certainly not a model father. Lear puts a price on his daughters’ love; she who “shall we say doth love us most” will receive the greatest portion of the kingdom. It happens yet again later in the play as Lear considers Goneril’s offer of 50 knights opposed to Regan’s 25, and declares “thou art twice her love”. No person should regard love as a commodity, least of all a role-model ‘teaching’ his children values. Furthermore, it is clear that Cordelia has always been the favorite, the “most beloved”. It is easy to imagine the preferential treatment she would have received from such a shallow father. Although favoritism is often inevitable, Lear’s obvious outward show is foolish and unsurprisingly incurs the jealousy of the two older sisters. It is likely that tension existed between Goneril and Regan and their father prior to the play and this only worsens throughout the play. By the end of ‘King Lear’ the sisters have turned on their father, and vice versa. They label him an “idle, old man” while he curses them, calling them “unnatural hags”. It seems Goneril and Regan are finally getting revenge for their treatment as they grew up. It is likely that if Lear had been a better parent, their wrath and unkindness would have been much less.