King Lear

I think that out of all of the discussion questions today, the most interesting one for me was the one about unconditional love between Cordelia/Lear and Edgar/Gloucster. What I brought up with my group was that in modern times, usually the parent will love their kids unconditionally and it's the kids who don't see that. Then the kids rebel and disobey or don't see their parents for a period of time. After the kids finally return to their parents they realize that their parents just loved them all along, but it is too late to fix the mistakes they have made. The interesting thing about King Lear is that it is completely reversed from modern times. The kids are the ones who love the parents unconditionally (in the case of Cordelia and Edgar). Then the parents rebel (kick them out of the land and shun them from their families). But, by the end of the book they realize they were loved all along and see the error in their ways. Unfortunately for the parents, by that point it is too late to fix their mistakes. So it was the parents who were naive and needed to gain the wisdom that follows betrayal. And it was the loving children that sacrificed everything for their parents.