Act 2 blog 2!!!!

4. Cordelia has disappeared from the play. What’s she doing? You might write a dialogue between her and her new husband France—have they heard word of the goings-on in Lear’s kingdom? Is she still concerned about her father? Whatever you want to say here, but they should probably not be discussing whether or not to have roast lamb for dinner. Alternatively, you could have Cordelia write a letter to her father or sisters. What would she say?

Cordelia has physically disappeared- she is not allowed in Lear’s kingdom any longer, but now has a great deal of power in France. Cordelia, as shown by her letter to Kent, is very much concerned about her father and sisters, but is respectful and humble enough to bid her father’s wishes and keep her distance, as she is banished. This is an interesting concept- Lear banished and renounced Cordelia, doing something that would be extremely hurtful and would normally cause a daughter to resent her father very much. It would almost not be surprising for Cordelia to wish ill upon him simply because of this particular action he took, but she will not take action like this because her role to this point in the play is to show the contrast between her purity and love for her father and the scheming greed driven actions of her sisters. It is difficult to tell if Cordelia knows exactly what is going on, as the only indication of her existence in this section is Kent’s brief commentary on her letter to him. In it, she mentioned that she wanted to help the situation any way she could. This is very noble, and though it seems unlikely that she would know exactly what is going on, she must have gotten a hint of her sister’s plans to bring down her father, because she is standing behind her father more than ever even after how he wronged her. If she were to write a letter to her father, I would assume that it would warn him about what her sisters were up to- and at this point, he would trust and believe it. What she would write to her sisters, though, is a different story. As she would probably be wise enough to know that trying to reason with her sisters will be to no avail, it is possible that she would somehow try to pair up with her father and use the sisters’ own greed against them in order to save her father and led the sisters feel the effects of their own wrongdoing.