What is the attraction of King Lear? Why is it rated so high on the Shakespeare charts? In part it is a story of the triumph of good over evil. In part it is the dramatic untangling of a strong but deeply flawed personality. Lear's wife preceded him in death, and we have no reference to her, but surely a female presence would have mitigated somewhat the careless boisterousness of the old willful monarch who seems determined to dominate and overwhelm in his retirement as he had when he commanded his subjects. From the beginning Lear is a man fundamentally well intentioned but without balance. Thoughtfully preparing for his death is wise, but he seems in some regards to want to give up his responsibility but not his power. Only we still retain the name and all additions to a king.?(I.1. 138) To help him in this transition he wants to keep one hundred knights who will accompany him while hunting and generally relieve any loneliness. [It may, however, be noted that Lear makes the demand for knights and titles after he has been repulsed by Cordelia. Before, he spoke of crawling to death unburdened.]

The give away scheme at Lear's retirement party is spoiled by Cordelia, his youngest and favorite daughter. She does not approve of her father's request for an expression of her love and devotion to him. To be sure his two older daughters Regan and Goneril are excessively effusive in their proclamations of love and Cordelia, who sees through their superficiality, does not wish to be a part of the little drama staged in the King's behalf. Cordelia loves her father too much to humor him. She respects him for what he was and perhaps does not fully realize what he is becoming.

Aging often changes personalities. Frequently what were once annoying traits of an otherwise attractive personality, become unbearable, dominating qualities. A person who in her forties and fifties was fairly critical becomes in her sixties and seventies a cantankerous, grumpy, sour old woman who never has a kind word for anyone....