Love in Truth

The three daughters of Lear reminded a lot of the sonnets of Shakespeare. When I first read what Goneril and Regan said to their father about how they loved him I was like... oh that's sweet! Then when Cordelia tells her father she loves him out of duty, I thought... ouch! To tell the truth I probably wouldn't have handled that answer very well either. Then I couldn't help remembering our last class discussion. Cordelia tells it like it is, she doesn't have flattering words, because to her that's not what love is about, there is a truth when she says,"You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I return those duties back as are fit"( p. 1364). This reminds of sonnet 130, which also tells it like it is "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare." I don't think Cordelia can give beautiful comparisons, because to her that would be false. Her love comes from a deeper source. When Goneril talks about her love she talks of beauty and eyesight,"Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty, beyond what can be valued, rich or rare"(1363). This passage reminded me of sonnet 18 when it says " So long as men can breath or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." Everything is beautifully said but I can't help and feel that both writings are working on someones vanity, something someone wants to hear. Sonnet 116 reminds me of King Lear when he talks about how much he loved Cordelia how she was his favorite, but when she tells him a truth suddenly his love alters. I think this was the guidance that Shakespeare was giving us when he wrote sonnet 116 " Love is not love Which alters when alteration finds," I think we could take this into our lives today and ask how many of us stop loving someone just because we feel that they don't love us the way we need to be loved?