Treatment of old people in King Lear

Treatment of old people in King Lear

The treatment of old people is a major theme in William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”. Our first

encounter of poor treatment of old people is when Lear decides to divide up his land and give away his

powers.

“and 'tis our fast intent

To shake all cares and business from our age;

Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

Unburthen'd crawl toward death”.

Lear wants to retire and “shake all cares and business from our age”. What I find interesting about the

above passage is that Lear creates this image of a feeble old man unable to walk upright who

instead”crawl[s]” around on the ground almost like a baby. This image suggests that growing old is like

being a child again; no responsibilities. Unfortunately it also suggests that as one grows older they

become weak and powerless. This is exactly what happens to Lear. When Lear divided up his land and

power, he divided it evenly between Goneril and Regan, his two eldest daughters. Cordelia his youngest

and favourite daughter received no land as she did not go along with her father’s game and left with the

king of France.

Lear is not treated with respect in his daughter's home; Goneril has instructed her steward, Oswald to be

rude to Lear and to encourage the rest of her servants to treat him the same way. Lear is shocked when

Oswald is impolite to him and the loyal Kent trips Oswald, knocking him to the ground. Goneril appears

and complains that Lear's knights are rowdy and tells her father that he should only keep a small, better

behaved troop with him. Lear becomes outraged and storms out of her house, calling down terrible

curses upon her. He says he will go to Regan and that she will treat him with more respect. Already, Lear

is beginning to regret his rash decision to banish Cordelia. Goneril writes to Regan to tell her what has

happened with their father and Regan, on receiving the letter, leaves for Gloucester's castle so she will

not be at home when her father comes to stay. Lear arrives at Gloucester's castle and is shocked to see

his messenger, Kent in the stocks. Goneril arrives at the castle also and a hopeless Lear soon realises that

both daughters have joined forces against him. Enraged and highly agitated, he leaves the castle and with

only the Fool for company and prepares to spend the night outdoors in the storm.

This is a horrific idea that one could force an old man out into the freezing cold storm, let alone your own

flesh and blood. You wouldn’t treat a dog like that. After all he has done for his daughters this is how they

repay him. Then Lear realises how blind he was to the fact that Cornelia was his best daughter.

We also see poor treatment of old people in King Lear with the blinding of Gloucester.  In Gloucester’s

castle, Cornwall gives Goneril the treasonous letter (written by Edmund) concerning the French army at

Dover and tells her to take it and show it to her husband, Albany. He then sends his servants to

apprehend Gloucester so that Gloucester can be punished. He orders Edmund to go with Goneril to

Albany’s palace so that Edmund will not have to witness the violent punishment of his father. Yet again

this is an outrageous act by Edmund to frame his father and put him through such a torturous

punishment. All in all old people are treated extremely bad throughout the duration of the play and

betrayal has played a major role in this.