Lear and Parenthood

November 05, 2008

Jim Schulz

Until our discussion in class regarding King Lear and the possibility that it is a commentary on parenthood, really made me think. There are many reasons why children treat their parents the way they do. But then, we also have to examine the way parents treat their kids. There were definite problems between Lear and the daughters. The lack of love, the daughters treated as just property, and problems that were never corrected seemed to play a big part in the problems that Lear faced. When we look at today's society we seem to be facing many of the same situations. There seems to be a lot of anger in today's kids. Don't take me wrong there are a lot of happy families but there are many situations similar to Lear's in today's society. We may live in modern times but the problems are much the same. My question is; do you really think Shakespeare would write a play examining parenthood?