Prof Nadita Batra
INGL 4025
802 07 8757
Desdemona and Cordelia’s Love The differences between love and tragedies are portrayed in Shakespeare’s Othello and King Lear. The complete relationship between father and daughter is corrupted by an external meaning, which plays an important role. How blind and deft can a father be to not understand? Is it that important for a daughter to die just to prove her point and her extreme emotional intelligence? One man that can provide an example would be a father like King Lear, who denied his daughter Cordelia because she did not use flattering words to make him feel better or out shadow her sisters. The heroines of Shakespeare are born is these plays, they can be great and intelligent for their age, but they were somehow young and naive. Love and sorrow are a part of these tragic relationships; whereas it is too late for denial and repent. Within their actions of love and understanding both of these women convinced their fathers they were completely right. Desdemona was married to Othello without the consent of her father Barbantio, this caused Barbantio to feel indignant and even more so when he knew that Othello, who was more of a friend than anything else, was the man who had courted and married his daughter without his consent. Indirectly, this is one way that Desdemona proves her true love, which is by confronting her father and declaring her love for Othello. Brabantio question her “Destruction of my head if my bad blame” (Shakespeare p.338), where Desdemona responds, “ but heres my husband, and so much duty and my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess due to the Moore my lord” (Shakespeare 341). This shows how as a daughter Desdemona admired her father, and felt compelled to explain her actions, although she did not regret them. Brabantio was grasp and put in the same position, he was put when younger. As a father figure, Barbantio
Cited: Shakespeare, William. Four Tragedies Shakespeare. April: Bantam Dell, 2005. Print.