Of Love And Dust Compare And Contrast

Both King Lear and Of Love and Dust are stories about characters who seek power, but die because of it. Marcus, Goneril, Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund all seek positions where they have more power, and come very close, but in the end die. Throughout both stories, there is a stark difference between men’s and women’s power. In King Lear, Goneril feminizes Albany when he refuses to help her in her attempt to rule the kingdom. In addition, Jim’s neutrality as a character in Of Love and Dust makes him a stronger narrator. As contrast to Jim’s neutrality, Cordelia, Edmund, and Marcus go against societal expectations, which presents conflict in both stories. Lastly, love is a source of power for characters in both stories. It is what Regan and Goneril
He isn’t quick to pick sides in any disagreement, even that of racial inequality in Louisiana in 1948. He says he’s too tired to go out the convenient exit to the store – which is whites only. “You could buy soft drinks in the store or if you were a white man you could drink a beer in there, but if you were colored you had to go to the little side room – ‘the nigger room.’ I kept telling myself, ‘one of these days I’m going to stop this, I’m a man like any other man and one of these days I’m going to stop this.’ But I never did. Either I was too thirsty to do it, or after I had been working in the field all day I was just too tired and just didn’t care” (Gaines, 42-43). Jim is constantly procrastinating standing up for himself in this way. Even in his telling of the story, he shows little preference as to what he wants to happen. This, paired with his unparalleled knowledge of what goes on around the plantation, Jim is a very powerful narrator. King Lear doesn’t have an equivalent to Jim in terms of neutrality. The most neutral character is probably Burgundy. Much of this is because he is only present in one scene, but he chooses not to marry Cordelia because she no longer has a dowry, yet he doesn’t side with either Lear or Goneril and Regan when push comes to
Instead of lying to get inheritance, she tells the truth in hopes that Lear will know how much she loves him from her previous actions. After her sisters have lied to Lear, Cordelia says: “Then poor Cordelia! / And yet not so, since I am sure my love’s / more ponderous than my tongue” (Shakespeare, 9). Cordelia is sure Lear will remember from her and her sister’s previous actions how she loves him the most. Cordelia is a legitimate child, so she is entitled by society to a portion of his inheritance, but she is also expected to exaggerate how much she loves him to the court. Because she doesn’t, he disowns her, giving her no dowry and no