OLeary

Meghan OLeary
Professor Bubash
English 221
October 24, 2015
Inversion of Hierarchies as Criticism of Powerful Women in King Lear
The characters that instigate action in a play can indicate its main points of analysis. In
King Lear, Goneril and Regan act as the villains who propel the action of the play. The womens
tendency to go against the status quo in both their familial and marital relationships results in
their major roles in the plays events. One can view the sisters tendency to go against the
established order as the root of their villainy; this concept of hierarchy permeates many of the
interactions in King Lear. The language in King Lear emphasizes the disastrous consequences of
going against the traditional order of nature, and serves to criticize the presence of women in
nontraditional positions of power by characterizing powerful women as villains.
One structure Shakespeare scrutinizes in the play revolves around familial relationships,
and the problems that arise when family members do not respect their customary roles. In
traditional family structures, children are supposed to respect and obey their parents. Daughters,
in particular have little personal agency, and are generally under the control of fathers, brothers,
or husbands. Goneril and Regan are forceful women who appear to be unusually in charge of
their own lives, and they use this power to promote their evil agendas. This play does not cast
these dominant women as rightfully empowered, but as unnaturally corrupted. In the traditional
family hierarchy, sons would inherit from fathers. King Lears first problem in the play is that he
must decide how to divide his inheritance among his daughters; the presence of a son would have
provided a clear heir. Therefore, the womens very existence poses an issue for the king.

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Rather than showing their father respect, Goneril and Regan make it clear in their
language and treatment of King Lear that they have only contempt for him. Goneril shows him
disrespect by forcing him to diminish his retinue, claiming that such an inconsequential figure
does not need so many men. She orders him to disquantity your train;/ And the remainder that
shall still depend,/ To be such men as may besort your age,/ And know themselves around you
(1.4.224-227). Her very order shows that she views herself as above her father, reversing the
normal practice of a parent telling a child what to do. Lears response stresses Gonerils
womanhood, as he invokes, Hear, Nature, hear! dear goddess, hear!/ Suspend thy purpose, if
thou didst intend/ To make this creature fruitful!/ Into her womb convey sterility! (1.4.253-255).
The worst curses he can think to bestow on her ask a female deity to keep her from having
children. Later, Lear exclaims, I am ashamed/ That thou hast the power to shake my manhood
thus (1.4.273-274). The insults to Goneril emphasize that the female child asserting dominance
over her male parent makes her evil nature that much worse, and more of a betrayal, such that
she should not be privileged to have children herself.
The sisters treatment of their father also serves to showcase their adoption of masculine
traits in order to exert their power. Regan denies hospitality to her old, weak father on his knees
before her, conveying the compassionate and motherly image imaginable. The king does not
want to believe his other daughter would turn against him too, saying, Thy tender-hefted nature
shall not give/ thee oer to harshness. Her eyes are fierce; but thine/ Do comfort and not burn
(2.4.165-167). He hopes she will show the female traits of tenderness and comfort rather than the
male fierceness exhibited by Goneril. The sisters embrace these manly characteristics, as Goenril
fumes, our power/ Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men/ May blame, but not control
(3.7.25-27). Goneril knows that her agency comes from a willingness to act like a man, endowed

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with rage and the ability that comes along with it, rather than acting as the gentle, submissive
woman. The very power that they hold stems from a rotten core; the agency that allows them to
gain power comes from their willingness to eschew their family.
Goneril and Regan are competitive with each other and united in their disapproval of
Cordelia. Female solidarity does not exist in these sisterly relationships, only convenience and
power struggles more traditionally present in male dynamics. Goneril says to Cordelia, You
have obedience scanted./ And well are worth the want that you have wanted (1.1.279-280). She
feels that Cordelia has gotten what she deserved for her silence, and Goenril and Regan show no
pity for their banished sister, only jealousy. Goneril recalls, he always loved our/ sister most;
and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her/ off appears too grossly (1.1.288-290). The
traditionally feminine virtues revolving around nurture and kinship are absent in Goneril and
Regan. Alternatively, Cordelia represents truth and loyalty. She would rather be banished from
her home and family than to deceiver her father with false flattery. She sees the wickedness of
her sisters from the beginning, but since she does not have the power or will to stop them, she
disappears into exile for the majority of the play. In this way Cordelia, the paragon of feminine
virtue, may not be the villain of the play but also does not play the hero. Her adherence to her
role as dutiful daughter and gently passive woman prevents her from taking any kind of action
against her sisters to help her father.
Inversion of hierarchy is particularly evident in Regan and Gonerils marriages. The
women are clearly the more powerful and aggressive half of each of their marriages, contrary to
traditionally dominant males paired with submissive females. Goneril says to her husband, Duke
of Albany, my lord,/ This milky gentleness and course of yours/ Though I condemn not, yet,
under pardon,/ You are much more attaxed for want of wisdom/ Than praised for harmful

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mildness (1.4.319-323). She insinuates that her husband is the weaker, i.e. female, half of the
relationship and describes him as gentle and associated with womens breast milk. The husbands
lack of strong roles in the play and agency within their relationships further highlights the
unnatural nature of their powerful wives. In Act 2, Goneril and Regan refuse to listen to their
husbands pleas to treat their father better, showing their lack of control over their wives, in a
relationship where husbands would generally pride themselves on having obedient wives.
Women serve as the catalysts for the events of the play, such as when Regan angrily orders,
Give me thy sword, implying that although her husband Cornwall is standing right there, he
will not act aggressively (3.7.83). The expectation that the women will take action instead of the
men inverts the traditional social hierarchy of strong men controlling demure women,
particularly in marriage.
Shakespeare utilizes inversions of the natural order of relationships in order to emphasize
the villainy associated with women in positions of power. Casting women who possess
traditionally male qualities as both the catalyst for the action of the play and the villains
showcases a perspective that empowering women can only lead to their corruption and disaster.
This connection is emphasized through the unnaturalness of Goneril and Regans relationships
throughout the play with their father, sister, husbands, and each other. All of their interactions
that invert traditional hierarchies support a reading that women who are fierce, proactive, and
generally dominant, or endowed with stereotypically male characteristics, must be evil. This
reading implies that the natural order exists for good reason. The relationship between upended
hierarchies and the disasters resulting from powerful women can be viewed as a criticism of
empowering women, casting an anti-feminist shadow on the text.

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Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2012. 1254-1339. Print. Vol. B of The Norton Anthology of English Literature.