In William Shakespeare's play “King Lear”, there are several issues that answer questions about our duty to our fathers and our kings, as well as whether there are ever circumstances in which we should disobey them to do our duty to them. Our duty to our fathers and our kings is not only to love and obey them, to show them respect and honor them, but it is also to humiliate them, to keep them honest when necessary, to keep them safe and to protect them. You cannot have praise without the discipline of being a good father or a good king. Being praised and revered as many kings and sometimes even fathers are by their children can generate a sense of entitlement that can be detrimental to their character. King Lear had become so used to his praise, that it was the only thing he lived for, he needed it to survive, his treatment as a king was his Achilles heel in this play. He wanted to step down as king and divide his kingdom into 3 sections, giving them to his daughters to rule. Goneril and Regan were more than willing to grant his request to demonstrate their love for their father and king by professing their love for him in a dramatic manner combined with a good bit of exaggeration. While Cordelia, on the other hand, found it difficult to profess what she thought was known by her father and king, she states: “Unhappy to be, I cannot lift / My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty / According to my bond; neither more nor less (scene 1.1, lines 91-93). Cordeila chooses to speak truthfully from her heart instead of stroking the king's ego with flattery like Goneril and Regan. She says she loves him “according to my bond,” meaning she understands and accepts her duty to love him as a father and king. Cordelia......middle of paper......concerned about the honesty of humanity. There are several points throughout the play where characters offer their insight on the topic. “As flies to wild boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport", (Scene 4.1, lines 37-38) Gloucester makes this statement when he believes that social and moral goodness does not affect such things as justice. While his son Edgar believes the opposite, "the gods are righteous" (scene 5.3, line 170), implying that people who do evil will eventually get what they deserve and that justice will prevail. In the end, we find that, although morally unjust people die, morally righteous people will die along with It is difficult to say which side of the moral scale emerges as the victor at the end of this play, but there is no doubt that the deceptions inflicted on both of these fathers were the beginning of the end for each of their families...