Joyce Carol Oates (oh, don't you just love the mentioning of her name?) noted in her essay "Goddesses" that Cordelia's death is rather undermined in Act 5 Scene 3 (pg 255). Despite her holding such importance in the play in rejuvenating Lear, her death occurs off-scene (as do all but Lear's death). Consider Lear's recovery upon reconciling with Cordelia, as well as the passage in which Edmund and Goneril plot Cordelia's murder as a staged suicide (pg 237) and the passage in which Lear enters the stage with Cordelia in his arms to the end of the play (beginning pg 255). Shakespeare displayed all of the characters on stage before their untimely death -- Gorneril and Regan fight before the ill Regan is led off-stage; when Gorneril leaves, she is pursued by a servant who brings back his sword bloodied. Edmund is wounded on-stage before later dying, and Lear dies out of grief on stage. Consider and explain why you think Shakespeare wrote Cordelia's death to occur entirely offstage. As well, connect Shakespeare's technique of Cordelia's death to Oates' interpretation of her death (bottom of 2nd page) and demonstrate whether it supports/goes against your argument as to why Shakespeare killed such a pivotal role in our main character's life in such a boring way.
I interpreted Cordelia's off-stage, anti-climactic death as a continuation of Shakespeare's commentary on a woman's place in society - and that she should stay in it. Cordelia was clearly a strong female character. Rather than being a shallow and submissive daughter, she stood up to her kingly father by telling him the truth in the very first scene of the play. Later on, Cordelia seemed even stronger and was more outside of the submissive womanly role of the time when she was depicted in a position of power in Act 4 Scene 4, as she led and commanded the French Army. While war was traditionally for men only, as a woman, Cordelia was out of her place through her mere presence, let alone her leadership role, which was clear through her use of the uncompromising commands "send forth" (6), "search" (7) and "bring" (8), as she ordered a search party for her father. Because she was characterized as such a powerful woman, I think that her anticlimactic death was assigned to her intentionally to undermine the power of women, and to further Shakespeare's point that women were not to outstep their social expectations(see the blog post "A Reversal of Roles" for more discussion of this topic). Depicted only a few acts before as a valiant military leader, Cordelia was denied the glorious battle death that she deserved, and that would have won her respect and honor. Instead, as JCO wrote, "one cannot even visualize that scene" in which she died. Her courageous image silently deflated when Shakespeare killed her offstage , and the next time she appeared she was dead in her father's arms - clearly symbolic of male supremacy in the end. Denied a hero's death, and given no chance for empowering final words, Cordelia's death strongly evokes an air of defeat. She was the strong protagonist all along, but in the end, she too was defeated by the system and was forced to become a submissive woman through her unglorious death. I believe Shakespeare used this image to say that women were not meant to have power, and that outstepping one's role in society only creates problems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma's arguements but I thought of Cordelia's offstage death as alluding more to societal norms not only within the play but also in Shakespearean times. Typically in tragedies and plays, characters die or are killed offstage unless to truly paint a dismal portrait regarding the scene or play or to send a very clear message through the vivid occurence. Both characters that play a minor role and those who are women death's are expected to happen somewhere other than directly within the scene, and I believe this is what was socially acceptable for those times. The reason for Shakespeare's discluding of Cordelia's death on stage is that he is sending somewhat of a message about the morality and role that Cordelia played. From the very beginning of the play such as (I.i.87-100), Cordelia seemed to be the most genuine character and true to her form in fact acting very much the part of what was socially acceptable for a lady. Her honest words and mannerisms portray her as very proper and therefore socially acceptable as oppose to her sisters that were very much dominant and aggressive in their actions and mannerisms such as in Act 3 Scene 6 when Regan full out kills her servant by stabbing him in the back, so they therefore are not acting within the societal standards set for them. Ultimately, through Cordelia's tragic offstage death, I think that Shakespeare wanted to provide some sort of consistency through Cordelia and to portray her as very normal and acceptable, as she was, while all the other chaotic and mad occurences were taking place.
ReplyDelete--Fiona M-S
I agree with Emma that Shakespeare had Cordelia die offstage to "put her in her place". The whole story is based on how Cordelia stood up to her father, which really wasn't a woman's place at the time. Giving her death the attention and drama that a male death gets would only solidify her place in the story as a strong, independent woman uncharacteristic of her time. Instead, by giving her an understated death, Shakespeare takes away all the power that she displayed during her time alive and portrays her as a normal, obedient woman of the time. I think that this is Shsakespeare's way of saying "that's what you get" when a woman acts like Cordelia did.
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