b'Short Essays Susannah Bramwellabsence, and what Khan calls a conspicuous omissionBullough, Geoffrey. Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare VII (Saunders 401), with the absent mother of the source stillMajor Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. Routledge and having residual presence. It is a convincing reason forKegan Paul, 1973.the cruelness of Goneril and Regan, who contemporaryGreenblatt, Stephen. Shakespeare and the Ethics of Authority audiences would have seen as emasculated. When ReganShakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought, edited by David Armitage, Conal Condren, and Andrew Fitzmaurice, pp. 64 - 79. Cambridge initiates the complete blinding of Gloucester, one side willUniversity Press, 2009.mock another; thother too (III.7.70), the callousness of Hirschfield, Heather. Am I in France?: King Lear and Source.the jeering tone finished with an imperative is successfulhttp://nq.oxfordjournals.org/. Oxford University Press, December 2009.at asserting Regans evil nature. Kahn correctly contends that this typically masculine behaviour is because TheJames I. True Lawe of Free Monarchies. Early English Books Online.only source of love, power, and authority is the father- anTate, Nahum. Preface to King Lear edited by Samuel Johnson.awesome, demanding presence (141). https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/johnson/samuel/preface/lear.html.Kahn, Coppelia. The Absent Mother in King Lear, Rewriting the Shakespeare seems to define the villainy of the sisters inRenaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference, edited by Margaret Ferguson, their attempt to grasp masculine power. For example,Maureen Quilligan, and Nancy Vickers, pp. 141 - 170. University of Chicago Press, 1985.Goneril sets herself above the law, defying the patriarchy and challenging gender roles: the laws are mine, notMcLuskie, Kathleen. The Patriarchal Bard: Feminist Criticism and King Lear Critical Essays on Shakespeares King Lear, edited by Jay Halio, thine. // Who can arraign me fort? (V.3.160). The in-linepp. 91- 153. G.K. Hall & Co., 1996.rhyme stresses the characters confidence and heightens the impact of her disruption of social hierarchies. ThisRubenstein, Frankie. Speculating on Mysteries: Religion and Politics in King Lear. The Society for Renaissance Studies. Oxford University Press, distortion of normative expectations would have alarmed2002.a contemporary audience as Goneril and Regan transgress Saunders, Graham. Missing Mothers and Absent Fathers: Howard the ideal of the patriarchal household, which was seenBarkers Seven Lears and Elaine Feinsteins Lears Daughters Modern as the only form of social organisation strong enoughDrama, Volume 42, Number 3, pp. 401-410. University of Toronto Press, to hold chaos at bay (McKluskie 99). The family was aFall 1999.fundamental part of societys framework; social harmonyShakespeare, William. King Lear edited by Grace Ioppolo. W. W. Norton depended on the families within the community. & Company, 2008.Sharma, Pankaj. Depiction of Woman as Human: A Reading of As Goneril and Regan are the main agents of the tragicExcesses of Feminist Readings of Shakespeares King Lear Language action, the family breakdown in King Lear is clearlyin India Volume 13:12. ISSN 1930-2940. December 2013.linked to the tragic end. I think this breakdown of familial structures is due to what Sharma describes as the defiance of the standards of female weakness and submission and male dominance (438) which results in the commandeering of male attributes. Thus, Shakespeare creates Khans tragedy of masculinity. Greenblatt validly surmises It would be possible, I believe, to argue that Shakespeares tragic vision was the consequence of the political defects of his age. (71). In altering Leir, Shakespeare creates a resolutely Jacobean play that deals with the corrosive nature of the political bigotry (Rubenstein 262) of the time. Sociohistorical reading is pertinent in considering King Lear and its source, as by retelling King Leir, Shakespeare was able to contend with widespread contemporary issues through the lens of dysfunctional families.43'