When he first began to act rashly and self-destructively, Cordelia and Kent were the only ones willing to speak out against Lear’s tyrannical behavior. Both of them did so out of loyalty to the very person most outraged by their words, a person they lovingly hoped to protect. With their banishment and Lear’s abdication, there is nothing to prevent the country from disintegrating. The disintegration was set off by the king’s lawless whim, but it is not he—stripped of his power and falling into madness—who will assume the mantle of tyranny. Rather, it is his vicious daughters, who show
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