Park 1

The Freudian Psychoanalysis of King Lear, the Child

Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." Mark 10:9
Freudian psychoanalysis allows readers to return to past works of literature that have been
examined and understand ideas that have not been revealed previously. Sigmund Freud did not
create psychoanalysis, for it had always existed, just as math had always existed; he did, however,
uncover the particular method of analyzing experiences to understand the psychology of people.
This method can also be applied to literary characters and literary works, such as King Lear. Using
psychoanalysis on works of literature reveals concealed motives underlying the thoughts and
behaviors of characters. King Lear, a play by William Shakespeare, is a tragedy, but for reasons
other than the obvious ones. Once King Lear is psychoanalyzed through The Theme of the Three
Caskets and from a pre-Oedipal complex standpoint, the play no longer retains its familiarity and
becomes entirely new.
In the play The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, the third suitor, Bassanio, selects the
third casket, the lead casket, to marry Portia. The selecting between caskets was originally from a
tale in the Gesta Romanorum. In the tale, a girl chooses the third casket, the lead casket, to marry
the son of the Emperor. In the Estonian folkepic Kalewipoeg, the bride falls in love with the
third suitor. Both the Estonian epic and the tale from Gesta Romanorum involve a girl subject who
chooses between three suitors. The Merchant of Venice is very similar to the two previous tales;
however, a man is doing the choosing, and caskets, not women, are being selected. If these two
types of tales are inversions of each other, then the caskets would represent women, and the
women would represent caskets. Thus, the universally recurring theme is a mans choice between
three women. (Three Caskets, 515)
The Merchant of Venice and King Lear are very similar in content. Lear desires to divide
his kingdom among his three daughters according to how much they individually love him. His
first two daughters express their love through praise, but Cordelia, his third daughter, refuses to

Park 2
express her love. Lear should have recognized her speechlessness and rewarded her, for her
silence could have meant that her love could not be expressed through words. Instead, he disowns
her and banishes her from the country. Thus, this scene supports the theme of a mans choice
between three women, of which the youngest is the best and most desirable. This theme is
prevalent in other myths and fairytales, such as Cinderella. Cinderella is the youngest of three
daughters and is sought after by the prince. In all of these stories, the third is the most excellent
one. (Three Caskets, 516)
By comparing the third choices of the two Shakespearean plays, The Merchant of Venice
and King Lear, Cordelia is equivalent to lead. Bassino states, Thy paleness moves me more than
eloquence, when selecting the lead casket. (Three Caskets, 517) He implies that the simplicity
of lead had triumphed over the two other noble metals. Likewise, the simplicity of Cordelia, her
silence, had prevailed over her two gregarious sisters. However, in stories and tales from previous
times, silence is a common representation of death. (Three Caskets, 517) In the ninth story of
Grimms Fairy Tales called The Twelve Brothers, the king has twelve caskets prepared in
anticipation of the thirteenth child to be a girl. The thirteenth child is a girl, and thus, she must
remain silent for seven years to save her twelve brothers. However, she dies because her silence
prevented her from crying out for help. An identical story can be found in The Six Swans. Thus,
these two stories support that silence does in fact represent death. In addition, the twelve caskets in
The Twelve Brothers also represent death, the death of the twelve brothers. In The Merchant of
Venice, suitors are choosing between three caskets, of which the third casket is equivalent to
Cordelia. The third casket is the quintessence symbol of death. As seen in the human world and
reinforced by The Twelve Brothers, caskets are intended for the dead. However, the third casket
that was chosen was not made of gold or silver but was made of lead. Decades ago, lead was used
in gasoline, but due to health concerns regarding its toxicity, the incorporation of lead in gasoline

Park 3
was banned. Even an insignificant amount of lead could lead to significant health problems,
including death. Caskets and lead both represent death individually, but once the two are combined
to form a lead casket, the lead casket becomes the paramount representation of death. Thus,
Cordelia and the third lead casket are interchangeable and both represent silence and death.
Through The Theme of the Three Caskets, Freud psychoanalyzes King Lear. He uses
one scene the very first scene of the very first act when Lear is dividing his kingdom among his
three daughters to uncover the hidden message and completely change the meaning of the rest of
the play. Freud himself was aware that his third and last daughter was not only intellectually very
remarkable but also emotionally very special to him. (Three Caskets, 514) He thought about
the true reason and searched past literary works to find the theme of a mans choice between
three women. (Three Caskets, 515) In his search, he found the theme recurring in many works
of literature, including The Merchant of Venice, Gesta Romanorum, and King Lear.
After being made aware of the theme in King Lear, the ultimate outcome of the play can be
predicted in the first few lines of Act 1, Scene 1. Cordelia is the third of the three daughters of
Lear, which, based on the theme, signifies her importance. When asked to flatter her father, she
remains silent and is banished as a result. Because she is equivalent to the lead casket, Cordelia
represents death, which foreshadows her death. Thus, from conducting Freudian psychoanalysis
on just the first scene of the play, the reader can deduce that Cordelia will die by the end of the
play.
Nonetheless, the relationship between Lear and his daughters can be further evaluated
using Freudian psychoanalysis. The most evident psychoanalytic theory present in the play is the
Oedipus complex, a theory that supports the existence of a sexual desire for the parent of the
opposite sex. (Psychoanalysis, 154) The boys involvement with the mothers body results in an
unconscious sexual desire for her. The desire begins when the child is a baby and sucks on the
mothers breast for milk. The child attempts to recreate this pleasure through the sucking of the

Park 4
thumb and, later on in life, through kissing. To overcome this complex, the child must reject the
pleasure principle and accept the reality principle by detaching himself from the mother.
(Psychoanalysis, 155) However, psychoanalysis supports that Lear has not overcome the
Oedipus complex and still desires the pleasure principle.
Lear, having not accepted the reality principle, unconsciously desires his daughters in a
sexual manner and faces internal conflict when he has to give up Cordelia because he longs to
keep her as well. In the very first scene of the play, the court is present to witness Lear divide his
kingdom among his three daughters. However, just as Freud was aware that his third daughter was
special to him, Lear was aware that his third daughter was special to him as well. Thus, although it
may seem that the court was gathered to observe Lear retire, the true, hidden reason of the
gathering of the court was to witness the marriage of his youngest daughter. He asks Cordelia to
express how much she loves him so that she may attain a piece of the kingdom and obtain the
dowry for her marriage. He expects her to express that she loves him more than her sisters love
him and that she loves him more than she will love her future husband, but because Cordelia
loves and is silent, he banishes her from the country. (King Lear, 1.1) However, his banishment
of her awakens a deep incestuous desire for her.
Lear has not evolved from the pre-Oedipal stage; therefore, he still acts like a child. In
giving away his entire kingdom to his daughters, he wants to be completely dependent on them,
yet in forcing his daughters to eloquently flatter him for a part of the kingdom, he also
demonstrates that he wants to have complete control over them as well. The yearning for these two
opposite things at the same time, to be absolutely dependent and to have absolute control, is the
result of the pre-Oedipal stage. As a child, he was completely dependent on his mother, who
satisfied all of his needs by providing her breast. He also had complete control over her breast,
receiving the breast whenever he desired through methods such as crying. Thus, as a father and a
king, he had suppressed all longings for love, which would have been satisfied by a mother figure

Park 5
since he was still in the pre-Oedipal stage. Lear is an old and dying man who will return to
Mother Earth who receives him once more. (Three Caskets, 522) The anticipation of
Mother Earth accepting him again rekindles his pre-Oedipal desires, for he wants to crawl
towards death like a child. (King Lear, 1.1) His childlikeness is reinforced when he banishes
Cordelia. I loved her most, and thought to set my rest/ On her kind nursery. (King Lear, 1.1) He
exposes himself as a child who still desires his mother figure, which in his case is his daughter
Cordelia.
Lear still resides in the pre-Oedipal stage, but he suppresses his desires. He appears to have
accepted the reality principle and rejected the pleasure principle, but in reality, he lives for the
pleasure principle. (Psychoanalysis, 155) His guise is required because civilization requires
prohibition. (Save Sigmund, 34) If a desire is too long bottled up, stimulated but
unrecognized, Freud suggests, theres a good chance that it will manifest itself in sudden
unexpected acts. (Save Sigmund, 35) His desire for the mother figure has been suppressed for
too long, and thus, his deprivation of the mother figure results in his madness, which has worsened
because he had banished Cordelia, who most closely resembled a mother figure.
Lears madness results in his behaving like a child. He declares, Let me not stay a jot for
dinner; go get it ready. (King Lear, 1.4) Reverting back to his pre-Oedipal stage, Lear is hungry
and wants a mother figure to provide him with food. Because he is a child once again, the only
food that he desires is breast milk. His way of thinking also resembles that of a child. Since
Cordelia, his ideal mother figure, does not satisfy his hunger, he fantasizes of eating her. To gorge
his [the barbarous Scythians] appetite, shall to my bosom/ Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and
relieved,/ As thou my sometime daughter. (King Lear, 1.1) When Lear meets the tattered Edgar,
disguised as Tom OBedlam, he states, Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers/ Should have thus
little mercy on their flesh?/ Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot/ Those pelican daughters.
(King Lear, 3.4) Lear hopes to punish his flesh through the flesh, but because his daughters

Park 6
are his flesh, Lear identifies strongly with them. When Goneril banishes him from her house, he
aims for total separation. We'll no more meet, no more see one another. (King Lear, 2.4)
However, she is his flesh, so he will not abandon her. But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my
daughter;/ Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,/ Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,/ A
plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,/ In my corrupted blood. (King Lear, 2.4) According to the
Bible, when a man and a woman have intercourse, the two will become one flesh. So they are no
longer two, but one flesh. (Mark 10:8) They become one flesh symbolically, but the bond
between a mother and a child is of the physical flesh since they were physically one flesh. Thus,
when Lear insists that his daughters are my flesh, my blood, it implies that either he had
intercourse with his daughters or that he is the mother of his daughters. (King Lear, 2.4) Certainly,
both choices are ridiculous and implausible. However, in the metaphorical context, the second
choice is reasonable. Because his daughters are his flesh, he and his daughters are one flesh,
which suggests that both Lear is the mother of his daughters and his daughters are also the mothers
of Lear, fulfilling his desire of having a mother figure.
The internal conflict in Lear continues throughout the play. He does not reject the
pleasure principle and desires Cordelia as a mother figure. Cordelia is the third child, so she is
uncannily special to Lear because she is different than her two other sisters; she possesses certain
characteristics, such as mercy, kindness, and absolute goodness, which distinguish her from them.
However, thinking that he is in the afterlife after he is awoken, Lear rejects the pleasure
principle. He becomes aware of his incestuous desire for her and admits his childlike behavior,
confessing his internal conflict to Cordelia. I am a very foolish fond old man. (King Lear, 4.7)
He also acknowledges that he will no longer view her as a mother figure but as a daughter. For, as
I am a man, I think this lady/ To be my child Cordelia. (King Lear, 4.7) In the beginning of the
play, Lear had disowned her as his daughter; however, at this moment, he reclaims her, calling her

Park 7
my child Cordelia. He appears to have overcome his pre-Oedipal stage and accepted the reality
principle.
In the final moments before his death, he still remains confused about his love for
Cordelia, whether it is a child-mother or a father-daughter kind of love. His confusion is most
apparent when he is imprisoned with Cordelia so that their greater pleasures first be known.
(King Lear, 5.3) Rather than choosing either of the hierarchical relationships, in which one is
superior to the other, Lear sets Cordelia and himself as equals to temporarily cope with his internal
conflict, for he does not want his conflict to interfere with his long awaited reunion with his
special daughter; Come, let's away to prison:/ We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:/ When
thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,/ And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,/ And pray,
and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh/ At gilded butterflies. (King Lear, 5.3) Lear hopes that he
and Cordelia will share a balanced love, where authority is absent; however, his fantasy does not
last long, for it is interrupted by her death. She dies while he resides in his fantasy world, where
they shared a reciprocal kind of love. Therefore, an authoritarian relationship is not established,
preventing his internal conflict from achieving closure. He assumes the role of the father, cradling
her dead body in his arms, yet he denies her death; Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir./ Do
you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,/ Look there, look there! (King Lear, 5.3) He cannot
accept her death because he had finally confessed his internal conflict, not to just anyone but to the
only loving woman in his world, and moments later, she leaves him. His deep love for her at this
moment, unknown as to whether it is a child-mother or a father-daughter kind of love, intensifies
his internal conflict, for his conflict may forever remain unresolved with the first of two possible
sources of remediation gone. The second but extreme possible source of remediation is death.
The death of desire is the death of the individual. Unable to handle his internal conflict, Lear
dies and his conflict is ultimately resolved. (Save Sigmund, 34)

Park 8
The Freudian psychoanalysis of King Lear through The Theme of the Three Caskets and
from a pre-Oedipal complex standpoint reveals concealed motives, which otherwise would have
been impossible to discover. The Theme of the Three Caskets reasons that the lead casket is
equivalent to Cordelia. Because the lead casket represents death, she, too, represents death. Thus,
from conducting psychoanalysis on just the first scene of the play, the death of Cordelia, which
occurs at the very end of the play, is foreseen from the very beginning of the play. When
considering King Lear from a pre-Oedipal complex standpoint, it appears that Lear has not
completely grown out of the pre-Oedipal stage. He has not rejected the pleasure principle and
accepted the reality principle. Therefore, he incestuously desires his third daughter, Cordelia, to
be his mother figure so that he can be a child again. Without psychoanalysis, King Lear would
have been a tragic play about a king who lost his kingdom and power to his daughters. However,
with psychoanalysis, concealed motives underlying the thoughts and behaviors of characters can
be revealed, resulting in the famous play to become a completely unfamiliar play.