Blog 2

4. Leo Tolstoy tells us in the first line of his great novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Lear’s is obviously an unhappy family, as is Gloucester’s. Explore the source of the unhappiness in both of the families. What is it that has torn each one apart? Some sin of the fathers? Or of the children? Human nature? What is wrong here? Are there any similarities between the two, or are they indeed “both unhappy in their own way?”

Both families are unhappy because of unfaithfulness. King Lear is unhappy because, of the two daughters he divided the kingdom with, both have betrayed him, taken away all power, and stripped him of everything he had as king. It is partially his fault as he took a sin of gluttony and then took it farther as he only wanted verbal praise. This led to him disinheriting the only daughter that truly loved him. When the kingdom was split up the two daughters that received portions of it decided that they had no reason to keep respecting their father and could do what they wanted.

Gloucester is torn apart by the greed of a bastard son whose bastard way is going to cause his father and his other non bastard son to fight against each other. It is based on deception and false trust. It seems to be nature of different people but I would say that loyalty in this case is the ultimate reason for the betrayal.