Goneril

FINISHED FOR NOW 21/06/2026

love that makes breath poor and speech unable

• Act One Scene One

• She says her love makes “speech unable,” even though she is in the middle of a speech about love.

• This contrast indicates that Goneril speaks insincerely.

• Lear’s inability to distinguish between empty flattery and truth introduces an important theme of the play: the unreliable nature of words.

You see how full of changes his age is… He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off

• Act One Scene One

• Blindness

• Sees Lear more clearly than he sees himself.

• Here Goneril explains Lear’s situation: as he ages, he is losing his ability to make good decisions.

Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty

• Act One Scene One

• Hubris

• Goneril claims she loves Lear more than the fundamentals of life (LIES)

Unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them

• Act One Scene One

• The quote refers to the unpredictable, irrational behaviour of old age, characterized by physical and mental frailty and explosive anger. This phrase is used as a cruel justification to strip their father of his royal authority and knights

• "Infirm": The physical and mental weaknesses brought on by old age, which in Lear's case may also include the early stages of dementia or cognitive decline.

• "Choleric": Refers to being hot-tempered and prone to violent mood swings. In Renaissance medicine, a "choleric" temperament was thought to be caused by an excess of yellow bile in the body.

• "Unruly waywardness": The childish, stubborn, and unpredictable actions that make Lear incredibly difficult to manage.

‘old fools are babes again’

• Act One Scene Three

• Elderly people can become mentally and emotionally like small children.

• Goneril uses this metaphor to justify her cruel treatment of her father, arguing that because Lear gave up his crown but still demands total authority, he requires discipline and correction rather than flattery.

By day and night he wrongs me; every hour he flashes into one gross crime or other

• Act One Scene Three

• Betrayal

• Claims that Lear and his knights are always being disrespectful and awful to her

Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine. Who can arraign me for’t?

• Act Five Scene Two

• Power of rulers

• Goneril declares that as queen, she is above the law.

• The play asks what justice is and where it comes from: is simply whatever the monarch says it is?

• Justice was an important topic for King Lear. King James I of England was especially interested in ideas surrounding justice and the law.

‘what have you done, tigers not daughters, what have you performed?’ (from Albany)

• Act Four Scene Two

• G+R are viscous animals, not the subservient daughters they were supposed to be

‘Thou changèd and self-covered thing, for shame Bemonster not thy feature’ (from Albany)

• Act Four Scene Two

• Albany just learned of G+R’s horrid cruelty to Gloucester

• "Thou changèd and self-covered thing": Albany is expressing shock at how Goneril has changed. He means she has become unrecognizable, hiding her true demonic, monstrous nature beneath the outward appearance of a human woman (a "self-covered" fiend)

‘I must change names at home and give the distaff into my husband’s hands’

• Act Four Scene Two

• plans to seize control by reversing traditional gender roles: she will take on the "masculine" role of a warrior/leader, and force her "weak" husband, Albany, to do domestic women's work

I had rather lose the battle than that sister Should loosen him and me

• Act Five Scene One

• G would rather let England fall than let Regan and Edmund be together

Combine together 'gainst the enemy; / For these domestic and particular broils / Are not to question here

• Act Five Scene One

• Goneril urges her husband, Albany, and Edmund to focus on the immediate war with France, pushing aside their internal family and political conflicts for the time being.

• As the enemy is France, and Cordelia married France, their enemy is Cordelia because she defo still supports Lear

"Not so hot. In his own grace he doth exalt himself More than in your addition."

• Act Five Scene Three

• When Albany honors Edmund, a jealous Regan stakes her claim on him. Goneril quickly interjects, defending Edmund and asserting that he has earned his own honors rather than just relying on Regan's titles.

Yet Edmund was beloved. The one the other poisoned for my sake, And after slew herself. (EDMUND)

• Act Five Scene Three

• Goneril poisoned Regan because of Edmund, and after realising what she’d done, killed herself

(Regan: Sick, O, sick!) (aside)  “If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine.”

• Act Five Scene Three

• she is making a grim joke to the audience. She is essentially saying: "If the poison I gave my sister doesn't work and kill her, then I will never trust medicine or poison again."

• The Significance: It showcases Goneril's pure malice, ruthlessness, and deceit. She is so deeply consumed by her lust for power and for Edmund that she is willing to murder her own family members without a second thought.