UNMAKING CORDELIA

When Chiron and Demetrius rape and mutilate Lavinia, they try to destroy her as a human being, leaving her with a life that is no life at all. It is her father who takes the lead in trying to restore whatever life she can have, trying to bring her back into the relationship. In the first scene of King Lear, Cordelia endures a cruel twist on Lavinia's fate: it is her father who tries to annihilate her. He does this most obviously in the curse he utters when he banishes her, an attack that leaves no mark on her body but aims at destroying her humanity, her relationships and her identity, even more completely than Chiron and Demetrius destroy Lavinia's. Lear has defined Cordelia as his daughter, and if she is not his daughter she is nothing. The long ordeals of Lavinia, Cressida and Desdemona take up much of their respective plays. Cordelia's is compressed into the first scene, after which she disappears for a long time as though Lear has truly annihilated her. But as Othello in trying to destroy Desdemona's identity actually destroys his own, so Lear's attack on Cordelia means that he is the one who breaks apart. From the self-violation of Lear's identity, chaos spreads through his family and his kingdom, as identities and the structures of relationship that depend on them break down.

The annihilation of Cordelia and ultimately of Lear is implicit in the love-test.