SOURCE: "King Lear: The Lear Family Romance," in The Centennial Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 4, Fall, 1979, pp. 348-76.

Below, Berger examines the relationship Lear has with his daughters by analyzing the psychological motivations for Lear's and his daughters' actions. Berger observes that the characters in the play tend to downplay their own contributions to their problems while intensifying the role of others.

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This reading of some aspects of King Lear's relationship to his daughters is one of a series of reinterpretations of Shakespeare motivated by an interest in returning to a modified character-and-action approach—the approach for which A. C. Bradley is famous or nefarious. The chief differences between my version and his are as follows:

1. I have no interest in, for example, how many children Lady Macbeth had. But I do have an interest in her interest in, and fear of, children as these affect and illuminate...