SOURCE: “King Lear's ‘Immoral’ Daughters and the Politics of Kingship,” in Exemplaria, Vol. 8, No. 2, Fall, 1996, pp. 375-400.

In the following essay, Alfar challenges feminist interpretations of Goneril and Regan as evil, maintaining that the characters are merely a reflection of the violence in their patrilineal society.

Traditionally, King Lear's eldest daughters are labelled villains. Most critics dismiss them as stock characters, conventional representations of “evil,” and focus on the complexity of male characters or on Cordelia. Their “evil” is defined by acts of will, power, desire, sexuality—acts which disrupt both conventional morality and the patrilineal order's¹ definition of “appropriate” femininity and consequently must be met with punitive consequences. However, the presumption that Goneril and Regan are “evil” reifies female subjectivity as stable and whole, rather than multiple and complex. While the sisters plot against their father, engage in extramarital affairs with the same man, and stand by...