“What We Ought to Say”: Debating the Morality of Dishonesty and Equivocation in King Lear

Authors

Markelle Jensen, Brigham Young UniversityFollow

Keywords

King Lear, Shakespeare, equivocation, dishonesty, morality

Abstract

King Lear does not reveal the nature of honesty but provides a stage on which the morality of honesty can be debated. The play questions whether honesty is inherently moral at all, or if there are ways in which honesty can be considered harmful and even immoral. Other scholars have noted this as well in characters such as Edgar and Kent, but missing from the critical conversation are the ways in which Cordelia is the pillar of moral goodness in the play, and how her own paradoxical honesty and dishonesty were what enabled Lear to “see better” and ultimately, to be better.

Issue and Volume

14.2

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Jensen, Markelle (2022) "“What We Ought to Say”: Debating the Morality of Dishonesty and Equivocation in King Lear," Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism: Vol. 14: Iss. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/criterion/vol14/iss2/6