Exploring the Development of Moral Value Using Sigmund Freud and Shakespeare's King Lear

Abstract

Sigmund Freud concludes in the fourth lecture of his "Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis" that children develop psychosocially in a pattern, learning standards of morality from their parents. "King Lear" is a Shakespearian tragedy that illustrates the role of parents in their children’s lives through the depiction elderly King Lear and his relationship with his favorite daughter Cordelia. Using Freud to consider Lear and Cordelia's relationship I would like to explore what responsibility parents should have in shaping their children’s moral values.