The character of Cordelia in King Lear Cordelia is the epitome of goodness in Shakespeare's King Lear. “What will Cordelia say?/ Love and be silent” (Ii63-64). These words echo a time when loyalty to king and father was paramount. King Lear, Cordelia's father, planned to divide his land among his three daughters, but at a price, the price of their love. While her sisters exaggerated their love for their father to win the "prize", Cordelia remained true to herself and her loyalty to Lear by not mocking her feelings for him and pretending otherwise. She was also not characterized by openness of her feelings. She was a quiet girl who kept her emotions locked inside. Even so, Lear was angered by her response and disowned her. Why such a brutal attack on your daughter? Cordelia is known to be Lear's favorite and he hoped that he could give her the largest piece of land so he could reside on it with her, but the plan failed. Overall, the king's decision led him and his daughter to tragic ruin. With all the swarms of evil that reside in this play, Cordelia is the epitome of goodness. She is loving, virtuous and forgiving. She also demonstrates law and order as she was a devoted daughter and had great respect for her father and his position. Her goodness is highlighted in Act IV, Scene VII, when she is at Lear's side and he slowly wakes up and considers her an angel. He asks Cordelia's "angel" to forgive him, but according to Cordelia there is no need to do so. Cordelia, however, is a tragic character, her kindness and her staying within the bounds of the social norms of the Elizabethan era, ironically proved to be her tragic undoing. Many people were quite moved and shocked by his death, many of whom considered it an injustice. Samuel Johnson had said: "Shakespeare has allowed Cordelia's virtue to perish in a just cause, contrary to natural ideas of justice, the hope of the reader, and, what is still stranger, the faith of the chronicles... A work in which the wicked prosper and the virtuous fail. What exactly was Cordelia's role in the play? Was she there as an angel-like character who made the distinction between good and evil more visible? did he do anything wrong and that perhaps, to some extent, we should despise? Or was he there to make us more aware of a crumbling society in which many things were opposite to what one might think they should be, with the evil generally being? does good prevail (which to some extent is prophetic for today's society)? There are many theories about this particular character, and none have come to a definitive conclusion in recent times. The best answer I can find, however, is simply the answer "Yes" to all of the above.