Connection: King Lear & The Notebook

King Lear is comparable to the timeless classic, teen favorite film, The Notebook. In both there are tests of love and revolutions used to portray and frame the setting.

In King Lear, King Lear settles his inheritence with proclamations of his love by his daughters. Although the claims were contrived, he fell for the sweet talking words none the less. In The Notebook, the main character Allie is not so swooned by the kind words said by Noah. What is interesting is how the romances fall into place afterwards. Cordelia is disowned by her father and has no dowery for a husband. Despite the interference Lear has played, King of France has taken Cordelia by the hand. While it took some convincing, Allie eventually agrees to date Noah; it is her parents whom also interefer on their relationship. While Noah and Allie stay apart for seven years do to the distance, in the end, their love prevails and reunites them. I find it interesting the message that is sent through both of these literay works; It is essentially true love that matters and will win in the end. Both Regan and Goneril's relationship with Lear worked no better than Allie's relationship with her fiance Lon, while Cordelia found her love as well as Allie eventually did.

A concept that is within many pieces of work is "revolutions." In King Lear, Lear himself revolves from a child, to king, to a second child as with his age, goes his sanity. In a more literal connection, the Notebook portrays this very transformation as Allie is depicted in her youth and as an old woman with Alheimers. In a more figurative sense, Allie and Noah's relationship goes through the trials and stages of a revolution. It starts as honest young love, grows into a fierce passion, dies out as the distance seperates them, and then rekindles with their reunion. These revolutions are in both inorder to play a sense of irony and bring depth to a simple story. It adds a concept which makes your mind go through the entire process only to result in a solution which was known from the beginning.