It's a Saturday night and you want to go out
for the evening. To do this you need the car, what do you do? Flattery is the
way to go: " Mom, did you lose weight? You look amazing! Is that a new
hair color? New outfit? " Your mom is so flattered that when you ask for
the car she doesn't need to think twice before she hands you the keys. From
that point on, you know that whenever you want something all you have to do is
put on the charm, flash that big smile and tell a few white lies. After this
your wish is their command. Why is this? Well, as you can see flattery will get
you everywhere. Even Shakespeare knew the powers of flattery. He portrays in
flattery in the play King Lear by the characters Regan and Goneril. It is clear
that flattery makes every goal attainable whether it be wealth, power and even
the most sacred emotion love.
It is unimaginable that a father would divide his wealth among his children
according to their skills in flattery. All parents are supposed to love their
children at an equal level, no matter how much their child flatters them. Which
parent would think to ask their children to outdo each other in a battle of
words to win their money and material goods. This is the case in Shakespeare's
King Lear. Even in the first scene Lear is asking his daughters which one of
them loves him more. " Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That
we our largest bounty may extend" (I,i, 52-53). With this demand of
knowing who loves him more, Lear offers a reward, all his land. This reward is
key to the show of emotion each daughter displays to please her father. His two
older daughters jump at the opportunity to compliment and flatter their father,
but their words are empty promises and lies. These two daughter are only kind
to Lear when he has money: The wise fool tells Lear that only when there is a
reward will he be treated kindly by his children. "Fathers that wear rags/
Do make their children blind;/ But fathers that bear bags/ Shall see their
children kind" (II,iv,48-51). Regan and Goneril feed their father pretty
words on a silver platter and Lear swallows every lie. Regan and Goneril tell
the King that their love is so deep they cannot find words to express their
emotions. The reason they do not find the words to express their love is because
the have no TRUE love to show him. Cordelia on the other hand decided to tell
the truth to Lear and not feed her father empty promises this got her nothing
"Nothing will come of nothing." (I,i,93). Lear chooses not to give
his favorite daughter anything all because unlike Regan and Goneril she chose
not to flatter him. Regan and Goneril did not stop at Lears material goods they
wanted the whole deal. Their flattery also put them in a position to take over
all of Lears powers as King.
Once Regan and Goneril received all of Lears money they continued to want more
so they decided to go for his power and title as king. Flattery is also used
for this in the real world. For example in the business industry if you want to
get a promotion what do you do? There are two options, either you work very
hard and eventually MAYBE you will be acknowledged for your effort, which is
the honest way, or you can flatter and compliment your superior slowly becoming
their acquaintance then friend and easing yourself into a position of higher
authority. Flattery holds the key into making your life a better one and Regan
and Goneril were skilled in this art form. Once Lear had no money left and his
only possession was his title he still had some worth to the more greedy of his
three daughters, Regan and Goneril. They would not stop at anything to get all
that the king morally possessed. At first Goneril was kind to him letting him
stay in her castle, but then once she saw that no one really considered Lear as
King anymore she took away half his knights, the one thing that Lear could show
the world that he was still King.
The flattery had so affected Lear that he defended Regan when Kent says she has
put him in the stocks:
Lear: No, no, they would not!
Kent: Yes, they have.
Lear: By Jupiter, I swear no!
Kent: By Juno, I swear ay!
Lear: They durst (would not dare to) not do it;
They could not, would not do it. 'Tis worse than murder ... (II,iv,19-23)
Lear is in denial, he does not realize what his children have done to him and
he believed it all. The words they fed him weren't as sweet as he had believed.
Although in King Lear it is wealth and power that are more sought after. In the
real world flattery is most often used in the case of love.
"When I call you beautiful, it's cause I can. When you think I'm sucking
up, I sort of am. The little lies that make you feel good I say more often that
I should..." This verse of the song "Make You Mad" by the Odds
describes perfectly how flattery is used in love. How do you start a relationship?
You have to meet new people and the way to do that is to pick the person up
(not in the literal sense of the word). What is a pick-up line? It is a
compliment or flattery and if someone came up to you and said something like:
"Your father must be a thief because he stole the stars from the sky and
put them in your eyes" would you not feel flattered? Personally I would
feel like queen of the world and probably end up leaving the party or whatever
place I was at with that particular person. Even here the person might be
telling you lies, but the thing is that you never know, perhaps this person is
actually telling the truth. Flattery can help you in love because it is what
lights the fire in a relationship, without flattery what could you tell your lover.
Even the words I love you are flattery. These words are the strongest flattery
ever. Goneril and Regan knew the power of these words and used them to their
advantage. "Goneril: Sir, I love you more than word can yield the
matter..." (I,i,56). "Regan: I find she names my very deed of
love..." (I,i,73). Each sister uses the word LOVE to suck up to Lear and
is successful in that way of getting their fathers so called love. This
flattery not only got the sisters their fathers love it also got them everything
else that they wanted.
Since the day we were born we have been flattered with things like "what a
pretty baby" "WOW! You must have grown another foot since I last saw
you." . This way of being brought up brings us to believe flattery is the
way to live your life. King Lears elder daughter also believed this and used
flattery to their advantage to get their father's wealth, power and love.
Although on occasion flattery is actually the truth, on the most part flattery
is a lie. So if in reality we lie when we flatter others, aren't we at the same
time lying to ourselves???