“King Lear acknowledges and activates different kinds of revenge, representing a hierarchy of passions and actions, from the base, vindictive and cruel sort to the politically necessary and morally acceptable kind. The baser kind of revengers are destructive, amoral, and mean-spirited; their revenges cast family members out of their dwellings and bring physical harm to others. ...The more acceptable kinds of revenge are public and aligned with justice. They are undertaken with surprising ethical rigour by the disinherited children of the kingdom.
Edgar ‘revenges home’ by avenging his father, his king, and himself in chivalric single combat with Edmund, his traitorous brother. Cordelia attempts to avenge her father by bringing a foreign army to Britain to defeat her sisters and their husbands in battle. These counter-actions follow the demands of the revenge plot, but they also reveal genuinely touching and ethical aspects of character. ...Cordelia’s public revenge represents a counter-force aimed at breaking the cycles of revenge unleashed in the kingdom and reconstituting ‘home’ in the fullness of its meaning - hospitality, proper guardianship, loving and orderly familial relationships, and a kingdom united under one monarch.”
- Marguerite A. Tassi, “The Avenging Daughter in King Lear.” in Revenge and Gender in Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Literature
