gynist. However such a label is unjustly warranted. Though it may be true that Lear does reject ever having any daughters it is only during his period of madness that he does so and it is this madness that is so fascinating as it his madness Lear seemingly rejects the femininity that he so dearly desires.It is in Lear’s madness where his powerful masculine nature strips him of any ounce of the feminine and he vents out this frustration of being unable to find this female love. “Now all plagues that are in the pendulous air hang fated on the o’er men’s faults lights on thy daughters.” (Shakespeare, III.iv, 66-68) Though by the end of the novel it appears that Lear does find the true tenderness that he from Cordeilia who tend to his wounds even after his misdeeds to her. This love is short lived as she killed in prison and leads to Lear dying of a broken heart. In similar fashion to that of Titus Andronicus, Lear suffers the pain of madness, the death of beloved daughter, and his own death and it is result of the lacking of a female presence in his mother role that causes suffering for Lear and his children.In both plays it is not just the protagonists that suffers because of an absent mother figure but instead many of the characters abound with this condition. In Titus Andronicus Tamora looses every bit of her femininity after the ritualistic death of her son. She becomes so consumed by vengeance that she becomes as Bloom states, “a monster with no redeeming qualities.” (Bloom, 76) Her character at first draws much sympathy from the reader because of the sadness she endures after her son’s death however the sympathy is short lived. She embarks on a path completely lacking of any kind of womanlike qualities and because of it she and her children suffer greatly. Her femininity becomes in question first when she shows off “her goodly gift in horning” (Shakespeare, I...
