Differentiation of self of Lear and his daughters in Shakespeare’s King Lear

William Shakespeare vividly portrays the relationship between Lear and his daughters in the tragedy, King Lear. In the play, Lear incessantly pursues love, authority, and solace. His relationship with his three daughters, Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan, is dysfunctional. The research on the family relationship in King Lear generally relies on traditional feminist and psychological methodologies. However, this study takes a different approach by examining the father-daughter relationship between Lear and his daughters through the Bowen Family Systems Theory perspective. This article examines the father-daughter relationships in the tragedy by using the concept of differentiation of self in Bowen Theory. According to Bowen’s scale of differentiation of self, the levels of differentiation of self of Lear, Goneril, and Regan range from 0 to 25, whereas Cordelia’s level of differentiation of self falls between 25 and 50. The findings also suggest that Lear’s connection with his daughters is abnormal due to their low levels of differentiation of self. This interdisciplinary study offers a novel way of character analysis in literary works. Additionally, it introduces a fresh perspective to studying father-daughter relationships and various family relationships in drama and other literary genres.