King Lear

Lear knew he was getting on in his years and asked his daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia for their proclamations of love so that they may deserve an inheritance. Cordelia takes the moral high ground by being sincere and in her sincerity she had nothing really to say, since it would not come from the heart. Lear shows his superficiality by punishing Cordelia while losing sight of the major flaws in Goneril and Regan.

This is kind of like a job interview. I go and tell someone I’ve never met how much I would like to work there, and profess how much I would just love the job and profess myself “an enemy to all [of life's] other joys”; how I love it more “dearly than my eyesight, space and liberty”. If I am not convincing enough, I don’t get hired. I can’t understand what either group expects from this charade. But nonetheless, it is taken seriously by both parties, and anyone who sees its falseness quickly finds themselves out in the cold.