ABSTRACT
According to F. Kermode, King Lear was entered in the Stationer’s Register in November 1607, while the play was performed in December 1606. When medicine has done so much to prolong life and so many adults are burdened by the need to take care of older parents, the problems in the play have a new urgency. The daughters not only find the knights unnecessary but also are revolted by them, symbolising the mother’s rejection of Lear’s infantile sexuality. The sought-after good mother turns into the bad mother when she prohibits the infantile sexuality of the son. King Lear wishes to refind the indulgent mother of childhood in his daughters and what he refinds is the harsh mother who prohibits masturbation. Goneril and Regan have symbolically become Lear’s mothers; when they reduce the number of his knights they are symbolically prohibiting masturbation and castrating him.
