ABSTRACT
King Lear rails against the untimely death of his daughter, Cordelia. He seems momentarily in touch with the finality and reality of her death, and then, almost immediately, he dies too. This may be partly explained by his considerable age, but it serves to illustrate a parent's outrage, despair, and lack of purpose in living, upon the death of his or her own child. Whether when the death of children is so much more commonplace, the bereavement does not go as deep, or whether the limited time-period initiates and in a way brings about a more speedy process, because it is recognized and accepted. All infants and children inevitably experience loss. Some of this loss is in the child's external life, some in phantasy. For example, a child can imagine that its mother will never reappear or is dead, when faced with a separation or in response to the child's aggressive impulses.
