King Lear and his Mighty Illusions of Grandeur

Away with Hamlet and toward King Lear we go. Presently, I would like to discuss the king himself. In class I had brought up the comparison between Lear and Napoleon Bonaparte. Upon further research of Napoleon, I actually find that comparison rather shallow. My Original thoughts had been related to the coined term, "Napoleon Complex", which has little to do with the man himself, and more to do with the popular culture perception of Napoleon. But back to Lear, Napoleon Complex is a slang term for an inferiority complex, which would presume that Lear thought he was lacking something, I believe it is the other way around, and that Lear suffered from superiority, not an inferiority, complex.

I am going to contradict myself again slightly, Lear does indeed have a lack of perceived love from his daughters, or at least he needs it affirmed to him. The entire first scene (the "love auction" as Dr. Jessica McCall so eloquently put it) is a situation in which Lear is angered that his daughter Cordelia does not adequately profuse her love to him, even though she has a very wise response:

CORDELIA

Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.

          KING LEAR

So young, and so untender?

 I do not not necessarily see this as Lear acting out an inferiority complex, but more that he is attempting to reaffirm his superiority. Cordelia shattered his illusions of all importance, which, while it incurred his "dragon's" wrath, as Lear himself put it, also foreshadowed his coming downfall. The shattering of Lear's illusions of grandeur begin to fully emerge to him by the end of Act 1, Scene 4, after his daughter Goneril is outright rude to him, telling him to learn some wisdom:

KING LEAR

Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:
Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied--Ha! waking? 'tis not so.
Who is it that can tell me who I am?

 The fool responds rather bluntly to this, "Lear's shadow." A very telling statement. Lear's illusions center on him thinking that it is not his titles that give him authority, but that his power comes from the love of his people, and more closely the love of his family. Lear's reasons for the "love auction" scene were thus twofold, one he wanted to solidify his god complex by having his daughters show unrequited devotion to him, secondary to that he assumed their devotion was true, and thus he would still have power through their devotion to him, even though he lost his official power.