"Land" of Constant Sorrow (Lear Acts I & II)

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the places in King Lear is how the people who inhabit them change (superficially and earnestly) when they go from one location to the next. It's Lear himself who brings about this change in his subjects, particularly within his daughters. In Act I, Scene 1, when they arrive at his call to express their love and allegiance to him as their father, the three daughters are within Lear's own court. He is still in control of the kingdom. Regan and Goneril show the utmost respect and courtesy to him out of necessity: if they are to receive a portion of his kingdom, they must lather him with tribute beforehand, though inwardly they're only so kind to him out of material desire. (Cordelia is the exceptional daughter, but she doesn't appear again in the Acts we've read to this date.) When Regan and Goneril re-encounter Lear at their own estates, their father's power now in their hands, they don't grant him the same grace as in the first scene of the play. Rather, they treat him like an old man who believes his elderly status gives him clout now that his political power is gone, regarding him with bewilderment. The exchange of royal power elicits this switch of manner from one location to the next.

Consider the fact that the events of these first two acts take place at two courts: one Lear's court, the other Regan's new court. In his own court Lear holds all the cards, so his daughters respect him. In her court Regan holds all the cards, but Lear interprets this as disrespect. There's nothing Lear can do about his opinion, however, because he's not on his own ground anymore. These first two acts therefore establish the importance of land when it comes to having sway in your own affairs. To quote Tim Blake Nelson in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, "You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land."