The role and significance of Cordelia in the novel Cats Eye Essay Example

The role and significance of Cordelia in the novel Cats Eye Essay Example The role and significance of Cordelia in the novel Cats Eye Paper The role and significance of Cordelia in the novel Cats Eye Paper Essay Topic: Literature Elaines struggle throughout her life can be greatly attributed to Cordelias role during her childhood, which ultimately led to Elaines retrospective of her artwork and also more personally her whole life. Cordelias influence over Elaine in her earlier years carried through in her subconscious and affected every relationship she would have in her future, with males and more importantly with females. Cordelia made Elaine feel inferior, abusing her both mentally and emotionally causing her to have a warped idea of what female friends are. Cordelias methods of showing friendship was by demeaning the people who surrounded her mainly because she herself was demeaned and caused to feel inferior by her family, mainly her father. By doing this Cordelia had control over Elaine which allowed her to speak to her however she felt and persuade her to do things she would not normally do like going down into the ravine for her hat in the cold. Elaines need to have a girl friend caused her to endure the abuse from Cordelia and Grace because she never knew what it was like to have a female companion. She had grown up playing with her older brother Stephen and had always dreamt of having friends that were girls. Due to this Elaine accepted her first experience with girls as how a female friendship should be structured. It is unfortunate that her first encounter with female friends was so traumatic because it seemed to have set a precedent for all her upcoming relationships. It was only later on in her life that Elaine truly realized how much she missed a relationship with females. As she gets older she begins to yearn for the opportunity that she never had, to have a true relationship with a woman. When Elaine finally builds up the courage to walk away from her friends it is only at this time that she realizes that the only power Cordelia had over her was her own weakness. Elaine has not been free of Cordelia since the first day she saw her standing on the pile of dirt in her yard. Ever since that day Elaine has been in a struggle to maintain a good relationship with Cordelia and as a result of this she gets manipulated. For instance when Cordelia invented the stack of plates as a way to control Elaine and keep her in line. For most of her friendship with Cordelia, Elaine believed that their treatment of her was their way of trying to make her a better person but she never knew what she was doing wrong or why she needed to be changed. Elaines struggle with the constant abuse from Cordelia affected her throughout her life, which is evident by her constant fear of confronting Cordelia while she was in Toronto. However this fear is survived by her need to confront Cordelia at her retrospective. Elaine is disappointed when she doesnt encounter Cordelia and while looking over her paintings she suddenly realizes that all along it was Cordelia who had a real problem and it is only at that moment that she is able to fully forgive Cordelia and ultimately forgive herself.