MANILA, Philippines - One of the most memorable lines in literature goes, "I am sure my love's more ponderous than my tongue." It was a silent reply that Cordelia made when her father King Lear asked her how much she loved him.
King Lear is not just one of the most interesting characters in fiction; he is also one of the most popular fathers in literature. While he may not win any "father of the year" award, we remember him as we celebrate Father's Day this coming June 17.
Did you know, though, that fathers have been mentioned in books more times than mothers have been from the 1800s through the 1950s? This is according to Google's Ngram Viewer, a tool that displays a graph showing how certain words (i.e., mother, father) have occurred in published works for a given period of time. It was only around the 1970s up to 2000 that mothers have become frontrunners. By 2000 to 2008, though, the "race" has been close.
Going back to our dear dads in literature, another memorable fictional father from the Bard would be Prospero. He's your typical single father: all alone raising his kid (Miranda), protecting her from brutes (Caliban), and making sure she ends up with the right man (Prince Ferdinand), even if he is the son of one of his sworn enemies.
Leading by example, meanwhile, is the mark of Eddard Stark of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. "Duty" and "honor" may be Tully words, but these are likewise embodied by Ned up to...you have probably seen the series or read the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series so you know what happened.
Then there's Atticus Finch of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird who teaches his children by example just as Ned does. His advice to his children in understanding people who are different from them: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Thomas Schell from Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close also comes to mind when we think of fathers who have imparted life-long lessons to their children just as Atticus did.
As his nine-year-old son Oskar goes on a quest to solve the "mystery" behind the key he finds in an envelope inside his father's closet, we learn of the endearing and enduring love between father and son that is, as Miranda would say, "more ponderous" than any words can describe.