'Lear is more sinned against than sinning'

The first 200 words of this essay...

'Lear is more sinned against than sinning'. How far do you agree?

From first view of the play 'King Lear', it appears that Lear has caused, either directly or indirectly, the sins against him as well as sinned himself. At the beginning, Lear himself brought about the separation of his family with his love trial: 'Which of you shall we say doth love us most?'. Here, Lear sins against his whole family. His very unpredictable, easily aggravated temper causes him to act wrongly and irrationally towards Cordelia; he disowns his own favourite daughter, a punishment taken very seriously in Jacobean England. Also, Lear banishes Kent for arguing Cordelia's injustice; a sin committed by Lear towards his most noble, honest and trustworthy companion. Lear, in Act 1 scene 4, again declares his fury and incontrollable temper, attacking Goneril with verbal abuse as he feels that she has behaved worse than Cordelia: 'O most small fault, How ugly didst thou Cordelia show!'. Therefore, it can be argued that the sins Lear has committed are all linked to his infuriated temper and that he is indeed more sinning than sinned against. However, it can also be interpreted that Lear actually has