'Lear is more sinned against than sinning'

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'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 not committed any offences, and that his behaviour only reflects his fatal flaw; his inability to recognise his faults and 'see' metaphorically. As Lear is unaware of the effects of his rational behaviour, he is ignorant to his misdeeds against the people he is meant to care for, and, for that reason, believes he has not committed any sins.
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Yet, even the Fool, one of Lear's most loyal friends, implies that all of Lear's suffering was brought on by himself and his own wrong behaviour. At the point in the play when Lear and Cordelia are reconciled, Lear's new found self awareness makes him realise that his banishment of Cordelia spited himself more than anyone. He recognises that he has sinned against Cordelia, 'You have some cause', but more importantly, he realises that he has sinned against himself and has caused his own punishment. Lear may have offended by disowning Cordelia but he helped to destroy himself ...

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