'Lear is more sinned against than sinning'

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 in doing so as he missed her incredibly, and consequently, need her.

Although it can be argued that Lear is deserving of his ill-treatment, he is sinned against throughout the whole play. Goneril and Regan start the continuous mistreatment of Lear in the very first scene of the play by plotting over how to exploit Lear and how to overturn natural and social order now that they have received a portion of Lear's power: 'This last surrender of his will but offend us....We must do something, and I' th' heat.' this disruption of Jacobean natural and social order would be even more shocking and unacceptable to a Jacobean audience as women of this period were of a low status in the social system and were expected to respect and acre for their parents and family. In contrast to this, Goneril and Regan actually emasculate Lear and diminish his power by cooperating together, against him. This is developed slowly, firstly by just treating Lear with less respect until they eventually shut the door behind Lear when he is faced with a terrible storm, showing brutal and uncaring characteristics. Their cruelty towards him still continues to progress, suggesting Lear is more sinned against than sinning. The theme of filial ingratitude is strong and consistent throughout 'King Lear' and the mental turmoil this causes Lear implies that he may feel more sinned against than sinning because he is emotionally pained: 'This tempest in my mind....Filial ingratitude!'

On the other hand, Lear's selfishness, insecurity and instability caused him to start the diminishment of his power and to receive mistreatment off his daughters. In spite of this, some critics feel that if Goneril and Regan were less greedy and controlling, the destruction of Lear's power could have been prevented. It can be interpreted that Lear's only offence was the love test in the very first scene of the play. Any other 'sins' are actually flaws of Lear's of which we all have, such as him penalizing the wrong people, Kent and Cordelia, because he is unable to recognise virtuous deed. This also indicates that Lear is more sinned against than sinning.

Throughout Lear's madness, all that he focuses on is his daughter's ingratitude towards him, implying that Goneril's and Regan's misdemeanours towards him have caused his loss of sanity. This is shown in Act 3 scene 6 when Lear creates a mock trial, punishing his daughters accordingly. This also implies that Lear is more sinned against than sinning as he has lost his sanity as a result of the felony he has suffered. This scene, in Jacobean times could have been seen as displaying the corrupt justice system and the corrupt Court of King James, were the judges were so fraudulent, they were compared to 'madmen'. Also, when Lear declares he is 'a man more sinned against than sinning', he feels mistreated by his daughters as he has not yet realised his 'fatal flaw' - his inability to recognise - and feels he has no faults and has committed no sins. He seems still unaware that he is partly responsible for any suffering he has experienced .however, this can be argued against as, previously during the same scene, Lear accepts that the heavens have joined with his daughters in punishing him; 'With two pernicious daughters join.' This can be interpreted as Lear contradicting himself because he is accepting that he has sinned and deserves some sort of punishment.

As a result, I have come to the conclusion that Lear's claim to be a 'man more sinned against than sinning' is a fair assessment of Lear. Although Lear has caused a lot of pain between the more noble characters in the play, he, like a traditional tragic hero, has suffered unfairly and unreasonably, and has been mistreated a great deal more than is justifiable. His selfish, instable behaviour at first makes Lear appear very sinning, yet as the play progresses it is apparent that Lear receives much more ill-treatment than he is deserving, thus provoking sympathy from the audience as a tragic hero. From this point of perspective, Lear has certainly received more transgression than he has presented.

Aimee Davies