King Lear4 Essay, Research Paper

Lear s words: I am a man/More sinn d against than sinning. is an expression of Lear s internal anguish and pain, triggered by his two evil daughters Gonerill and Regan. Surely, Lear s statement is to some degree, agreeable, since his sufferings was an result of Gonerill s and Regan s thirst for power, which led to their attack on Lear. The first of these clashes was a verbal assault from elder daughter Gonerill. She accuses Lear for encouraging riotous behaviour in his knights and declares that this behaviour of epicurism and lust has made the palace more like a tavern or a brothel/Than a grac d palace. Gonerill has surely committed a sin, a sin that was perpetrated against Lear, leading to his eventual diminished state.Lear is further sinn d against in Act 2 scene 4. Here, the second daughter, Regan, places Kent/Caius (Lear s messenger) into the stocks. This sinful action reveals Regan s disrespectful attitude towards Lear and highlights her growing resistance towards her father. In this scene, Lear is again subjected towards acts of sin, one being Gonerill and Regan exploitation against Lear. Here they force Lear to dismiss half his train and ruthlessly disregards Lear when he tries to remind them that he gave all This highlights Lear s reduction in authority, might and power. His diminished state is further portrayed when he desperately announces to the Fool, I shall go mad! At the end of this act, Lear rushes out into the storm and tempest and vows for revenge on both his daughters. The only response Lear receives from the evil party is to shut up your doors come out o th storm.

Evidently in the mind of Lear, he has been treated in an unjust manner and has been greatly sinn d against.