Evaluate King Lear as a man more sinned against than
sinning.
Or,
Construct the image of King Lear as a man more sinned against than sinning.
In the beginning of the play, Lear is an arrogant, old idiot,
incapable of any reasonable act. It is rather due to his childish craving for
affection that he decides to divide his kingdom on the basis of the display of
love by his three daughters. This act of the king is undoubtedly vain and
arrogant but we must remember that Lear existed in a barbaric age when the King
had a divine right to rule. Besides, every father amongst the best of us craves
for flattery and this craving is heightened in Lear due to the times he
existed.
Lear's suffering throughout the play seems to be in
proportion to his terrible act against his innocent and up righteous daughter.
Yet let us not forget that Cordelia fails Lear as well. King Lear is undoubtedly
the most tragic of Shakespearean tragedies. The final scenes of the play make
us shrink but we would not wish them altered at all. In the reconciliation
scene the poignancy and affection that Shakespeare manages to portray is one of
the finest piece of dramatic art. It is true that Lear violates a lot of basic
principles of existence in his vanity. He fails to discharge his duties towards
his subjects. At the beginning of the play he forgets that he is a frail mortal
who is prone to suffer as the most ordinary of his subjects. It is only when he
is exposed to the terrible storm that he sympathizes with the sufferings of the
poor. To add to this is his lack of judgment, when he fails to see through the
villainy of his two wicked daughters.
Despite all his
failings, Lear did not deserve to die; nor did he deserve the quantum of
suffering that Shakespeare delivers unto him. Once Shakespeare makes Lear suffer
so much, he had no option but to let him die because at his advanced years of
eighty and upwards there could be no dramatic course but a declension. This
declension could have only been in the form of death since Lear had already
visited the darkest abysses of hell and had resurrected himself from there.
But several critics
including Bradley think that Lear suffers because of his outrageous violation
of the rule of nature. Yet they fail to see that Lear's suffering and death is
massively disproportionate to his ordinary sins which are committed by average
mortals every day. He does not commit
murder like Hamlet or Othello. He, in fact, gives away his kingdom, and at the
ripe old age of eighty, a man is prone to be as naive as a child.
To conclude, Shakespeare makes Lear suffer grossly out of
proportion to his sins. He does it to such an extent that he is not left with
any option but to let him die. Lear is thus undoubtedly more sinned against
than sinning, when the sole ending of him, despite the enormous suffering,
could possibly have been death.
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