King Lear is presented as a victim of deceit.

He is deceived by his own daughters Goneril and

Regan, who really care very little about him but express their love in the most extravagant terms

when they are competing for portions of their father's kingdom. However, the shock and pain

occasioned by his realization of his daughters' deceitfulness make Lear conscious of the fact that

people have been deceiving him all his life. Doubtless, Lear has flaws but what he suffers as a

result of his poor judgement and egotism is out of all proportion to these failings. However, if

Lear hadn’t been so consumed in appearance, he would have for seen the truth about Regan and

Goneril. The proud old king instigates a public ‘love test’ to decide how to divide the kingdom

between Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. This disastrous act will result in tragic consequences for

all. With this in mind, this paper seeks to explore the idea that King Lear was an innocent victim

of his daughters. The terms innocent and victim will also be defined.

According to Collins (2022), if someone is innocent, he or she is not responsible for or directly

involved in an event, yet suffering its consequences. In line with this, Merriam-Webster (2022),

says innocent means having no knowledge of the unpleasant and things happening in one’s life.

Therefore, from these two definitions, one can conclude that innocent means not responsible for

doing something bad or wrong.

A victim had been defined as a person who has come to feel helpless and passive in the face of

misfortune or ill-treatment (York Notes, 2022). Furthermore, Prezi (2022) describes a victim as a

person who has been harmed by a crime, accident, scheming, or other adverse circumstances.

From these definitions, it is safe to deduce that a victim is a person who has suffered because of

someone’s actions.

Lear’s two oldest daughters make him a victim by taking advantage of his old age and his

desperation for lover. Berkowitz (2012) argues that Lear is an ageing man who wants to divide

his kingdom justly between his three daughters as he has become an old man who is weary of the
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burdens of office and, whose daughters are young and capable. Before the daughters are allowed

to enter their domains they must pass a love test, a competition. Lear, as Hyland (2016) notes,

who is a widower, is lonely and emotionally dependent on his daughters. He is old but he still

has a clear head, so he would have been able to anticipate that a contest between his daughters

would encourage hypocrisy which is exactly what happens. The older sisters outbid each other

with loving and affectionate phrases. With a life´s experience of ruling a country Lear should be

able to see through the older daughters´ empty words. With so much at stake, an entire kingdom,

it is not astonishing that their words are exaggerated.

Lear’s daughters disrespect him in private and in public. Lall (2019) notes that they talk back and

defy him. For instance, the first truly severe blow to his pride comes when Goneril complains of

his "insolent retinue" and warns him that if he should sanction their behaviour, "the fault / Would

not scape censure" (I, iv). Wolf (2018) explains that this leaves King Lear stunned, shocked,

unable to assimilate the fact that he is being spoken to in this way by his daughter. His sense of

identity is profoundly threatened by such disrespect. It is no wonder, then, that he explodes with

rage when Goneril asks him to reduce his train and threatens to "take the thing she begs" if he

does not agree to grant her what she desires. He has given her half of the kingdom, and he has

anticipated in return a constant display of gratitude and affection. Goneril, however, will not

even honour the public and minimal terms of his bargain, his reservation of a hundred knights to

be supported by his daughters. Her behaviour is a shattering blow to his dream of an honoured

old age and to his sense of potency and grandeur.

Feeling disappointed by her brutal conduct against him, Lear decides to leave Goneril’s palace

and live with Regan. He falsely imagines that Regan might respect him and look after him as her

father, who has given her half of his kingdom, or even sympathize with him as a helpless old

man (Lall, 2019). Instead, she refuses to let him stay with her and advises him to return to
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Goneril and stay in her palace. In a very melancholic tone, Lear blames Regan and expresses his

plight in the following lines:

No, Regan, Thou shalt never have my curse:

Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Thee o’er to harshness: her eyes are fierce, but thine

Do comfort and not burn....

Thy half o’ th’ kingdom hast thou not forget,

Wherein I thee endow’d. (II. iv. 168-171, 178-179)

Kennedy (2022) notes that in opposition to their helpless father, both Goneril and Regan unite

and decide to torture him until he departs them. Even when Lear complains to Regan about

Goneril’s abusive conduct towards him during his stay in her palace, instead of giving him relief

or the chance for a pleasant stay with her, Regan defends Goneril’s ungrateful behaviour and

advices him to beg Goneril to live with her again. Thus, disappointed and disgusted, Lear

becomes a victim of his daughters’ lack of respect and gratitude.

King Lear sometimes overreacted, sometimes, making him appear as if he was a victim of his

daughters. For instance, when Cordelia remains silent during the love test, she did not do that to

intentionally hurt her father, King Lear. Her courage to remain silent during the love test and her

bold answer in “Lear so young, and so untender? / Cordelia, So young, my lord, and true” (I, i)

signify that she enjoys more freedom and independence than her female equals (Newman, 2012).

In addition, Marsh (2018) points out that Cordelia was certainly also encouraged during her

childhood, just as her sisters, which might explain that she feels strong enough to remain silent

during the love test. Cordelia misjudges the situation, and King Lear does not at all appreciate

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her silence and she is rejected. The king is disappointed in his favourite daughter, he finds her

ungrateful and takes his hand from her: “I loved her most, and thought to set my rest / On her

kind nursery. 10

Hence, and avoid my sight!” (1.1 124-125). Hamilton notes that he is relentless: “Nothing,

however, deters Lear from his rash and vain decree, and he orders Cordelia into exile, charging

her never to cross his path again” (171). Cordelia is of course very upset over the unjust and

incomprehensible treatment. Her life is fundamentally changed and she is an exile dependent on

others’ discretion.

However, on the other hand, Lear does not consider himself an innocent victim. According to

York Notes (2022), Lear reflects on the wrongs that he suffers at the hands of his two daughters.

Nevertheless, for all his self-pity, he never views himself as an innocent victim. Marsh (2018)

opines that after his rebirth as a self-appointed wise man once all his troubles are over, he feels

that he has paid for whatever he might have done wrong. He declares, “they cannot touch me for

coining; I am the king himself” (IV.vi.83-4). Asserts that in his blind pride, King Lear has

broken the bonds of family. Therefore, he can only blame himself, instead of playing victim, for

the predicament he finds himself in. One reason is that he has failed to realise his most self-

destructive flaw, which is his preference for illusion instead of reality. He chooses to act ignorant

towards his daughters’ evil planning. Lear, as a king, has absolute power, and thus he is used to

spoiling himself, and to being praised in public. Rather than trying to be grateful to those trying

to help him, like Cordelia and Kent, he allows himself to be blind and excludes them from his

life.

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This paper has examined the thought that King Lear was a victim of his daughters. On one hand,

the paper has shown that his two daughters, Regan and Goneril pretended to love him. They

showered him with false praise. However, they ended up betraying him. Hence, one can say he

was an innocent victim in this instance. On the other hand, he was not an innocent victim of his

daughters, because one of his daughters, Cordelia, had no bad intentions towards him. Yet, he

misunderstood her intentions and banished her from his life. In addition, he allowed pride and

ego get in the way. Thus, one could safely say, he was not an innocent victim.

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REFERENCES

Berkowitz, G. M. (2012). American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman Group

U.K. Ltd.

Collins (2022). Definition of Innocent. Retrieved from

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/innocent on 1 December, 2022.

Hyland, P. (2016). An Introduction to Shakespeare: The Dramatist in His Context. London:

MacMillan Press Ltd.

Kennedy, J. (2012). Shakespeare’s King Lear. Explicator. 60, 2, 13-15.

Lall, R. (2019). William Shakespeare: King Lear. New Delhi: Rama Brothers Educational

Publishers.

Marsh, N. (2018). Shakespeare: The Tragedies. London: MacMillan Publishing Ltd.

Merriam-Webster (2022). Innocent. Retrieved from

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innocent on 1 December, 2022.

Prezi (2022). Lear: Tragic Hero vs Victim of Circumstances. Retrieved from

https://prezi.com/p_onx-it8sk68/lear-tragic-hero-vs-victim-of-circumstances/?fallback=1

on 30 November, 2022.

Wolf, A. (2018). Shakespeare and Harsnett: Pregnant to Good Pity? Studies in English literature

38, 2, 121-125.

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York Notes (2022). King Lear: A Level Notes. Retrieved from

https://www.yorknotes.com/alevel/english-literature/king-lear-2017/study/studying-the-

play/01210102_act-iv-scene-7 on 1 December, 2023.