Can we feel sympathy for King Lear?

In King Lear, Shakespeare presents Lear as a ruthless leader. His shallow, power-hungry personality is demonstrated in the very first act when Lear asks his three daughters; "Which of you shall we say doth love us most?". Although we can argue that Lear just wants to be doted on and worshipped, it can be suggested that Lear is eager to be loved. Shakespeare does not give us much background on Lear's early life or the troubles and traumas he may have faced, yet from assessing his current attitudes and desperate need to be appreciated, we can make assumptions that Lear is lonely, or insecure. We can feel some sympathy towards Lear here, however his increasing fury and irrational behaviour sway our opinion in the opposite direction. Cordelia refuses to shower her Father with love like her sisters previously did so, claiming "I am sure my love's More ponderous than my tongue". His decision to banish Cordelia - the one daughter that we could argue truly appreciates him - shows him to be selfish when he does not hear what he wants to hear and sees Cordelia to be betraying him. However we the audience can make our own judgements that Cordelia in fact loves him the most, and refuses to conform to his rules in order to gain some land. We can see she values her relationship with her Father more than a small part of a kingdom.

As the play progresses, we become more and more familiar with Lear and become increasingly aware of his odd nature and almost insane personality traits. His two other daughters, Goneril and Regan are frequently shown to be just as, if not more, ruthless than their Father. They profess a love for their Father to simply gain some land, and are willing to lie about their feelings for the man that raised them. This shows them to be extremely materialistic and superficial. They take advantage of their Father's instability and dementia by providing him with loving words that cure his need to be wanted, all for a bit of land. Goneril even abuses her Father by telling him what to do in Act 1 Scene 4. We can see the relationship between the characters has changed in comparison to the first act, when Lear was presented as a powerful figure in full control of his daughters, yet here we now see a role reversal, when Shakespeare presents Lear as a weaker character under the influence of his evil daughters. We can feel sympathy for Lear as we consider all the factors in his life that may affect his mental stability - the biggest reason being his two daughters.

We can also argue that the reason for Lear's 'breakdown' is due to the underlying regret for banishing the one daughter that truly cared for Lear. Cordelia is absent for the majority of the play and thus the majority of the storyline. It is this absence that we can consider to be a contributing reason for Lear's bizarre behaviour. From analysing Lear's behaviour, especially during the storm, it seems likely that Lear is not insane but is in fact just grieving the loss of a daughter. He also cries "In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril, Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all" which suggests to us that he feels sorrow for the abuse he has recieved from his daughters. Although he favoured Cordelia, he provided Goneril and Regan with the security they needed in life and wanted to continue this by offering them extra land, only to be taken advantage of in return. We can feel sympathy for Lear here, as we the audience can see him for what he really is - a struggling and grieving Father who made rash decisions in a desperate misery.