Cinderella in a Black Dress Goneril is not one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters. Its many faces, in fact, arise from the same source and are not as different as one might conceive. The truth lies in one of his lines in Act 1, Scene 1. “There is a further parting compliment between France and him [Lear]. Please, let's strike together. If our father exercises authority with the disposition that bears it, this final surrender of his will will not offend us" (I, i, 331-4). The statement may be considered a bit self-serving based on his use of the word “we.” It really depends on who you're referring to. Since Lear has already divided the land between his two eldest daughters, it is safe to assume that the “we” may refer to Goneril and Regan. However, the "we" could refer to the kingdom of England as a whole. In recent times, Lear has lost his mind. It is safe to assume that Goneril and Regan are truly concerned about his well-being and the well-being of the kingdom of England. Lear could potentially start a war with France. This is ironic because it is, in fact, Regan and Goneril's actions against Lear that ultimately lead to the war with France. However, Goneril's heart may actually be in the right place at the beginning of the play. It's his subsequent actions that make everything he does in the first act seem false. His supposed mask is beginning to crack and the true Goneril is revealed when he throws Lear into the cold storm and leaves him to rot in his madness. So maybe Goneril's intentions weren't good. He may have deceived not only Lear, but the audience, from the beginning. Her performance as Lear's devoted daughter is easy for the audience to see because the audience is not on stage and has easy access... to the center of the paper... Ril loses control logically. He devises a plan to poison Regan. Truly crazy people don't have time to plan. Hamlet has time to plan, but his plan never comes to fruition. Hamlet's madness lies solely in planning. So, in a sense, King Lear is a lie. Characters who are believed to be good and evil are a false representation of both good and evil. Goneril is almost as good as Cordelia is bad. And neither is it. Just as Goneril is almost as bad as Cordelia is good. It doesn't mean that one is worse than the other. It has to do with perspective and perception. In Goneril's eyes, Cordelia is the misguided one, yet for Cordelia it is the opposite. So, there is a gray line between falsehoods and truths. However, neither truly exists in any pure form. This comedy is not about lies but about misunderstanding and the perception of good and evil.