Throughout Bond’s plays there is an analysis, sometimes implicit, of the nature of violence, its causes and its consequences. Each of the plays takes the analysis a step further. I have chosen to concentrate on Lear because it is one of the most representative pieces of work about violence in our society. In this play Bond’s humanistic philosophy is clear : “aggression is an ability but not a necessity”. He condemns our society which uses violence supposedly for the wellbeing of people, but without worrying about the disastrous consequences. In this paper, I shall argue that violence is not the best reaction to aggression. And I shall describe its causes and its consequences throughout Lear; though giving some examples from The Sea and Narrow Road to the Deep North to demonstrate all the facets of this aggressivity.

The violence that Bond condemns is not violence in general but specifically social injustice and war. It is present from the very beginning of the play in the summary execution of a worker accused of sabotage. This already sets the tragic mood of the play. One of the great debates of Lear is the question: “do the ends justify the means?” This is one of

the big problems of our society. The play mainly shows that the nature and interaction of social and personal circumstances are the leading element of any action. Indeed, people have good intentions but their means to achieve them are often based on violence and thus lead to war.

It must further be noted that violence is often connected to power. It is a symbol of dictatorship; it has causes and effects just like dictatorship. Bodice’s speech in scene 6 of Act II when she is defeated, reflects exactly this argument: “O you are cruel when you get a little power…” (II.vi.75). In fact, as we have seen before the most important thing is how we achieve our ambition. “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. This is exactly what occurs in Lear ; he acts with autocratic authority and he is despotic. He will thus cause his own end because he causes rebellion. And this is what allowed him to do what he wants even though it does harm to someone. For example, in the first scene, Lear accuses someone of killing the worker without any proof: “I shall give evidence. He killed a workman on the wall. That alone makes him a traitor. But there’s something else suspicious about him” (I.i.17). Power always justifies everything. Indeed, violence is not necessary, it is only the production of fear and frustration; we cause it by the way we treat people. According to Bond, autocratic regimes are the best medium for violence. He argues that the more power you have the more violent you are likely to be. In fact, in Lear people who attain power become automatically as violent as the predecessor even though they have good ambitions as their roots.

One of the other points linked to violence is education. People are linked to their environment. We have to keep in touch with the world and be aware of its structures, of being subjected to them. In the “Preface” to the book, Bond says that “our society has the structure of a pyramid of aggression and as the child is the weakest member it is at the bottom, …Don’t most people believe they have a right, even a duty, to use crude force against children as part of their education?”(p.6). In Lear, this is described with Lear’s daughters. They betray him without any scruples. And we can see this in Lear's speeches: “ My daughters have taken the bread from my stomach” (I.v.31). This proves that his daughters are the result of Lear’s parental influence. They are the reflection of his past; they reject his behaviour but act in a worse way pretending that they want to stop dictatorship. This demonstrates that if you live in a violent environment you will be influenced by it even if you want to change it. However, it is interesting to point out that in the first scene of the play the daughters, Bodice and Fontanelle, react against their father’s arbitrariness saying that “… if you kill this man it will be an injustice…It’s silly to make so much out of nothing”(I.i.18). This is a very ironical scene because from the following scene onwards they are enemies to Lear and act exactly like their father by using violence to achieve their ambitions in ways sometimes even more cruel than his.

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