Margot Heinemann's Characteristics In King Lear

Edgar is the next character who displays loyalty to his father even after he has been outlawed and was forced to hide and disguise himself. Gloucester favors Edgar's evil half-brother Edmund, who deceives him into believing that it is Edgar who is disloyal. However, after Gloucester's eyes are plucked out he realizes his mistake when he is told that it is Edmund who has betrayed him. When the blind Gloucester is led to the disguised Edgar, his son agrees to lead him to the cliffs of Dover. In order to prevent his father's attempted suicide, Edgar stages a scene where he leads his father to believe that he has fallen off the cliffs but has been miraculously saved. Edgar once again defends his father's life when he prevents Oswald from assassinating him. Through these events Edgar exemplifies loyalty by leading his blind father to safety, even though he had been wrongfully mistreated.

Edgar Allen’s opening statement is fuelled entirely by emotion, making him what Covey calls a “hot reactor,” a big sign of playing victim. He is upset and therefore jumps to the worst possible conclusion—that his “college days are at an end”—rather than staying calm and evaluating his options (Covey). The major reason Edgar is a victim, however, is that he blames everyone else for his actions, not once taking a step back to think this may be his own fault, and that there are several choices he could make toward the best possible outcome. Instead, Edgar complains about having to work the entire weekend, and about not having enough time to write the paper assigned weeks ago; he blames his boss without even calling him to work out a solution, and his teacher for not extending the due date for him; he makes the excuse of being too tired to write every night he’d planned to, and yet still goes out Sunday night to celebrate (Downing

His mind has become the unknown and the part of him that he did not necessarily want to know or come to terms with because it was frightening and dark. “Upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant eyelike windows. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart-an unredeemed dreariness of though which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime (234).” Edgar found himself to be vacant and bleak, he also had a cold sick feeling when he saw what he had become. He was frightened to move on but he had to keep going in order to know the truth about himself.

He is now using some trickery of his own, and he views this as the best way to save himself. King Lear, clearly delusional at this point, becomes fond of Poor Tom and views him as a wise man. Edgar, who is now somewhat hardened, uses his disguise as an opportunity to share honest values with the king. “Take heed o' th' foul fiend. Obey thy parents, keep thy word’s justice, swear not, commit not with man's sworn spouse, set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's acold,” he advises, attempting to connect to the crazed Lear (III.iv.86-89). By using prose, he is trying to convince the party that he is of the lowest possible status. In doing so, however, he is losing some of the morality that accompanies the innocence he started with. Even in his clever disguise, though, he still shows that he is unable to fully let go of his innocence, since he is still giving moral advice even as an insane beggar that speaks in prose -- not something that one would expect to be discussed while using prose. As he delves deep into his disguise, he experiences hardships and learns of the wrongdoings of the nobles around him that have caused the country to go into turmoil. When Edgar meets his blind father, Gloucester, and he does not even recognize his own son, Edgar keeps his identity a secret from the tortured man who only wishes to forgive

King Lear poses many questions to its audience. Shakespeare’s conventions throughout the story hold true to the plot until Albany’s speech is interrupted by Lear’s rambling words. Upon closer examination however, it is obvious that the play’s writer meant to violate some of the conventions which he set earlier in the story through the crazed king's words. The character’s verses can be interpreted several ways, showing a different side of the conventions which Shakespeare sets. Focusing on the particular scene shows an underlying theme concerning the human race. His writing leaves the audience with a question about the story’s true meaning.

Here, Lear goes mad and tells Gloucester that even a dog gets obeyed by people who have to obey him and that appearance, authority and power all lead to corruption. He compares himself to the poor when he says that only the poor without power gets into justice and that the society always obeys power even if it is not justified. Even though Lear loses his senses, Edgar still finds out that he has got a point which seems to be reasonable.

Cordelia’s disinheritance and banishment are frighteningly disproportionate to the “sin” she has committed in not flattering Lear. So too, is Kent’s treatment at his hands. This concept of disproportionate consequences for actions done, underlines how monstrous Lear’s arrogance is, as well as his petty tyranny and his lack of self-knowledge. However, the horrors Lear himself will have to suffer later in the play, as a result of his own folly, will also be out of all proportion to his initial blunder. Without Cordelia in the play, these actions would not have been sparked in Lear.

William Shakespeare's 'King Lear' is a tragic play of filial conflict, deception and loss. Characters Lear and Gloucester

But I want to focus on the key points in the statement above. Suicide is a very common thing in history, literature, and sadly reality itself. It could be caused by many things, in this case I believe what caused Edgar to put a bullet through his skull was a trigger of bad impulsive behavior. Some of his last thoughts were of not wanting to live in a world without dollars, and how dishonourable it would be. If he had thought over how illogical his plan of escape was, I don’t think he would have continued. The cowardice statement could be a metaphor for death, and how fear could trap the person who created it into their own deaths. A deer in the headlights if you will. Edgar was a coward for not having the guts to face their fears, and going out and trying to survive, but immediately going to a gun’s help.

Edgar, who is fooled by Edmund, runs away and disguises himself as a beggar due to the thought that his father is planning to prosecute him. Gloucester’s family falls apart because of Edmund’s wicked actions. He is ambitious that he would do anything just to be acknowledged and get the recognition denied to him from being the illegitimate son. Due to the society’s views and treatment to illegitimate sons, Edmund is willing to destroy Edgar’s reputation. Similarly, with Cristina, her relationships with her family and the people of Valle de Sole become dysfunctional due to her acts of infidelity, and the village’s views on superstitions.

Edgar is fine. The only lying he has to do in this play is about him being Poor Tom but he only did this so he can come sneak back into his place of exile and so he is not killed. However, Edmund is as cold as ice kind of like Goneril, no wonder Goneril wanted him, they would make a great couple. Edgar killed his lie of a brother once he killed Oswald and read his note where he found out that Edmund and Goneril were having an affair. He accuses Edmund of betraying his father and brother and Albany so he challenges him to a fight and wins, thankfully. Edgar also lies to Gloucester about jumping off a cliff but that was to help him. Gloucester was stuck in a well since he lost his eyes and he was filled with large amount of remorse and distress. Gloucester wished to take the easy way out but Edgar tricked him into jumping on flat earth and not off a cliff which Gloucester actually believed. All the lying that Edgar is doing is either to help himself or help others. Edmund on the other hand does a lot of lying in this play, to the point where finding fact from fiction is very difficult. He lied about his brother trying to kill him which got Edgar banished and almost killed. He also lied to Gloucester about Edgar with his forged letter. Edmund was subject to abuse which provoked him to lie so much and made him want to rule the kingdom even more. He is the Shakespearean version of Jon

“I grow; I prosper,” he says, and these words identify him throughout the play. Deprived by his illegitimate birth and the respect of the lords, Edmund believes respect should be there because of his status. Edmund controls his prominence by elevating himself through his own actions, falsifying personal affluence through dishonesty and treachery. The repeated use of the term “legitimate” in mention to Edgar reveals Edmund’s hatred toward his brother’s aristocracy as their father’s heir. The attack on the “plague of custom,” identifies the feeling of Edmund’s hatred toward social etiquette of feudal Europe and his desire for respect and power.

Edgar hides himself in the hollow of a tree and believes that no one will pay attention to such a dirty, injured, and humbled person. Due to his banishment, Edgar understands that no where is safe for him so he has intentions to disguise himself in the “basest and most poorest shape That ever penury in contempt of man…”, and give up his own identity; “Edgar I nothing am”. Edmund, better known as Edgar’s evil and illegitimate bastardly brother, previously tricked his father by a speech which causes Edgar to be taken down. By taking this disguise, Edgar believes he is saving himself from capture, and has intentions to cease his existence. This soliloquy helps to show both King Lear and Gloucester the impact of evil deeds throughout the entire

He cannot see the truth in the beginning but has to be stripped away of everything to finally see it. Edgar’s punishment is seeing the mutilation of his father, and losing everything he held dear in his life. Edgar made a mistake in believing Edmund without asking his father. Edgar is ultimately one of the only ones who is alive at the end of the play who can see the damage when we, “Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say” (5.3.324). When the truth is pushed aside to make way for flattery, it creates damages so much more damage than if the truth were spoken.

In Act one, scene one, we are introduced to Gloucester and his parallel plot line before we introduced to Lear. We find Gloucester acknowledging his equal adoration between his two sons, the one legitimate, the other illegitimate. The moral code that informs King Lear dictates that illegitimacy bodes nothing but a disadvantage to the harmony of underlying order . Within the terms of the play, Gloucester's emotion is a fatal flaw of judgment. Paying close attention to language, Gloucester's unwitting mistake from Edmund's very first appearance; in a world where the only vocabulary of each character is a full expression of their position on the axis of good and evil, a reader cannot help but notice that Edmund's "... I shall study deserving..."(I.i.24) is a foreboding of the deceit and greed that will taint him for the rest of the play.