William Shakespeare 's King Lear

As they become more powerful than Lear himself and have the authority to do as they please, Lear starts to finally get a grasp to the situation. As all of this is happening the readers find out of Edmunds true identity. While he hides his identity from his father he does everything in his power to gain his father’s respect, in order to steal his title. For Edmund to get his wishes granted he betrays his brothers. In act 1 scene 3, he revealed his plan to the readers: Convincing his father into thinking Edgar wanted to kill him and convincing Edgar into leaving and banishing; never speaking to his father again. Here betrayal is being used to get one's way

The power that makes Edmund corrupt is trust. He uses the trust to manipulate and control his father for the benefit of himself. He frames his brother by composing a false letter to his father implicating a plot to kill Gloucester, that when “our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue forever.” (1, 2, 55-56) Gloucester replies with “this villain of mine comes under the prediction of mine: there’s son against father” (1, 2, 112-117) This shows that Gloucester had great faith and trust in his son Edgar. To better his plan he goes to Edgar and convinces him to run away. The thought that he would frame his own brother for the chance to gain power shows his corruption, and that he will do anything to have more power. Edmund writes another letter, except this implicates his father in a plot with France to kill The Duke of Cornwall. He does this so that “the younger rises [and] the old doth fall” (3, 4, 25) and he will become the Earl. Edmund is so corrupted and blinded by his quest for power that he is willing to jeopardize his father’s

He also tells Edgar that Cornwall is not pleased with him over a dispute between Albany and Cornwall that Edgar knows nothing about. He then urges Edgar to flee just before he lies to Gloucester about Edgar’s intent. Gloucester, believing Edmund’s lies condemns Edgar to death and promises Edmund his lordship. Edmund, having disposed of his brother and securing his eventual reward sees an opportunity to acquire his land and status a little more swiftly. When Gloucester flees to help Lear he entrusts Edmund with ensuring Cornwall does not discover Gloucester’s plans and the location of letter regarding an imminent French invasion. Edmund immediately betrays his father and shows Cornwall the letter, making him believe Gloucester is working for the French. Gloucester is soon after discovered and brought before Cornwall and Reagan. While Gloucester is being blinded by Cornwall, Edmund is busy courting Goneril outside of her palace. Edmund decides to double his chances of becoming King by courting Reagan as well. Edmund’s final act of treachery occurs when he gives orders to the Captain to hang Lear and Cordelia. He lies even in his dying breath as he stalls in order to ensure the death of Cordelia: “Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send-/ Be brief in it - to th’ castle, for my writ/ Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia./ Nay, send in time.” (Shakespeare 5.3.292-295) Edmund’s actions led

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

Upon hearing this, Edmund presents himself as sympathetic and supportive towards Gloucester. After his father leaves, Edmund reveals to the reader his true intentions of betraying his father and taking his title. This abrupt transformation of attitude and objective is part of the theme of “Appearance vs Reality.” Although he appears to be loyal and innocent to Gloucester, the reality is that he is planning to overthrow Gloucester and is apathetic towards his

Duplicity is a theme which dominates and defines the play King Lear. The rise of the Machiavellian Edmund and the fall of the eponymous tragic hero King Lear are both due to one major aspect of human nature, deception. The tragedy is set in motion by King Lear, who blinded by hubris, attempts to abdicate and retain power. His folly and hubris, allows him to deceive himself into believing the best way to divide the kingdom is to command his daughters to partake in a demeaning love test, where Goneril and Regan feed his ego with more acts of deceit. Edmund employs the same tactic of deception to manipulate his rise to power. He convinces his ‘blind’ father Gloucester into banishing his loyal son Edgar. Deception is also used for good in the play,

Edmunds manipulation would lead to Edgar running away in fear that Gloucester would murder him as well as Gloucester pledging his inheritance to Edmund. As a result of Edmund’s manipulation, Edmund went on to change his fate in remarkable fashion. He defied societal normalities and went from a bastard with nothing to his name to being the sole inherent of the Earl of Gloucester's wealth, power and land. However, just like Goneril and Regan's accession remarkable accession to power this was not due to any outside force but rather through his own calculated actions. It was Edmunds creative manipulation of his brother and father that lead to his claim to fame and power not an any outside

Edgar is a liar. Much like his brother Edmund in Shakespeare's King Lear Edgar lies, but unlike his brother Edgar lies not for self-gain. Edgar lies throughout the play about his identity disguising himself as Poor Tom in order to protect himself after his false conviction, but he also saves his father’s, Gloucester, life by convincing his father that he had jumped off the cliffs of Dover. Although Edgar lies to those around him the context in which his decisions are made are important, and this is demonstrated in the contrast between him and his brother Edmund as it illustrates that lying is not always an amoral action. To tackle Edgar’s continued deceptions it is important to analyze whether lying about his identity when he poses as Poor Tom was wrong.

He does not admit the error of his ways until he is defeated and wounded by Edgar. Edgar defeats Edmund in a trial by combat, and tells him about their father’s sorrow and grief. Upon this, Edmund comments, “This speech of yours hath moved me,/ And shall perchance do good” (V,iii,199-200). Edmund learns of Gloucester’s misfortunes, and it pains his heart to see what his betrayal has brought upon his brother and father. Edmund is able to see the hideousness of his crimes when he is suffering from his physical wound and the guilt that wears on him. This guilt eats away at his remaining conscience, and he decides to do some good for other people to rectify his previous actions. He tries to save Cordelia and Lear’s lives by confessing, “I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,/ Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send/ (Be brief in’t) to the castle; for my writ/ Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia” (V,iii,243-246). Edmund is starting to feel that his death is at hand. The wound that Edgar inflicts on him is slowly killing him. In the last moments of his life, Edmund experiences a change of heart, and is determined to save Cordelia and Lear to compensate for the lives he ruined. He takes full responsibility in issuing the death warrant for the pair, and since he cannot save them himself, he urges the Albany and Edgar to take action. This

In The Tragedy of King Lear (George Mason University, Open Source Shakespeare 2014, online) William Shakespeare presents a character, named Edmund, whose goals are to gain power and land, as well as gain the same respect and recognition that his brother Edgar has. Edmund is a very quick-witted character who takes any opportunity he can get his hands on and this characteristic of his helps him pave the way to his race to power. Sabotaging people, even his family, behind their back is not above him, for he has little regard for others. Edmund is a strong-willed, manipulative, power-hungry politician who is very intelligent and strategic in how he executes his plans, and this is shown through his language towards others as well as how others positively

At the start of Act I we are introduced to Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester. “I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother?”Although Edmund was Gloucester’s first-born he does not receive any of privileges and perks of being a first-born, “Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land,” while he must sit by and watch his half-brother Edgar get everything that he should have had. The right to Gloucester’s estate when he passes, and just being able to been seen as an equal in the eyes of the law he can not do that. Edmund doesn’t only get disrespected by his father, who goes out of his way when introducing Edmund that he is an illegitimate child saying “though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was called for, yet was his mother fair,there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.” Edmund also in the eyes of the law at the time is treated as and seen as nothing, he is a mistake and does not deserve anything.

Unlike King Lear, Edmund has no power at the beginning of the play. Being Gloucester’s youngest and illegitimate son he is not accepted by society or his father. Gloucester says in front of Edgar, “His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge / I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to it” (1.1.8-9).  Edgar, Edmund’s older brother will inherit their father's wealth, land, and title. Knowing this Edmund’s hunger for power has probably grown through the years, giving him the motivation to act the way he did. In 1.2 Edmund tells the audience that he’s going to con

King Lear is frequently regarded as one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, and its tragic scope touches almost all facets of the human condition: from the familial tensions between parents and children to the immoral desires of power, from the follies of pride to the false projections of glory. However, one theme rings true throughout the play, and that very theme is boundless suffering, accentuated by the gruesome depictions of suffering our protagonists experience . There is no natural (nor “poetic”) justice depicted in this pre-Judeo-Christian world Shakespeare presents, as the relatively virtuous individuals (Kent, Gloucester, and Cordelia) in this

In these situations, the cast confronts instances of betrayal and eventually self-growth. The story initiates with King Lear’s urgency for flattery, which drives him to commit a decision that instigated the power-hungry course of his daughters. The betrayal of Goneril and Regan caused Lear to separate from his man-made principles and praise those of nature. Besides the change in Lear, the audience also observed Gloucester’s position concerning the legitimacy of his two sons. Societal views were a detriment regarding the rights of illegitimate children, like Edmund. Seeing his brother Edgar conquer all his father’s treasures, Edmund left his praise of nature behind and instead exploited the reliance of status and relationships in his royal family to overcome the laws of society, forming a great deception against his own family.

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.