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

Insanity occupies an essential place in William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and is associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. As King Lear goes mad due to dementia, the turmoil in his mind mirrored the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom. He initiated the unnatural sequence of events when he proclaimed that he desires to relinquish his duties as a monarchy and conferring them onto his children. At the same time, Lear’s dementia provided him with important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity and stripped him of all royal pretensions.

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

Though Goneril beautifully portrays familial betrayal in “King Lear,” Gloucester’s illegitimate son Edmund also portrays familial betrayal. For instance, in Act I, Scene II, Edmund hatches a plan to frame his older brother Edgar. Edmund forges a letter that reads,

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,

In the novel, Lear began to show his madness by rambling. He discussed the sin of adultery and the illegitimacy of Edmund, the son of Gloucester. He also went onto say how women should not be given any type of authority. While his rambling is out of the ordinary, he says everything because he is hurt. He emphasized that not everyone who comes along should be granted the power to rule a kingdom. He talked about how anyone and everyone has the capability to abuse the power that is given to them. The significance of his rambling goes to show that the ones who abuse their power get nothing good in return. Goneril and Regan abused their power by not allowing Lear to stay with them when he was in need, and Edmund abused his power by making himself out to be legitimate. At the end of the novel, Edmund, Regan, and Goneril die due to abusing their power. Not only does Lear ramble about abusing power, but he refuses to

The sin of greed is perfectly exemplified in the character of Edmund. Throughout the play Edmund’s greed is the motivating factor behind all of the decisions that he makes. Edmund, as the illegitimate son of Gloucester plots against his brother in order to obtain his inheritance completely ignoring all familial responsibility in the pursuit of land and money. At the beginning of the play you see that he merely wants to take his brother’s inheritance but as greed gets the better of him he begins to plot against

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

Shakespeare’s King Lear: The Likeness of Gloucester, Edgar and Edmund Shakespeare’s King Lear is a tale of deceit; from children betraying their parents, siblings betraying each other and even wives betraying their husbands all for power. The play follows King Lear as he descends into madness after dividing his kingdom between two of his three daughters. The subplot, follows the lives of the Earl of Gloucester and his two sons —Edgar who is legitimate and Edmund who is illegitimate. In this period of time, children like Edmund who were born out of wedlock were not entitled to inherit anything from their parents. However, Edmund feels this is not right and devises a sinister plan to get his father to give him his brother’s inheritance.

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.

The opportunity to view both productions of King Lear has appeared twice for me in the past two years. The first time I viewed Trevor Nunn’s 2009 production of King Lear my review would have been based solely on my ability to understand the dialogue and my appreciation of the acting of Ian McKellen. Two years later I have a better understanding of the actual play and while I still enjoy the 2009 production the 1982 production directed by Jonathan Miller presents the words of William Shakespeare in a more accurate and period specific manor.

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.