Edmund Bertram

(Act 1. Sc. 2, 125 - 133) As a result of the irrational acts of trust by Lear and Gloucester, the state of England crumbled due to corruptness and treachery of Regan, Goneril and Edmund. At the point of ultimate chaos, Lear is disdained by his two evil daughters and has none of the power and honour of his kingship, and the state of nature reflects this chaos in the form of a tumultuous storm: Blow winds and crack you cheeks

Also at this moment, the relationship of Gloucester with his sons is slowly falling apart, as Edmund the illegitimate son begins telling lies and making rumors to make his father believe that Edgar his legitimate son is plotting to murder him to gain access to his birth right and to gain control of all the land. Gloucester in a fit of rage and betrayal believes Edmund and exiles Edgar announcing that if he ever comes back then he will be put to death on the spot. “O my follies!

speaking, blindness is the inability to see and interpret the truth due to one’s deceptiveness and lies. In King Lear, Lear’s blindness towards Goneril and Regan, and his arrogance, results in his downfall. Similarly, Gloucester’s blind-eye towards Edmund results in his downfall and ironically, his loss of eye-sight. Shakespeare conveys, through the life and dialogue of Lear and Gloucester,

In the world of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the themes of justice and injustice pervade. Viewers are challenged by the dichotomy between man’s inherent goodness and man’s inherent evil. The concepts of justice and injustice are always rooted in the presumption of imbalances of some kind, and this is certainly the case in King Lear. It is littered with imbalances throughout, including the struggles between young and old, good and evil, & rich and poor. The play can be seen as a series of trials eventually

rashness and inability to see clearly had already cost him, and Cordelia their lives. Lear was not the only character to suffer from blindness, Gloucester too, had lack of insight. He could not see the goodness of his son Edgar, and the wickedness of Edmund. A forged letter was the only evidence needed to convince Gloucester that Edgar was plotting to kill him. Immediately after reading the letter Gloucester screams in a rage; "O villain, villain! His very opinion in the/ letter! Abhorred villain!

strict social hierarchy fueled by the unceasing desire to improve one’s social status. It is this desire for improved social status that led to the unintentional deterioration of the social hierarchy in King Lear. This desire becomes so great that Edmund, Goneril, Reagan and Cornwall were willing to act contrary to the authority of the social hierarchy for the betterment of their own position within it. As the plot unfolds, the actions of the aforementioned characters get progressively more desperate

bestowed.” (2, 4, 330-331) That if Lear wants to stay then he has to give up his followers. The power corrupts them into treacherous beings, where respect and honor for their father are less important than their own well-being. 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

The Weight of “Nothing” in King Lear Though the word “nothing” connotes insignificance and emptiness when taken out of context, it feels like one of the most significant and loaded words in King Lear. This one word becomes a critical tool to help us reflect on the development of characters and their relationships to one another throughout the play. The word “nothing” appears to play a crucial role in defining the relationship between Lear and Cordelia, and consequently has an immense impact on

Analyzing the Characteristics of Kind Lear Lear is the protagonist, whose willingness to believe his older daughters’ empty flattery leads to the deaths of many people. In relying on the test of his daughters’ love, Lear demonstrates that he lacks common sense or the ability to detect his older daughters’ falseness. Lear cannot recognize Cordelia’s honesty amid the flattery, which he craves. The depth of Lear’s anger toward Kent, his devoted follower, suggests excessive

also the foundation of the entire play. First and foremost, at the core of this play lies the filiation between parents and children. Shakespeare shows the significance of this relationship through Edmund, Goneril and Regan, who do not respect their parents. At the beginning of the play, Edmund has no any entitlement under the unjust British Hierarchy and the social customs at that time because he is a bastard. When he said, “Shall top the legitimate; I grow; I prosper/Now, gods, stand up for