Edmund recognizes his own evil nature and uses it to his own advantage. Edmund shows Gloucester that he loves him by showing him the letter that Edgar supposedly wrote to Edmund to seek Gloucester’s life: “It is his hand, my lord, but I hope his heart is/ not in the contents” (І іi 71-72). Edmund tricks Gloucester into thinking Edgar seeks Gloucester’s life by making him believe that Edgar wrote that letter to Edmund. Edmund tells Edgar that father is furious at him and is looking for him: “Brother, I advise you to the best. I am no/ honest man if there be any good meaning toward you. I have told/ you what I have seen and heard, but faintly, nothing like the image and horror of it” (І іі 180-183). Edmund tells Edgar that he will do his best to protect him and for now to go and hide from their father. Edgar must go into hiding because of Edmunds deception and he shows no remorse for any of his actions.
Goneril and Regan have both turned their affections to Edmund. Goneril is cruel and devious for planning to kill her own husband, the Duke of Albany, for the love of another man, Edmund. “Wear this; spare speech. / Decline your head [she kisses him.] This kiss, if it durst speak, / Would stretch they spirits up into the air” (IV ii 25-28). Goneril is showing her affection to Edmund that she will do anything for him. When Regan’s husband, Duke of Cornwall, dies Regan shows no remorse and seeks to marry Edmund: “My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talked, / And more convenient is he for my hand/ Than for your lady’s. You may gather more, If you do find him, pray you, give him this…” (IV v 34-37). Regan tells Oswald to go tell Goneril that it is more appropriate that Edmund marries Regan than Goneril, since her husband just died. This shows that she is greedy and does not care about anyone except for herself.
These declarations of love lead their victims to betrayal and fatal consequences. When Lear is rejected by Goneril and Regan and stripped of his “hundred knights and squires” (I iv 248), he is left with “nothing” besides the loyal company of Kent and the Fool. Before entering the hovel, he realized that he has been a man “more sinned against than sinning” (III ii 63). He has realized that he was foolish to do Cordelia wrong, the only daughter who truly loved him, and that the truth has been revealed about his daughters. As Lear realizes his foolishness in banishing Cordelia, Lear increases himself in grief and misery. Regan and Goneril rise in status in the kingdom, while Lear’s presence and power as King becomes insignificant:
Lear: Who am I sir?
Oswald: My lady’s father.
Lear: “My lady’s father”? My lord’s knave! You whore on dog, you slave, you cur!
(I iv 78-77).
Lear is greatly offended by that comment, as he is the king of England, not just his daughter’s father. When he banished Cordelia and Kent for coming between “ the dragon and his wrath” (I i 136), which is him and his power, he made himself vulnerable to Goneril and Regan’s conspiracy: “Pray you, let us hit together. If our father carry authority with such/ disposition as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us” (I i 350-352). Foreseeing that their father possesses a possible threat to them, Goneril and Regan plot against their father so that he becomes helpless like a child. After the storm, when Lear’s madness had taken its course, both he and Cordelia are taken prisoners by Albany’s army. His joy with the reunion with his daughter overshadows any other concerns he might have.
Edmund is against the social order that has denied him of the same status as Gloucester’s legitimate son, Edgar: “Now gods, stand up for bastards!” (I ii 23). He is saying that now the gods will stand up for him instead of the other way around, this shows how cold and evil he really is. He struggles to destroy his legitimate brother and then his father to gain their title and their wealth: “The younger rises when the old doth fall” (III iii 25). He wins their trust and then brings them to their despair. Edmund tricks his father into believing he is an affectionate and loyal son in order to cover his true greediness. Gloucester was tortured and had his eyes popped out because of his blindness while alive: “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused./ Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him” (III vii 111-112). The fact that he could not tell the true nature of his own sons made him blind before he actually lost his sight. Edmund forges personal prosperity with betrayal and treachery, and his obsession with his legitimate brother proves that he is obsessed with status in the play. His goals are set out to get recognition by any means necessary.
Both Goneril and Regan fall in love with Edmund but their jealousy destroys them both. Goneril says: “I had rather lose the battle than that sister/ should loosen him and me” (V i 22-23). This proves how greedy she is; she will rather lose the battle with the French than to lose Edmund to her own sister, “If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine” (V iii 116-117). Embittered by this rivalry, Goneril poisons Regan, and takes her own life. Their jealousies of one another ultimately lead to their destruction.
Gloucester and Lear both get the wrong impression about there children, because of which one goes sightless and the other loses his sanity. This only happens after they both can finally see the true personality of their children. To hide their true ravenousness, Regan and Goneril deceit their father by making him believe that they love him. Being the bastard son, Edmund was deprived of respect and rank that he thought was rightfully his. He too wins his fathers’ and brothers’ trust and then destroys them.
This proves that betrayal can only happen if you love (Trust, Deception, Betrayal). Betrayal is motivated by ambition and greed which all these characters had. Ambition, greed, and deception all lead to one culmination ending, death.
Bibliography
Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. London: MacMillan, 1905.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York, New York: Washington Square Press, 1993.
“Trust, Deception, Betrayal.” Resources- Quotes Library. <> (27 March 03).
