Albert Ngo
Ms. Ferracci
ENG4UN – 05
July 17th 2012
Shakespeare’s King Lear: Blindness & Greed Into Madness
Human traits and complexity hold the key to a character’s development throughout their lives. In Shakespeare’s play King Lear, there is excellent portrayal as to how greed and blindness were used to reveal the flaws of each character. These significant traits emphasize the theme of madness within Edmund and King Lear’s character growth. Edmund portrayed greed in an indefinite way and King Lear portrayed blindness in a prominent way, both of which, experienced madness in the process and eventually, led to their realization of the truth.
Firstly, greed is inevitably displayed through Edmund’s selfish actions. Greed manipulated and conquered Edmund, the bastard son of the Duke of Gloucester, which caused him to act immorally and selfishly. Edmund stated in his soliloquy, “Lag of a brother? Why “bastard”? ... Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land, Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund as to the legitimate- Fine word, “legitimate”!”(1.2.6-18). Edmund displays such anger and resentment towards his brother, Edgar, because he was the legitimate son of Gloucester and the rightful heir to their father’s fortunes. Originally, Edmund acted upon jealousy and was mainly obsessed about inheriting his father’s land and fulfilling his desire to be Gloucester’s favorite. Unfortunately, as time progressed, his jealousy slowly evolved into madness. This is revealed through his aside speech, “If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion...between that and my blood” (3.6.18-21). Although Edmund’s insanity and madness was not displayed through his actions or speech like that of King Lear’s, it was obvious that greed is what influenced his actions. They were the cause to his brother becoming a supressed beggar and his father getting his eyes gouged out. Undoubtedly, Edmund’s thirst to replace Edgar, eventually led to his downfall.