Our sympathy soon drifts away from Edward, after we see his behaviour. As I have said, the first thing Edward says is him pleading with the nobles to let Gaveston, but it soon changes and we start to see more displeasing qualities in Edward. We see him being very stubborn, as the nobles are advising him not to bring Gaveston back, he says aside,
“In spite of them
I’ll have my will”.
This stubbornness is not a pleasant quality in a king. Even though Edward does have the final decisions, the nobles are there to advise and support him. He is king, but as he says the above quote aside, we see he is not as strong on his own. This wilfulness is not helping him, as the nobles are threatening to not serve him anymore and not fight for him, yet he does not seem to care. If the nobles do “hang up their armour”, he does not have a kingdom anymore, as there is no one to advise and support him. This is showing a very irresponsible king, and so our sympathy for him drifts away and to the nobles instead. He is aware of his authority,
“Am I a king and must be overruled?”
Yet he does not seem have control of this authority as much as he should be as he is questioning it. The irresponsibility comes out again as when Gaveston appears he embraces him and says how he would let the whole of his land die and disappear before he would lose Gaveston,
“And sooner shall the sea o’erwhelm my land
Than bear the ship that shall transport thee hence.”
Even though we know he is in love, we do not sympathise with him as he should recognise his responsibility as a king. He then tells Gaveston that he can “receive my seal” which is the worst thing that he could do. To give Gaveston the same power, rights and authority as himself he therefore breaking the natural order and the divine right of kings. This is enforcing that he is, a “pliant king”, he has been manipulated into sharing his throne.
Our view towards Edward changes from sympathy, to almost anger when we see the action he takes towards the bishop of Coventry. By manhandling him and throwing him in to prison we see a side of Edward that, clearly inspired by Gaveston’s presence, we do not like. Although, an audience at the time would enjoy this because at the time or performance, they were protestant, yet it is still outrageous behaviour as the characters in the play are catholic.
As we see the departure of Gaveston and the emotional exchanging of portraits between the two, we start to return to our old opinions of sympathy towards Edward, the treatment towards Isabella, his loving wife brings us straight back to the view that he his,
“Fawn not on me, French strumpet; get thee gone”
And in our view, she is not at fault.
As our views our ever changing, I believe that we do, again feel sympathy for Edward because as much as he uses Isabella to allow Gaveston to return, we see how emotional he is about Gaveston. And when he is told Gaveston can return, he is over-joyed and even embraces Isabella. But we know that the nobles are bringing him back to kill him and so we are sympathetic as he is totally unaware of this fact.
I believe that there are many different presentations of Edward, from just a fool in love to an evil and self-centred and irresponsible man, yet I think that the ever-changing presentations makes the character very ambiguous in the first act defiantly, and this is what makes the whole play enjoyable.
