“Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds
Reverb no hollowness”
Cordelia also does not believe the content of Gonerill and Regan’s speeches and views their declarations of love for Lear as a manipulative ploy used in order to secure a share of the Kingdom.
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides;
Who covers faults, at last with shame derides.
This conflict of Cordelia and Kent against Cordelia’s sisters, Gonerill and Regan can be viewed as a classic conflict of good versus evil. Cordelia’s character comes across as one of virtues and integrity due to her not engaging in her fathers’ somewhat arrogant ‘love-test’ risking her chance of a share in the kingdom, proving that she considers family and morals above material things. Gonerill and Regan’s characters come across as superficial, shallow and manipulative as their speeches and participation in their father’s love test comes across as false, shallow and cunning. The notion of Gonerill and Regan being evil is further enforced when at the end of Act 1, Scene 1, the audience witnesses them plotting about their father. This portion of dialogue in the play reveals their true nature and intent, for they are not even satisfied with half the kingdom each after Cordelia is banished and doesn’t receive a share.
Gonerill: If our father carry authority with such
disposition as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.
…We must do something, and I th’heat.
The atmosphere created and borne out of this first conflict reinforces the ‘good versus evil’ nature of the conflict. The atmosphere seems dark and foreboding as the first scene of the play ends with the banishment of two major characters and at the end of the scene, the audience witnesses Gonerill and Regan beginning to plot against their father.
The dialogue at the end between Gonerill and Regan reiterates Cordelia’s and Kent’s warnings about them and implies that Lear will find himself in a conflict against his two eldest daughters further on in the play.
The second scene introduces the sub-plot of the illegitimate Edmund, (referred to as the bastard) plotting against his father and brother, Gloucester and Edgar.
The first scene introduces the characters of Gloucester and Edgar, who initially appears as a very polite, pleasant and courteous character. Despite Gloucester’s derogatory and somewhat cruel references to him, such as a ‘whoreson’, and his introducing him to Kent as his illegitimate child, Edmund is respectful to both his father and Kent. It becomes evident that it is perhaps this appalling treatment at the hands of his father that contributes to Edmund’s desire to plot against him and his legitimate brother, Edgar.
“there was good sport at his making, and the
whoreson must be acknowledged.”
Act 1, Scene 2 opens with a soliloquy by Edmund revealing the true nature of his character to the audience, with the revelation that he is planning to ‘if not by birth, have lands by wit’.
Edmund’s soliloquy is quite shocking as the audience’s first impression of him is that he is a very pleasant character, but his revelations in the second scene reveal his seemingly apparent Machiavellian nature.
There is evidently a lot of tension and jealously between Edmund, and his legitimate brother, Edgar. Edmund quite understandably feels a lot of resentment towards Edgar as he will be the brother who will inherit the land and power from his father.
Two major themes which feature strongly in these two conflicts and indeed the rest of the play are family relationships and the notion of wealth and power.
The smaller, sub-plot runs parallel to the main plot featuring the Lear family. Both conflicts are borne out of family relationships which contains evidence of resentment and tension between the siblings. Edmund is very jealous and bitter that Edgar will inherit land and power, and Gonerill and Regan imply that they are resentful of Cordelia for being Lear’s favourite daughter, and again, their conflict is over land and power.
Edmund’s soliloquy cleverly draws the audience in, and learning of his plans, are very intrigued as to know how and why he is plotting against Gloucester and Edgar.
Gloucester’s immediate entrance after Edmund’s soliloquy provides an opportunity for Edmund to start putting his plans into action. The audience witnesses him start to turn his father against Edgar, with the false revelation that Edgar is plotting against him. Edmund does this through the use of a fake letter in a very controlled, manipulative manner.
It’s a letter from my brother….I find it not fit for your o’erlooking.
The audience witnesses Edmund first convincing Gloucester that he Edmund is plotting against him, and then he convinces Edgar to keep away from Gloucester because he has inadvertently offended him.
Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him…
I pray you have a continent forbearance till the speed of
his rage goes slower;…… Pray ye, go!
Although this particular conflict at first seems of a ‘Good versus Evil’ nature, the audience does have some sympathy for Edmund and although he may appear evil, one may feel that he has justification for being this way.
It appears that Edmund has been treated appallingly all his life because he is legitimate, and there was a huge social stigma to being born out of wed-lock at the time when the play was written. Edmund is referred to as a ‘whoreson’ by his own father and when Gloucester first introduces him to Kent he implies that he is shameful of his illegitimate son, even though he makes it clear he does not favour Edgar over Edmund.
Edmund is clearly frustrated at being denied wealth and power because he is illegitimate and the treatment which he has endured as a result of it could be used to explain why he is planning to use to such evil ways to achieve his aims.
Within the second scene the audience witnesses Edmund turn his father against own brother, this sets a very foreboding atmosphere, because the audience realises that if he is capable of plotting against his family, then he must be a very Machiavellian, evil, character.
One of the other major conflicts consists of the notion of King Lear versus himself. However, although this conflict is not really established or explored in the first two scenes of the play, Shakespeare cleverly and subtly implies and suggests that King Lear is showing signs of madness.
When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?
Kent is Lear’s most trusted and loyal aide, and his interruption when the King becomes angry at Cordelia is insulting towards Lear, suggesting not only that Kent feels very strongly, but that he also fears Lear is showing signs of madness due to his age, as he is in his eighties.
Gonerill and Regan also detect that Lear is showing signs of madness due to his seemingly rash act of banishing both Cordelia, his favourite daughter, and his most trusted and loyal aide, Kent from the Kingdom.
Gonerill: You see how full of changes his age is…He always loved our sister most.
Regan: ‘Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.
Gonerill and Regan are concerned by Lear’s irrational and unpredictable behaviour and view a certain element of danger in the sense that they are unsure of what actions Lear is capable of, and thus Lear’s insanity becomes a major theme later on as the play progresses.
The last conflict which is explored in the first two scenes of the play is the concept of man versus nature which is made reference to throughout the duration of the play. The play, King Lear was set in Pagan time and constant references are made to the Pagan World and the relevant Gods throughout the first two scenes.
For the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecat and the night,
Many of the characters believe that the Pagan world is responsible for everything that happens within their lives. Gloucester is an example of a character which believes in the Pagan religion and thus feels that to a certain extent, he can’t control his life.
These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us.
Edmund is an example of a character in the play that is against nature. This could be because in Edmund’s view, nature has cheated him of any rights to land and power because he is illegitimate.
Thou, Nautre, art my gooddess; to thy law
While the character of Gloucester believes that nature and paganism controls his destiny, Edmund does not believe the Gods and planets rule the world, and instead feels that it is humans who are responsible for their own actions.
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune – often the surfeits of our own behaviour – we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains on necessity.
In conclusion, Shakespeare cleverly establishes the major conflicts of the novel in the first two scenes. The two major conflicts run parallel to each other and consist of King Lear against his daughters and Edmund against his brother and father. These conflicts are established through explanation of the situation, in the form of soliloquies and dialogue from the characters.
Although these two major conflicts form the main basis of the plot and sub-plot, there are other, lesser conflicts that are also explored. These consist of Man against nature, as in the Pagan world, and King Lear against himself. These two conflicts imply a sense of fighting against nature and the inevitable, thus casting a foreboding and somewhat ominous atmosphere.
