Dec 22, 2009

King Lear | Edmund (Character Analysis)

Edmund, the bastard son of Gloucester and half-brother to Edgar, commits a number of villainous acts throughout the course of the play: he forces his brother, Edgar, into hiding, telling Gloucester that Edgar means to kill him; he betrays his father and leaves him to the barbarous treatment of Cornwall and Regan; he encourages both Goneril and Regan to believe he loves the one to the exclusion of the other, causing them to quarrel and, ultimately, die as a consequence; and he orders the execution of Lear and Cordelia.

At the beginning of the play, Gloucester acknowledges to Kent...