How Does Shakespeare Present Edmund In King Lear

As Edmund is introduced into the play, he represents the vice of hatred and revenge; revealing Shakespeare’s message correlating the cause and effect of the power of recognition and loneliness in the play. In the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, Edmund is perceived as a bastard and an outcast who is rejected in society. With this negative perspective portrayed against him, Edmund is forced to prove himself and work towards being as good or even better than his brother, Edgar, as well as worthy in the eyes of the people around him. Since Edmund is continually being treated unfairly, he slowly begins to develop imbalance emotions, bitterness and ultimately hatred that orchestrates his revenge to kill his father. In the beginning of Edmund’s plan of betrayal, King Lear also exhibits the same emotion and similarities to that of Edmund. Both
/ I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. / I never gave you kingdom” (III ii 17-19). King Lear tells the elements that he doesn’t blame them and instead blames Goneril and Regan because he gave them land. At this point of the play, the readers can now see the similarities between King Lear and Edmund in how they are both being portrayed as a low person in society who has received no respect. Both King Lear and Edmund main desire are to be accepted and loved, but due to the unjust and uncontrollable treatment they received, they turn to nature and its laws of equality. As these similarities continue to unite, it shows that King Lear’s mind is now transitioning from Goneril and Regan’s vice of greed to Edmund’s vices. From this point onwards, Edmund’s hatred and revenge begin to transfer to King Lear’s and its dominant effect slowly takes over the greed that Goneril and Regan represent. Shakespeare’s transition from greed to hatred and revenge leads to a path of longing for recognition and a journey of