too little, too late

Edmund is an interesting character throughout the entire play. We first meet him when he is in the beginning stages of deceiving everyone in the play into believing that he deserves the heir to his father’s thrown although he is an illegitimate candidate for this heir.

The first words we hear out of Edmund’s mouth is, Thou, nature, art my goddess. To thy law

“My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?” (1.2.1-5)

Edmund feels as though he should receive the same, if not more than his brother, because they are only a few months different in age. Although his jealousy makes sense, it is no reason to not only go against his family, but have them basically killed. Although he is a bastard child, he thinks he deserves the same as his brother. Because of Edmund’s fake letter, Gloucester banishes his son Edgar from the land because Edmund sets up a scene where Gloucester thinks that Edgar has been dishonest. Later, Edmund sets up Gloucester as well, and gets him banished. Basically Edmund goes against his entire family, all for power and land. So, finally, Edmund has full control of Gloucester’s heir and land.

As a subplot, I found this story to be really interesting. So much deceit and dishonesty existed. I found the end of the play to be extraordinary. To me it shows that Karma is true. After all of the hurt that Edmund created, finally the power is put into Edgar’s hands and Edmund dies. But what I found interesting was Edmund’s final attempt to redeem all the bad he has caused. He heard that his father had died and he is in the position to be killed by his brother, he tries to stop Cordelia and Lear from being killed. Before the power shifted, Edmund was going to kill them, but now he feels remorse and sorrow and tries to stop it. But in my opinion it is too little too late. He already has caused so much trouble, making anything right at this point is just to help himself rest in peace, which I think he does not deserve. Edmund deserves all the anguish he feels because he caused so much pain himself. In Edmund’s own words, “the wheel has come full circle.” He caused pain, and now he receives pain. He wanted the power to be taken from Edgar, when now it is being taken from him. He suffers because of the actions he took.