Intense Sibling Rivalry

In the final act of King Lear I can’t help but think about the destruction that comes from sibling rivalries. With both Regan and Goneril and Edmund and Edgar, the rivalry causes nothing but the down fall of all but one character.




Regan and Goneril have power and property but still are not satisfied. Not only do they abuse their father but after all that they turn their cruelty onto each other. They fight like teenage girls over the love/lust of Edmund. Goneril even goes as far to say that, “I had rather lose the battle than that sister should loosen him and me.” (V.I.23). To keep her pride and her younger man Goneril is willing to lose both the battle and her sister. Both sisters flaunt their relationships and infatuations with Edmund in front of each other until both become enraged with jealousy. Regan is the only one of the two who can actually legally do anything with the youth, considering that she is the only one without husband. Still, that does not stop the squabbling sisters and the jealousy leads to Regan’s murder and Goneril’s suicide. The constant need to have more than the other leads to the undoing of them both.




Edmund’s desire to be better and have more than his “legitimate” brother drives him to the point of madness and fills him with evil motives. We all know how Edmund goes about this, but in the final act it culminates to the long awaited brawl between brothers. After hiding and waiting to exact his vengeance Edgar challenges Edmund to fight and in the duel Edmund is mortally wounded. Again we see siblings killing and dying over the need to be better or have more than one another.




After witnessing such violence and tension between siblings one wonders what world provoked these acts. Is it be the natural world that spurs the competitive nature and fuels passions to the point of violence, or is it the world of tradition that has kept these siblings in societal constraints that they have learned to gain more power and title through any means necessary? Throughout the play these two worlds have collided and caused tension between characters but maybe it is the unchecked combination of the two worlds that cause the destruction between siblings. After all, it is the thirst for titles and power that originally starts the problems, but if the characters had the sense to adhere to the customs enough to be true and loyal to their families King Lear might have not been a tragedy.