It seems to me that as of now the people who have chosen their own path being truthful to their own freedoms are getting off better than those who have chosen to follow exemplary customs. Edmund thus far has had his plan work out nicely to his advantage. As well as Cordelia's early decision to stand her ground has paid off in a positive light, she has the advantage over her other sisters of not having to witness the steeper descent into madness and pathetic behavior of their father. I think that this play does bring into question the sacrifices that people go through to stay true to what they may believe. It also calls into question whether staying true to set customs is worth the tribulations and stipulations that come with it.
Edmund who is staying true to his nature is living the life right now. He has everyone believing that he is a noble man, he has both Regan and Goneril basically throwing themselves at him and he is gaining power by the minute. Edmund is the master manipulator of this story. As we witness in Act II when he stages his brother Edgar wiping out his sword and starting a fight.
"Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
To stand's auspicious mistress,--" (II. I. 40-42)
He knows how to use a bit of his father's celestial language against his brother. He understands that if he relates intimately with the person he is manipulating more times than not the person will believe you. He also understands the visual evidence does help his case. Seeing is believing to most people and he was smart to realize a cut from his brother speaks volumes. Edmund knows his father very well and it is easy for him to place on a smiling supportive face so that his father keeps believing in his good son routine. All it takes is a simple supportive statement of Edmund supporting his father's shock of Goneril and Regan's treatment of their father to keep up his facade. Gloster then reveals an important letter pertaining to the invading French army and that although the women have forbade him to see and help Lear he will go. This is the precise thing that signs his own death warrant.
Edmund is also obviously handsome man and charming to people, because when Goneril bids him in IV.II. to go to her husband and conjure up the army she gives him a small token; a kiss. I think this kiss implies more than just a thank you for him traveling. With looks and confidence of things going his way, he is attracting more followers in his deceit. He gets both Regan and Goneril on his side, and both women desire him; he's set. They are the one with the power right now so anything he says and does truthful. They are the ones following him blindly. Which is ironic the moment Gloster stops following Edmund's word blindly he literally gets blinded. Edmund is living in his free, limitless world and yet is receiving all the benefits currently of customs.
Cordelia as well chose to stand her ground in the beginning and gives up all her inheritance. Unlike her sisters she does not need to bear the grief of watching her father being stripped down to nothingness. She is doing the best that she can while she is living in France. But unlike Edmund's freedom which involves the years of pain as a bastard child which he is now taking out on his father, Cordelia does truly love her father on her own terms and now that he is completely downtrodden all she wants to do is take care of him. When he wakes in her kingdom he believes that Cordelia will kill him. He says:
"If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know you do not love me; for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
You have some cause, they have not." (IV.VII 75-78)
Cordelia simply answers "No cause, No cause" (IV.VII. 79). She never had the intention to hurt he father or give up all inheritance, she simply wanted her freedom. That she does have now and her fathers love again from her mercy.
Although things probably will not end well for Edmund, I do admire his passion and drive to get what he believes is rightful (which I agree) is his. I do not agree that the way that he goes about it but he in some aspect is following his heart, the same Cordelia. She will only do justice to what she knows is right for herself and best for others. These two characters have gotten a taste of what power can be when it comes to following your own beliefs and passions. I think we can all take a little of their strength and ferocity that they exhibit.
2 comments:
I really like your post! I think it is so interesting to see how the two worlds compete. Both the natural world and the world of custom/ tradition are struggling in almost every character in the play. It is interesting to see how some characters like Edgar and Lear come from the world of custom and can move towards the world of nature and what that does to the characters. On the other side we see a character like Edmund move from the natural world and into culture and tradition and how that destroys him.
Plato, in examining the idea of truth, talks about the "noble lie." Is it okay, we might ask, to tell someone a fiction when we know that the truth will hurt them? For instance, should a husband reveal to his dying wife a past infidelity in order to give her the "truth"? Or should he let her die believing he was faithful? These questions, too, as JoLisa nicely shows, are at the heart of King Lear. Is there a time when we should prefer fiction to truth? This is made all the more complicated, of course, because a play, after all, is an extended lie!
Post a Comment