Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Edmunds speech act I scene 2 reminds me alot of Shylock and his "Hath a jew not eyes?" speech. They both are from the antagonist, both decry the stigma their society places on them becuse of their respective status' and garner sympathy from the audience. The main difference is Shylock's speech is about how christians and jews are the same while Edmund's is about how he is better then what most people think of him. This makes it less a cry for equality and more a cry for recognition. At the start of the play Edmunds father makes harsh jokes at his(Edmunds) expense. This, in addition to the knowlege that he shal recive nothing upon his fathers deah justifies Edmunds actions to himself, but not the audience I feel, especially when you factor in Edgar, who is nothing but nice to Edmund and who is royaly screwed buy Edmunds plan. At the end of the speech Edmund says "Now, gods, stand up for bastards!" but I feel this is insincere. He doen't care about society and it laws mistreating bastards, he is angry about the laws mistreating him, he couldn't care less about others in his sithuation.