King Lear: Act V (Make Up)

Another post that seemed to slip by was the one I had to do on King Lear: Act V. This should be a little fun because this play had such a ridiculously sweet ending. I want to focus on a piece of dialogue that reminds me of something I saw on The Daily Show with John Stewart the other day:

EDMUND: I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,

Despite of mine own nature. Quickkly send,

Be brief in it, to the castle; for my write

Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:

Nay, send in time. (5.3.242-244)

The guest John Stewart had on was a man named Jon Ronson (author of The Men Who Stare at Goats). Ronson recently released his latest work, The Psychopath Test, in which he summarizes what he has found in pursuing interviews with psychopath's to get a more overarching view of their influence. Studies show, says Ronson, that 1 out of every 100 people in the world are socially integrated psychopaths, while 4 out of every 100 CEOs fall into this category. Now, he suggests, that the criteria for the psychopath is a recipe for ruthless success, in that some of the key characteristics include: lack of guilt; love of manipulation; ability to lie to peoples faces; bouts of bullying; superficial charm; unrealistic fantasies; and the list goes on and on. In reviewing King Lear, I would like to focus on Edmund's existence as a full blown psychopath, in that, he decides to walk the walk and talk the talk of a King (or at least one of significantly higher power than he—just or unjustly—deserves), regardless of what he was born into, and because he will do it by any means necessary, constantly. But I want to focus in that dialogue I quoted above on the line, “Some good I mean to do,” because this is where I see the most obvious parallel between Edmund and what Ronson sees as typical psychopathic behavior. Ronson states that a psychopath constantly constantly wants people to like them, is constantly in the business of manipulation, that Edmund, on his deathbed, proclaiming that he means to do good is a perfect example of this kind of action. I haven't read Ronson's book, but I mean to, and I also mean to revisit this idea with another reading of King Lear. This could turn into a really interesting paper for me in the future.