William Shakespeare wrote many plays during the late 1500's and.
One of these plays "King Lear" tells the story of a .
King with 3 daughters and an Earl with 2 sons 1 legitimate and 1 illegitimate. .
Edmund the younger son is said to be an attractive villain. .
Attractive and villain are very different things, but as the .
play progresses we see that Edmund uses these to his advantage. .
Edmund is a manipulator. This is because he his very bitter about being an.
illegitimate child. He feels that it is very unfair that his legitimate brother Edgar .
will inherit his father's wealth over him.
.
This is because the play is set in pre-Christian Britain and during this time in .
history people believed that the gods controlled everything including .
peoples fortunes. Edmund is said to be at the bottom of the wheel of fortune and .
he longs to be at the top of the wheel so he formulates a plan to get him .
all the good fortune he wants and needs the thing about Edmund is that he .
wants everything now!.
Edmund is cunning and because Shakespeare includes Edmunds soliloquies .
(People thinking their thoughts aloud.) We understand his motives we may .
not always agree with what he is doing but we do begin to understand why? .
.
One thing about Edmunds character that is for certain is that he is Cunning, .
ambitious and manipulative. Edmund also seems to be in the background of a .
scene watching and listening to what is going on. In a production we have .
watched Edmunds character is always in the scenes and we wonder why he is .
there but we know his character has a purpose within these scenes. Also in this .
production Edmunds soliloquies were not included so we can't understand how .
Edmunds mind is working the audience wonder what will Edmund do next. .
The play has many Sub-plots to follow which sometimes makes it difficult to .
understand. The Message about Edmund in the play is very clear to the audience .
but not to the people he is manipulating.