Shakespeare' King Lear is a story of treachery and deceit. The villainy of the play knows no bounds. Family lines are ignored in an overwhelming quest for power. This villainy is epitomized in the character of Edmund, bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester. .
The bastard is Elizabethan equivalent of "outsider". As a complete outsider, a cold analyzer and calculator, Edmund personifies an unorthodox malignant view of nature according to which Man, Nature and God fall apart.Edmund, the arbeiter of his own fate, is an embodiment of the New Man and the New Age, the age of the 16th and after, based on ruthless competition, suspicion, glory.Despite some attractive features of the portrait, Edmund is an epitome of the machiavel. .
Edmund is displayed as a " most toad-spotted traitor." When we first see him, he is already knee deep in treachery. His need for power has already clouded his mind to the extent that his first act is a double-cross of his own brother. Edmund composes a false letter to his father implicating his brother, Edgar in a plot to kill Gloucester. Edmund had been planning the downfall of his father and is only interested in his personal gain, at any cost.Edmund is immersed in his greed for others' possessions, he will step on whomever he needs to in order to reach his goal.This is what hinders his vision. .
To my point: I don't think that it was Edmond's fault that he develops into such a bad person (i.e. murderer, adulterer, usurper). He was definitely a victim of circumstance and factors beyond his control.He was proclaimed a bastard when he was with his father, most likely on every occasion. And he must always stand in the shadow of what is deemed by all as "good" or "righteous" Edgar.At the end of the play he even confesses to have some good in him: "Some good I mean to do, despite of mine own nature.
