King Lear: Common ties between Cordelia and Edmund - Essay Example

Both characters introduce chaos in the play as Cordelia refuses to not proclaim in lofty terms her love for her father before his honored guests and subjects. On the other hand, Edmund unleashes chaos by choosing to act against his father who favors his half brother, Edgar. Sibling rivalry is a key problem that both Cordelia and Edmund must deal with. Cordelia’s sisters, Goneril and Regan, plot against her and retain hostile feelings against her throughout the play. imilarly, Edmund and Edgar are brothers which have a rocky relationship.

They never get along because of power struggle and jealousy. Edmund purposes to outdo his brother believing that, “Edmund the base/ Shall top th' legitimate” (Shakespeare Act I, Scene II). By the end of the play, the siblings unfortunately never reconcile. Both Cordelia and Edmund not only endure unsympathetic relationships between their siblings, but also they are assassinated by them In the midst of family and political conflict, both Cordelia and Edmund suffer tragic deaths in the play, King Lear, dying young and at the hands of their siblings.

Ultimately, the sisters Goneril and Regan bring about the death of Cordelia in a sister against sister murder. As a consequence, brother ends up killing brother in a duel. Goneril commands her sister’s death, “to hang Cordelia in the prison” (Shakespeare Act V, Scene III ). On the other hand, Edgar and Edmund face off in a bloody battle that ends the life of Edmund. In King Lear, it is lamentable that the culmination of resentment and jealousy between brothers and sisters ends in death.

Both Cordelia and Edmund embody the moral virtues of good and evil respectively. When Edmund finds out that his brother, Edgar will succeed their father, he is disappointed but determined to snatch power by whatever means necessary, asserting, "Well then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land." From this statement one observes Edmund firm resolve to pursue any means to gain his ends like Machiavelli. Furthermore, Edmund’s ambition exceeds Edgar’s for he is the active catalyst which instigates, masterminds and orchestrates chaos and murder.

Edmund makes known his ambitious desire by affirming that,   as "I see the business. Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit!" (Shakespeare Act I, Scene II). His anticipation for wealth and greatness and his cold calculations for Edgar’s removal from power and extermination without any scruple underscore his lust for grandeur and overarching ambition. Even after the Edmund is connected to the throne of England through the sisters Goneril and Regan, his purely evil nature propels him to kill off Cordelia.

With a despotic hand, Edmund bears heavy sway over the characters, conniving and deceiving them by his show of moral corruption and deep darkness. In the same vein, Cordelia is the perfection of good. She is utterly kind, sincere and loving – addressing her father in no uncertain terms that she, “returns those duties back as are right fit, (to) obey, love, and most honor (him).” (Shakespeare Act I, Scene I). She would not for the sake of power flatter her father, King Lear nor would she retaliate against her sisters who do her so much ill.

Her heart remains faithful to her father till the end and not one word of evil could be said against her. Although the characterization attributed to her is extraordinarily good, she does not escape the attacks of evil. Although her father betrays her and disowns her, she never repays him like for like. She returns to England to fight for King Lear but in the end after her arrest she mourns that, “for (her father), she is cast down’ (Shakespeare Act V, Scene III). Both Cordelia and