2020-11-11 19:56:48 ¶ ● ⬈

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Opinion on the parallels between Goneril and Reegan, and Edgar and Edmund? (From King Lear)

Also Much Ado About Nothing? Idk I just really like it :)

edettethegreat:

> As much as I love finding parallels between characters, for some reason my brain is asleep now and can’t think. So I’m just gonna talk about them instead.

> So. The whole play is about how favoritism is bad, especially if they favoritism is done by a parent choosing a favorite child/children. But the two different versions of favoritism you see in the play are very different

> Lear’s favoritism is unpredictable. It’s the type that can change from second to second. He has no permanent favorite- that’s my brand new theory, at least. That when he says at the very beginning of the play that Cordelia was his favorite, that was also just on impulse- because he changes his mind about things like that so often. Goneril and Regan hated that he would keep changing his mind on little to no basis. They wanted some consistency.

> Edmund is the exact opposite. Gloucester is very consistent. He likes Edgar, and nothing (or so he thought) could change that. No matter what Edmund would do- no matter how smart or talented he would prove himself to be, Gloucester would always like Edgar better. Edmund would have settled for just being liked a decent amount- or at least for himself and Edgar to be liked relative to their actions, and not relative to who was born first and legitimately.

> ANYWAY. I’m supposed to be comparing the siblings (just. All the sibling). So let’s get to it! Goneril and Regan are pretty similar, and honestly the first time I read King Lear I didn’t know how to tell them apart. But after much thought, I came to the conclusion that literally the only important difference between them is that Goneril doesn’t get along with her husband, while Regan and Cornwall are a very fantastic couple. So yeah, that’s that.

> Now onto talking about my favorite characters again. ie the Gloucester family.

> (Lol it’s a whole play about how favoritism is wrong, and here I am, with all my favoritism)

> I know I always talk about Edmund, so let me talk about Edgar. I’ve been thinking about him lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to make him likable is if he’s really, really stupid. Because look. I don’t have sibling. But if I did and my father would just constantly treat my sibling really unfairly, I’d be like “Hey. Stop.”. So Edgar has to be, like, REALLY stupid to just Not Get what’s up. Like he sees how Gloucester treats Edmund and he just Doesn’t Process. Or he sees and it’s just stored in the back of his mind.

> And he doesn’t put the pieces together until the end, after he’s already killed Edmund. And he’s like “Oh.” And recognizes that Edmund had every right to be angry at them.

> (Ok so I have a midterm to take now, so I’ll come back to this later and continue with my thought on the topic)

OK SO I’m done with my midterm, let me continue talking about the Gloucester family.

I forgot where I was going with the original post, so I’m just gonna say anything I didn’t outright mention there.

SO. (And this is getting dangerously close to headcanon territory) (jk it definitely is a headcanon at this point) I think Edgar would have really respected Edmund, to an extent. He may not have been bright enough to realize Edmund was basically a big pile of pent up rage and frustration, but he did at least recognize pre-play how smart and talented Edmund was.

And (if only I had a copy of King Lear with me right now) I find it very interesting that Edgar doesn’t ever really say (by the end) “how dare you do this to me and my father. Now I stabbed you as revenge”. I don’t think he really feels like stabbing Edmund was just revenge- I think he sees Edmund, in that moment, as someone who’s out of control and needs to be stopped, rather than just his brother who wronged him.

OK SO I went to check my copy of Lear, and I hate/love/hate again how everyone ignores Edmund after he gets stabbed. I somehow forgot about that. An officer comes and is like “yeah so Edmund’s dead now”, and Albany’s like “yeah so we don’t really care”. So it really does come full circle, I guess. It starts out with people not caring about Edmund, and it ends with people not caring about Edmund.

That’s just sad. But a somewhat satisfying way to write a story.

As for Much Ado About Nothing- I never read it, sorry. But I will one day