Sarah Edwards

In The Tragedy of King Lear, by William Shakespeare, Edmund greatly betrays his brother Edgar. All throughout the play, Edmund cannot handle the fact that he is considered to be the illegitimate sonof Gloucester. This illegitimacy creates a “one-sided competition” between Edmund and his brother Edgar. Edmund goes on in the play to make his own father turn against his brother, all in hopes ofgaining the land and revenues which were given to Gloucester’s legitimate son, Edgar.
All throughout the play, Edmund’s goal is to betray his brother Edgar. He successfully does so by showingGloucester a letter he forged, making it seem as if Edgar wants to take over his father’s land and money with Edmund’s assistance. As planned, Gloucester is furious at the thought of his own son wantingto take all he has. In order to keep his father from knowing he truly wrote the letter, Edmund tells Gloucester
I hope, for my brother’s justification he
wrote this but as an essay or taste of myvirtue. (1, 2, 47-48).
Sure enough, Gloucester believes what Edmund tells him and thinks Edgar is the writer of the letter. Edmund is pleased that Gloucester fell for the letter and advances in hisplans to betray his own brother, Edgar.
In the opening of the play, one of the first comments made by Gloucester is of Edmund’s illegitimacy. Edmund overhears his father say,
But I have a son byorder of law,
some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer to in
my account. Though this knave came something
saucily to the world before he sent for, yet was
his mother fair, there wasgood sport in making,
and the whoreson must be acknowledged…(1,1,19-25)
and feels that Gloucester thinks much more of Edgar for simply being legitimate. Edmund, who is already irritated due toEdgar being first in line to inheriting Gloucester’s land and revenues, is pushed over the edge with his father’s comment. Edmund feels his father is favoring his brother due to his legitimacy. From...