Select one important character preferably Edmund from king Lear and show how his character affects the outcome of the events

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Edmund’s Influence on the Outcome of Events
Edmund is a character and the main antagonist in King Leah. As seen in the play, he is the bastard son of Gloucester and younger than Edgar, the legitimate son. He is first seen as a noble, courageous and intellectual person whose undertakings might lead to great success. However, his father makes his birth a theme of spiteful debate. He compares him to another elder son before him amidst a feeling of resentment and shame. This course of events wounds Edmund pride and awakens his enmity. Edmund feels that he is unfairly the subject of events for which he is not to be blamed.
The illegitimate status awakens in him his mean, cunning and self-worth character that leads to an insatiable greed for power. He plots against his brother Edgar by forging a letter allegedly wrote by Edgar seeking to usurp the estate. “I beseech you, sir, it is a letter from my brother, that I have not entirely read and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your looking.” (Shakespeare 13). Gloucester believes all that he was told and starts lamenting on the level of treachery in the world. Edmund later takes advantage of Regan’s and Cornwall’s presence in their house to fake an attack by his brother Edgar. He is ready to face any pain and repercussions due to his greed for power as seen by his cutting of his arm in this scene. This incidence seemed to prove to Gloucester that Edgar was truly intent on taking the estate for himself.

He, therefore, banishes him from his sight, never to set foot in the house and that anyone who caught him would be highly praised. “Let him fly far: Not in this land shall he remain uncaught.”(Shakespeare 27)
Edmund’s ambition and greed for power make him betray his father, Gloucester to Regan, Cornwall, and Goneril who had turned against King Lear. The betrayal ultimately led to the death of Gloucester. He tells them that Gloucester knew and was involved in the plot of an impending French invasion that sought to reinstate Lear back to his throne. As a result of this, Gloucester is arrested, and his eyes gouged out by Regan and Cornwall. This inhuman act makes a servant furious and therefore attacks Cornwall who dies in the process. The servant meets his death at the hands of Regan. Gloucester later sets off into the wilderness to take his life. He unknowingly meets his son Edgar and tells him to take him to a cliff that he may jump to his death. Edgar fails to do so and later reveal that he was his son. According to Edgar’s narration Gloucester later died due to the overwhelming joy of knowing that his son was still alive.
The play also brings out the manipulative and opportunistic character of Edmund that ultimately leads to deaths. He tricks the two sisters, Regan and Goneril that he was in love with them. The two sisters do not know that he was in love with both of them though they later realize this. Regan and Goneril lust for him but he does not equally love them. “To both these sisters have I sworn my love; each jealous of the other…” (Shakespeare 31). Goneril acknowledges that he was more attractive than his dull husband, Albany. She later sends him a letter encouraging him to go on with the killing of her husband as she was ready to marry him. Regan, whose husband has recently died in the war between the French and British army also becomes willing to marry him. The two sisters later turn against each other due to Edmund’ s trickery that he loved them yet he did not. The play later reveals that Goneril poisoned her sister Regan. When Albany gets hold of the letter that encouraged Edmund to kill him, and shows it to Goneril, she flees out of shame and resentment. When Goneril’s plans to also kill Lear and Cordelia with the assistance of Edmund are thwarted, she later commits suicide.
In conclusion, Edmund serves his role as the main antagonist in the play in a very remarkable way. His vile character that is ready to do anything; kill and even sacrifice the love of a family for his selfish needs and greed for power makes the movie to smooth transition from one incidence to the next. In the quest to gain more power, he turns people against one another leading to more and more deaths.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. 1st ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1994. Print.