Jealousy and Greed

Regan and Goneril are two jealous sisters who both want to marry Edmund. Edmund is another character who suffers from jealousy and greed, he is jealous of his legitimate brother and plots against him to gain power and respect from his Father.

Regan and Goneril are also greedy, their greed is obvious when they falsely confess their love for King Lear in order to gain the Kingdom. They both speak exaggerated, fake words to Lear to convince him that they are the daughter who loves him the most.

Goneril: “A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable. Beyond all manner of so much I love you.”

REGAN: Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you Transport her purposes by word? Belike, Something--I know not what: I'll love thee much, Let me unseal the letter.

OSWALD: Madam, I had rather–

REGAN: I know your lady does not love her husband; I am sure of that: and at her late being here She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.

OSWALD: I, madam?

REGAN: I speak in understanding; you are; I know't: Therefore I do advise you, take this note: My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd; And more convenient is he for my hand Than for your lady's: you may gather more.If you do find him, pray you, give him this; And when your mistress hears thus much from you, I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her. So, fare you well

Regan and Goneril also feel jealousy towards their sister Cordelia as she is the only natural daughter and they know she is Lear’s favourite daughter.

Similarly, Edmund is very jealous of his brother Edgar as he feels that he deserves all that Edgar is given by their Father (Gloucester) but he does not recieve as much as he is the illegitimate son.

“Goneril and Regan joined their armies to fight Cordelia's army, and were successful; and Cordelia and her father were thrown into prison. Then Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany, who was a good man, and had not known how wicked his wife was, heard the truth of the whole story; and when Goneril found that her husband knew her for the wicked woman she was, she killed herself, having a little time before given a deadly poison to her sister, Regan, out of a spirit of jealousy.”

Regan and Goneril’s desire for power is satisfied after they win the kingdom over the natural daughter, Cordelia.

“But both harbor sexual desire for Edmund, which destroys their alliance and eventually leads them to destroy each other. Evil, the play suggests, inevitably turns in on itself.”

“Only at the close of the play does Edmund show a flicker of weakness. Mortally wounded, he sees that both Goneril and Regan have died for him, and whispers, “Yet Edmund was beloved” (5.3.238). After this ambiguous statement, he seems to repent of his villainy and admits to having ordered Cordelia’s death. His peculiar change of heart, rare among Shakespearean villains, is enough to make the audience wonder, amid the carnage, whether Edmund’s villainy sprang not from some innate cruelty but simply from a thwarted, misdirected desire for the familial love that he witnessed around him.”

The Jealousy and greed of Regan, Goneril and Edmund

results in death for all of them.

• http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plots/learps.html• http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/lear/canalysis.html

Bibliography

BY TESSA MULLANY AND IZZY WERFELLI