Edmund of King Lear as Nietzsche's Free Spirit
In King Lear, Shakespeare creates a brilliant tragedy whose plot is driven primarily by its villains. Of these, Edmund stands alone as a man who makes his fortune, surrounded by those who seize fortune only when it is handed to them. Shakespeare's ability to create a vivid, living character in the space of a few lines of speech triumphs in Edmund, who embodies a totally different moral system than that of Shakespeare's era. Three centuries later, Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of the Free Spirit would respect these values.
Like Edmund, Nietzsche's unorthodox views have been deemed villainous ever since the time they were written. The Free Spirit is defined not by his attack on society's defined values, but the rejection of them. Unconstrained by the values of a society he did not chose, the Free Spirit makes his own path in the world, defining morality for himself and acting in a way which is truly free.
In Act I, Scene II, Edmund's character reveals itself. In his first soliloquy he clearly shows his knowledge of his situation, but at the same time questions its validity.
Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? (I.2.1-6)
This reveals the fundamental makeup of Edmund's character - why should society name him anything for events over which he had no control? Why should he be deprived of anything simply because he was born a year too late?
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...ll to Power, Book I, Aphorism 55
3. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 260
4. Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, all too human, page 4
5. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, page 90
6. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 26
7. Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, all too human, page 61
8. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, part 9.
9. Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, all too human, Aphorism 230
Works Cited
1. Friedrich Nietzsche. Human, all too human, Bison Books, 1996.
2. Friedrich Nietzsche. The Will to Power. Bison Books, 1994.
3. Friedrich Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil. Penguin Publishing. London, 1973.
4. Friedrich Nietzsche. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Penguin Publishing. London, 1973.
5. Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Peerage books. Cambridge, 1921
Through Lear, Shakespeare expertly portrays the inevitability of human suffering. The “little nothings,” seemingly insignificant choices that Lear makes over the course of the play, inevitably evolve into unstoppable forces that change Lear’s life for the worse. He falls for Goneril’s and Regan’s flattery and his pride turns him away from Cordelia’s unembellished affection. He is constantly advised by Kent and the Fool to avoid such choices, but his stubborn hubris prevents him from seeing the wisdom hidden in the Fool’s words: “Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool” (Shakespeare 21). This leads to Lear’s eventual “unburdening,” as foreshadowed in Act I. This unburdening is exacerbated by his failure to recognize and learn from his initial mistakes until it is too late. Lear’s lack of recognition is, in part, explained by his belief in a predestined life controlled completely by the gods: “It is the stars, the stars above us govern our conditions” (Shakespeare 101). The elder characters in King Lear pin their various sufferings on the will of...
In King Lear by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare recounts the tragedy of King Lear as he fails to acknowledge his tragic flaw and thus falls into tragedy and unintentionally brings others with him. Throughout the play, tragedy befalls undeserving people and they suffer greatly even though they have not done anything to deserve their suffering. Although Gloucester, Edgar, and Cordelia all live happy lives at the beginning of the play, they experience great suffering despite their inner goodness, a fact that highlights Shakespeare’s belief about the blindness of a justice that does not necessarily strike only the wicked.
King Lear is a perfect demonstration of the great consequences one man's actions can cause. While there are certainly religious Christian elements to the story, the story is not one of morality or hope. King Lear is a lesson, making an example of what can come of a single, foolish, egotistical action. King Lear's action is the surrendering of his throne to his daughters.
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An Analysis of Divine Justice in King Lear: What the Character’s Deaths revealed about Justice
While in Hamlet and others of Shakespeare's plays we feel that Shakespeare refined upon and brooded over his thoughts, Macbeth seems as if struck out at a heat and imagined from first to last with rapidity and power, and a subtlety of workmanship which has become instructive. The theme of the drama is the gradual ruin through yielding to evil within and evil without, of a man, who, though from the first tainted by base and ambitious thoughts, yet possessed elements in his nature of possible honor and loyalty. (792)
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In 1984, new CEO Owen-Jones began pushing for L’Oreal to become the largest cosmetics firm in the United States. In order to accomplish this, the company began assessing acquisition opportunities that would broaden L’Oreal brands throughout the U.S. The first tw...
King Lear, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic tale of filial conflict, personal transformation, and loss. The story revolves around the King who foolishly alienates his only truly devoted daughter and realizes too late the true nature of his other two daughters. A major subplot involves the illegitimate son of Gloucester, Edmund, who plans to discredit his brother Edgar and betray their father. With these and other major characters in the play, Shakespeare clearly asserts that human nature is either entirely good, or entirely evil. Some characters experience a transformative phase, where, by some trial or ordeal, their nature is profoundly changed. We shall examine Shakespeare's stand on human nature in King Lear by looking at specific characters in the play, Cordelia who is wholly good, Edmund who is wholly evil, and Lear whose nature is transformed by the realization of his folly and his descent into madness.
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