# Scene II explained — King Lear

> Chapter companion for King Lear by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, begins his scheme to usurp his legitimate brother Edgar. He forges a letter from Edgar plotting against their father and manipulates Gloucester into believing Edgar is treacherous. Edmund then warns Edgar to flee, feigning concern, and revels in his cunning plan.

## Themes in this chapter

### Filial Ingratitude

Edmund's plot against his father and brother exemplifies the theme of children betraying parents, paralleling Lear's own familial strife.

### Appearance vs. Reality

Edmund presents himself as loyal to Gloucester while secretly scheming, and the forged letter creates a false appearance of Edgar's treachery.

### Nature and the Natural Order

Edmund invokes nature as his goddess to justify his ambition, while Gloucester sees the eclipses as disruptions of the natural order leading to familial and political chaos.

## Character check-ins

### Edmund

Opens the scene with a soliloquy declaring nature his goddess and his intent to usurp Edgar. He deceives Gloucester with a forged letter and manipulates Edgar into hiding.

### Gloucester

Easily duped by Edmund's forged letter, he condemns Edgar as an unnatural villain and agrees to spy on him. He also laments the recent eclipses and the kingdom's disorders.

### Edgar

Enters as Edmund's brother, unsuspecting of the plot. Edmund warns him of Gloucester's anger and advises him to flee, which Edgar naively accepts.

## Key lines

> Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law / My services are bound.

I worship nature as my deity and follow its laws, rejecting human customs that label me a bastard.

_Edmund declares his allegiance to natural law over societal norms, setting the stage for his amoral ambition._

> This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own behavior—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars.

It's a foolish human tendency to blame our misfortunes on astrology rather than our own actions.

_Edmund criticizes the superstitious belief in celestial influence, contrasting with Gloucester's earlier reliance on eclipses as omens._

> A credulous father! and a brother noble, / Whose nature is so far from doing harms, / That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty / My practises ride easy!

My father is too trusting, and my brother is so noble that he never suspects deceit—their gullibility makes my schemes easy to execute.

_Edmund gloats over his successful manipulation of both Gloucester and Edgar._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/king_lear_se/chapters/act-i-scene-ii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/king_lear_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/king_lear_se/chapters