How does edmund frame edgar

After everyone leaves, Kent reads a letter that he has received from Cordelia in which she promises that she will find some way, from her current position in France, to help improve conditions in Britain. The unhappy and resigned Kent dozes off in the stocks. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Lear banish Cordelia? Why does Edmund hate his family? Lear is taken to Dover. Unaware that Edmund has betrayed him, Gloucester continues to secretly help Lear.

Cornwall gouges out Gloucester's eyes. Goneril, Regan and Cornwall are furious to hear that Gloucester has kept information from them and helped Lear. After Goneril has left with Edmund to prepare for war, Cornwall has Gloucester brought in and tied to a chair. View Act 3 scene-by-scene breakdown. Act 4 Edgar meets his blinded father.

Albany and Goneril fight. Albany is horrified to hear about Gloucester. Regan intends to marry Edmund. Edgar describes the scene to Gloucester as though they are looking down on to the beach.

Investigate Gloucester on the cliff. Gloucester meets Lear. Lear eventually says he recognises Gloucester. Lear then runs off, chased by three gentlemen who Cordelia has sent to help her father. Edgar kills Oswald. Oswald enters and sees his chance to please Regan and his mistress by killing Gloucester as Regan asked him to. Edgar stops him and kills him in a fight. Edgar reads a letter from Goneril telling Edmund to kill her husband so that she can marry Edmund instead.

Cordelia and Lear are reunited. View Act 4 scene-by-scene breakdown. Act 5 The battle begins. Albany and Edmund prepare to lead the British troops into battle against the French forces. Regan and Goneril are starting to argue over Edmund and he admits to the audience that he has sworn his love to both sisters. Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned. The French forces lose the battle and Edmund commands that Lear and Cordelia be taken away to prison.

Edgar fights Edmund. Edgar arrives, dressed in full armour, to prove the truth of this accusation through single-handed combat with Edmund. The sisters die. A messenger runs in with news that Goneril and Regan are both dead. Gloucester then reflects pessimistically on the conflict in the nation. He mentions predictions of discord, treason, friendships cooling and fathers and sons going against the 'bias of nature' line He says that 'whoremaster man' lines —7 is responsible for his own fortunes and actions.

He sees Edgar coming and pretends to be musing on the effects of the recent eclipses. Edgar is alarmed by this and fears that 'Some villain hath done me wrong' line Edmund suggests that Edgar go into hiding at his lodgings. His brother falls in with this plan. This brief exchange reminds the audience of Goneril and Regan's dismissal of Lear's actions as those of an old man, unable to decipher or understand the actions around him.

And just as Lear condemned the guiltless Cordelia, Gloucester now condemns the innocent Edgar, who has no knowledge of the false letter. The irony of the letter's message — that the old should be displaced — proves true for Gloucester. Clearly, he is not intuitive or quick enough to understand the plotting or undercurrents present around him. Gloucester buys into Edmund's trickery. Gloucester asserts that the sun and moon play a role in current events.

Gloucester absolves himself of any responsibility for his actions by giving power to the stars. Relying on astrological signs makes it easier to accept that Edgar might betray his father: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us" I. Both fathers count on the stars to provide an excuse for their children's actions. But Edmund has his own opinion of these astrological signs, of which he says:.

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and teachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on.

An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! Edmund acknowledges that man is ultimately responsible for his actions. This passage also reveals how effectively Edmund is able to work the audience. He succeeds in making his father's beliefs and actions appear foolish. Gloucester's reliance on the stars appears to support Edmund's contention that his father is a witless old man.

Edmund also easily fools Edgar, but not because of any misguided reliance upon astrological signs. Edgar's innate honesty and dignity make accepting Edmund's duplicity easy and prevents any questioning of Edmund's lies.