King Lear Foil Characters

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How and to what effect are foil characters and parallel dynamics between Gloucester’s sons and King Lear’s daughters used to represent various themes in King Lear by Shakespeare?

The Victorian Era play, King Lear, follows the tragedies surrounding King Lear and his closest acquaintances. Some of the most notable characters include Lear’s own daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, and his friend, the Earl of Gloucester. All of these characters and their intricate relationships with each other are vital in the creation of the various themes and effects presented in his play. In King Lear, Shakespeare creates the juxtaposing characters of Gloucester’s sons, Edmund and Edgar, and King Lear’s daughters to explore themes of deception, loyalty, and desire for power, …show more content…
This can be seen when Edmund composes a fake letter to trick his father into thinking that Edgar is a "villain." Shakespeare 18: He does this as an effort to gain Gloucester’s loyalty so that he will eventually gain his power. On the other hand, Edgar is characterized as being compassionate, loyal, and trustworthy. This characterization can be seen in his blind loyalty and trust in Edmund. For example, after Edmund gives the fake letter to Gloucester, he prompts Edgar to run away and to “go armed.” (22) He says this only to benefit himself since the absence of Edgar meant that he was Gloucester’s next of kin. Directly after Edgar leaves, Edmund describes how “noble” his brother is and how his “nature is so far from doing harms that he suspects none.” (22) This suggests the juxtaposition between Edmund and Edgar, since Edgar is described as possessing moral integrity with his actions and loyalty, while Edmund uses that loyalty, and the loyalty, of his father, to manipulate and deceit for his benefit. Overall, as can be most prominently seen in the creation and outcome of the fake letter in Act I, Shakespeare creates the contrasting
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