King Lear and Paradise Lost.

King Lear and Paradise Lost.

In this thesis, we are going to compare the characters of Edmund of Shakespeare’s book, King Lear and the figure for Satan in the book of Milton’s paradise lost. They both had similarities in their identities, and their fathers defined these identities. Satan was trying to overthrow God while Edmund become successful in taking his father’s title, the Duke of Gloucester. The means through which they attempted to replace their fathers were different, and the way they rose to power were various too. In his attempt, Satan gathered an army, and he used ouvert war in showing his skills while Edmund pulled strings and uses deceitful means the approach that Satan too tried after his first approach failed.

Satan and Edmund tried to become someone else by trying to replace their fathers. They were both limited under the rigid hierarchy. Satan uses military forces while Edmund uses social entities. The techniques they both sued in achieving their goals depicts a lot in their identities and the changes that they both showed throughout their work. In engaging themselves in quiet tactics, they registered a reasonably successful task in subversion. Their starting points registered many similarities, but at the end of their work, there were many differences. In his dying moments, Edmund changes his heart and tries to repent on his wicked acts in attempting to undo them. Satan on his side continued being rebellious, and his works of corruption continue after his sins and death.

In the book, King Lear Edmund was the first character and was introduces as the bastard of his father and Gloucester describes him as being loved by the father, as he was the legitimate son. He also showed embarrassments to Kent by telling him that Edmund was a bastard son. After the exchanged, Edmund was not bothered by his father’s utterance even with a blatant characterisation that his father used against him. This feeling was later on revealed when he was alone, as he felt bothered.

Edmund, when he was lonely, kept wondering why the society could see him as low, and he settles on maybe because his parents were not married. He was intelligent, handsome and healthy, but in his life, he hated that those useful features never mattered much in his illegitimacy face. Reaching this point of the play, Edmund was not himself yet; he was being defined by his father he was Gloucester’s bastard. The motivating factor for Edmund to into social ranks is that his father’s characteristics identified him.

Satan was rebellious against the heavens in aspiration in setting himself above his peers in glory. His father, the creator of heaven and earth that’s God also defined him. He was the angel of God, skies have several ranks, and in this book, we can see different grades showed. Satan saw himself as the lowest-ranked angel and that Raphael, Uriel and Cherub were highly ranked angels (Urkowitz,2014). With these, rankings it is showed that there were several ranking in heaven and several levels of power. This hierarchy of nature is like the environment that Edmund was exposed to, and both Edmund and Satan want to move higher to the hierarchy powers. Satan was seeing God above him; he tried to overthrow him so that he remained robust, and we see the same thing done by Edmund in his desire to get out of the shadow of his father. Satan’s ambition and pride became his downfall while these characters made Edmund rise into power.

Satan gathers the army in his trial to overthrow God, and that made him be cast to hell. In his forgery, identity together with his followers, was given a lifetime penalty. At the beginning of book two, Satan strives and seats in the throne grander than that of a king. He forges a new identity and becomes the ruler of hell, it affected how he acts, and he once faced God but failed. He became a cunning rival of God, goes up against Him, and used stealthy means in achieving his goals.

Edmund too started as an equal to his brother, as said by his father. Edgar later inherited the Gloucester’s title and not Edmund. Through deceitful means, Edmund places himself above his brother. He gets rid of his brother by lying his father and the brother and landed himself being his father’s heir. He approached this by forging a new identity, and he claimed a lifetime claim to power just like the way he tried with God.

Edmund discrete his father and assumed his title, through his relationships with women, he rose higher, and his identity as a bastard is covered. He rose higher than his initial goal through his deceitful ways and trickery nature (Milton, 1993). On the other side, Satan did not increase in power but remained as the top in command in hell, and he becomes a challenge to God. The difference between both Edmund and Satan on their image creation is that Edmund does not feel remorseful when he is dying and tries to undo the plot of killing Cordelia and the king.  This change of mind gives his brother peace of mind and symphony was created amongst his audience.

Satan on his return from the hell he expected his followers to praise him with his success over the humankind but they were all turned into snakes he is included. Satan identity turns out to be false while Edmund was feeling remorseful. In the end, Satan becomes unsuccessful while Edmund becomes sorry over his acts.

Both Shakespeare’s Edmund and Milton’s Satan are characters that try too for the identity to rise into power, but this is because of the hierarchical environment they were exposed to. Edwards, at last, sheds his bastard nature for a powerful hierarchy while Satan thinks he became a rival to God.

Work Cited

Milton, John. Paradise Lost: Book 1/2. Clarendon, 1953.

Urkowitz, Steven. Shakespeare’s Revision of KING LEAR. Vol. 634. Princeton University Press, 2014.