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Discuss the significance of the Gloucester subplot in King Lear. King Lear, hailed by critics as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, is a thematic play which questions the natural chain of order and the consequences of events which in turn disrupt this chain. The play revolves around Lears division of his kingdom amongst his daughters, one of whom (Cordelia) he rejects after she fails to declare her love publicly for him: Lear understands Cordelia's lack of words to represent her lack of feelings, but to Cordelia it is her silence and her refusal to stoop to the level of her selfish and unscrupulous sisters that portrays her love for her father. After he splits his kingdom up amongst his other two daughters, Lear finds himself a sad, old, powerless man, contrary to the power he believed he would keep after his retirement from his status of monarch. His decline leads him into madness, and eventually culminates in his death just after the renewal of his relationship with his daughter. The play is based on the fall of King Lear, however the Gloucester sub plot is of much importance to the text and to the plot relating Lear.
The Earl of Gloucester has two sons in the play; Edgar, the legitimate son, is the one who is to receive his fathers land in his inheritance, while Edmund, the illegitimate son, will receive nothing. Edmund deceitfully implicates Edgar in a scheme of patricide, and when Gloucester finds out Edgar is declared an outlaw, to be killed on sight. Edmund thus manages to gain his fathers favour, and his inheritance. This subplot is mixed with the Lear main plot to create a greater awareness of each individual plot by creating a contrast between storylines which enables the audience to compare and understand the different situations the characters find themselves in.
We see the beginning of this resentment right from the start of the play. The very first exchange in King Lear is between Gloucester and Kent, the kings advisor, talking about Edmund, who is there. Gloucester talks quite openly about Edmunds illegitimacy, saying to Kent His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him now that I am brazed tot. The phrase His breeding hath been at my charge suggests an un-fatherly approach by Gloucester to Edmund; Gloucester is faulting himself for Edmunds creation, almost suggesting Edmund is a mistake, or unwanted, which we know he is (as his father points out during this first exchange, saying Edmund is a whoreson who came something saucily to the world. Already we can understand Edmunds anger at his father, and his desire to make something of himself is not shocking to the audience.
We again see this subplot in Act 1 Scene 2, when Edmund writes a letter, claiming it from Edgar, which Gloucester enquires about. Edmund tells his father that the letter is Nothing, my lord, and in doing so draws his fathers interest into the contents of the letter, which turn out to be Edgar's plans for patricide against Gloucester. His father reacts with suspicion, saying No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket?
The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Lets see come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles. This conversation is very important to the play, especially the subplot, but also in the ways it relates to the main plot of King Lear. Firstly, Edmunds response to his father of Nothing echoes Cordelia's response to her father in the previous scene. This obvious link shows how each father places himself in a position of greater power than their offspring, but both parents are seen to be just the opposite: Lears ego ruins his relationship with his daughter, while Gloucester is blinded and manipulated by his son. Gloucester's reaction to Edmunds claim that the letter is nothing is also important, and links back to Lear.
Throughout the play, blindness and sight is an important theme, both metaphorically and allegorically; the audience is reminded of Lears blindness in regards to the hollowness of his daughters Goneril and Regan and his failure to recognise the true beauty and love in what Cordelia says to him with Gloucester's references to needing spectacles and the fact that his son would not need to hide the letter were it nothing. Shakespeare creates an almost comical situation, mainly through Gloucester saying he does not need his spectacles but then falling for Edmunds false letter. The language of this scene is very much based on seeing, although Gloucester does not truly see until he is blinded later in the play. When Gloucester says Lets see, lets see he shows his inability to see either the dishonesty of Edmund or the evil events unfolding around, set in motion by his younger son. Gloucester's blindness towards his sons deceit creates a strong and obvious link to Lears blindness in regards to his daughters (Goneril and Regan) hollow words and reward-driven actions. In the letter, Edmund brands his father as an old tyrant who wants to stop his sons receiving their inheritance.
Gloucester reads out loud I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. This is Edmund saying that his father is useless and foolish, and that it is time for him to step down. Throughout the play, Lears age plays a big part of his demise his daughters make several references to his age as though it were a problem. In the same way as we see Edmund attacking his father in the guise of his brother Edgar, we see Regan make the same attack in Act 2 Scene 2 Lear reminds them I gave you all - to which Regan says And in good time you gave it. This link between ambitious siblings and aging fathers is another recognisable theme. Shakespeare juxtaposes the two plots by interspersing the main story of Lear with Gloucester's story, giving the audience a heightened awareness of each plot through the other.
In Act 1 Scene 1, we see Lear duped by Goneril and Regan, both of whom act favourably towards their father to gain their inheritance. Scene 2 of the same act begins with an aside by Edmund in which he maliciously plans the downfall of his brother to gain his fathers favour, and angrily questions his lesser importance than his brother due to his illegitimacy. We can see that both patriarchs are undone by the ingratitude of at least one child; but similarly we can see that both fathers contribute somewhat to their downfall. Lears downfall is set in motion in the first scene, but his visits to his daughters after their reception of his land act as a catalyst to his eventual self destruction we see Goneril rejects him after he Every hour he flashes into one gross crime or other that sets us all at odds and while his knights grow riotous and himself upbraids us on every trifle, while Regan throw him out after he refuses to comply with her wishes that he does not bring his army with him. During his violent outbursts he curses his two daughters, begging Nature to into [Goneril's] womb convey sterility, and, following Regan's statement she wants no more than twenty-five of his army in her home, shouts No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both that all the world shall. From this we can deduce that Lears downfall is evidently partly self-constructed, the result of his outrageous anger and blindness.
Gloucester's fate is similar in respect to its roots; we see at the start of Act 1 Gloucester talking openly to Kent about Edmund being a bastard with Edmund present (see above), and this has led to Edmund being resentful of his father and ultimately leading to his anger towards his father. The subplot of child betraying sibling and father intentionally mirrors the main plot of children betraying father and father betraying child. It succeeds in echoing the main story, and heightening understanding of events. It ties in to other events in the play and links both subtly and obviously with themes of Lears speeches and actions, such as blindness, especially when Gloucester is blinded by Goneril near the end of the play. Furthermore, it brings in characters such as Edgar and Edmund who, unconnected through their father and events regarding him, would have no reason to be a part of Shakespeare's story, or would just be selfish enemies rather than emotional foes. To conclude, the Gloucester subplot is of as much significance as any other main theme within the play King Lear.
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Research essay sample on Gloucester Subplot In King Lear
