Theme Of Family Dysfunction In King Lear - 718 Words

A Serious of Unfortunate Events King Lear is play about a king who decided to step down from his throne and split his kingdom evenly among his three beautiful daughters. He put them through a test to see who loves him the most to his surprise only one loves him the most out of all three. Gloucester have one illegitimate son and one by law but soon knows that they both want him dead. Throughout the play, not only did King Lear had family problems but other people that was surrounded around King Lear was having problems as well. In this paper, it will discuss how two different families have a similar theme which is family dysfunction and how both handle it differently. King Lear question his daughters about their love they have for him.†¦show more content†¦He jokes about this because he does not want to acknowledge his illegitimate son because he was conceived outside of marriage. Edmund is mad at the fact that his own father does not want to claim him, so he goes after his b rother, Edgar. â€Å"Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund. Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed and my invention thrive, Edmund the base shall top legitimate. Now, gods, stand up for bastards† (1.2.2-23). Edmund is furious because he is not part of the family. He seeks revenge on Edgar by going after his land and for being a bastard that his father thinks he is. Edgar and Edmund works together to take over their father’s wealth. Edgar writes a fake letter to his brother and Gloucester finds it and was furious to find out that they were plotting his death. â€Å"Conspiracy? Sleep till I waked him, you should enjoyed half his revenue. My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? A heart and brain to breed it in? -When came this to you? Who brought it?† (1.2.49-61). His relationships with his sons have same issues surrounding primogeniture which means that the oldest sons inherit their father’s wealth. The letter proves that they want to kill their father just so that they can take power over their father’s lands. Family will go to extreme measure when it comes to money. Some families have their problems and some do not. In this play, two different families were struggling