Corruption In King Lear

Furthermore, the characters in both King Lear, and in 419’s past sufferings, leads them to exhibit acts of corruption and evil later on in their lives, which is seen most prominently in Edmund in King Lear, and Laura in 419. Both these characters’ have experience traumatising situations in the past, and whether or not these sufferings have accumulated throughout their lives, or whether or not they have recently experienced a huge amount of sufferings, these characters wish to see action taken to see justice prevail for them. To begin with, Edmund has experienced sufferings from his childhood now into adulthood, as he has always been treated horribly by his family. Due to the resentment he faces as an illegitimate child as an outsider, this motivates him to take action in order to remove his status as a bastard child, and to gain power and status like his legitimate brother Edgar. Edmund was not originally pure evil, but

his desire for the familial love that his brother Edgar had, simply because he was the legitimate child of Gloucester, led him towards taking the steps neccessary to gain the legitimacy of his brother, as he says in his famous soliloquy; “Well then, legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund as to the legitimate. Fine word, “legitimate”! Well, my legitimate; I grow; I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for the bastards!” (I.ii. 15-22) As a result of the way he has been treated horribly in the past, he now wishes to stand up for himself; as his past sufferings have led him to doing whatever it takes in order to gain the legitimacy and love that his brother has, even if it means he must do it by corrupt means. This fierce desire to gain legitimacy through evil ways, is seen as he begins to plot against his brother and says; “Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit./ All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit” (I. ii. 174-175). Undoubetely, someone who is treated so horribly by society, simply because of the fact that they were born from another woman, will develop some jealousy, and it is these sufferings that have accumulated throughout Edmund’s life as an illegitimate child, that cause him to turn to corruption in order to rise, and gain what he thought he always deserved.

Likewise, in 419, due to the sufferings that Laura has experienced, as the novel begins with the evetns folliwing her father’s tragic deaht, it turns her into becoming corrupt towards the end of the novel. Initially, Laura was not evil , as her sufferings that she daced with the death of her father, only initaillt moticated her to get back the monehy that was stilen from her father. Eventually, she does go too far, as she decides later on to act corruptly, in a way her father would most likely disaprove in order to seek further revenge. At the start of the novel, when Laura makes the decision to go to Lagos, Nigeria and hunt down Winston, she says: “What if,” Laura said, it wasn’t about the money?” (Ferguson, 36), and here, she shows us that her intentions are just, and that it is truly out of her love for her father, as she must face the person who took his life. However, later on, towards the end of the novel, we see her turn towards darkness and corruption, as she betrays the innocent Nnamdi, who was only trying to help her, and we see her take extreme revenge for her father’s death, as she acts very harsh towards Winston, by taking all his money, and ruining his life when he leaves him behind. And at the end of the novel, after Laura has completed her acts of revenge out of “love” for her father, she is still unsatisifed, as in the novel it says; “She tried to go back to indexing lives and copy-editing textbooks. Couldn’t. You have ruined me. And all the while, the money sat in her bank account, quietly breathing” (Ferguson, 388). So this shows us that when love is taken to extreme lengths, when it goes to the extent of inflicting pain and hurting someone else, out of “love” it leaves one in an even worse state than one was in the start. If both characters, Edmund and Laura, had pleasant experiences in the past, they would likely not be brought into corruption in the first place. They do this because they feel they deserve revenge, they feel that life isn’t fair, they attempt to make sure that everyone else faces what they have faced and knows how it feels.

Lastly, Goneril and Regan in King Lear and Laura in 419 both develop greed, and it is this greed for revenge and for the desire of power that leads them to corruption.

Although this greed is not initially present, it is developed as soon as these characters’ desire for one small thing that requires a little bit of corruption. This leads them to further corruption, as once they get what they originally wanted, they desire for more, and it is this greed that brings them into a deeper corruption, as they will do anything, even if it means mistreating the innocent, in order to gain power and revenge. Originally, Goneril and Regan desired to gain power and inheritance, when their father brought up the idea of a love contest, where all three of his daughters were to compete in a contest where the daughter who professed the most love for Lear would in turn, gain the most amount of land. In this moment, it is obvious that Goneril and Regan would falsely profess their love for their father if it meant gaining more land than their sisters, as Goneril

says;
"I love you more than word can wield the matter; dearer than eyesight, space and liberty./As much as child e'er loved, or father found./Beyond all manner of so much I love you" (I. i. 56-63). However, later on in the novel, after both Goneril and Regan have already gained half of the inheritance from their father, which was more than what they originally would have been offered, they desired for more power on top of what they already got, and this desire for power led them to corruption. When Lear wishes to keep his soldiers with him for protection at Goneril and Regan’s house, they argue; “What need you five and twenty, ten, or five to follow in a house where twice so many have a command to tend you?/ What need one?” (II.iv. 258-261). Even though their father decided to give all his land to Goneril and Regan, they still choose to strip Lear from his power even more so that they can gain more power in the kingdom, therefore, their desire for more power leads them to committing evil actions against their own father. Later on, Goneril and Regan’s desire for power eventually leads them to plot against each other so that only one of them will rule, and gain all the inheritance, power, and wealth from their father, even though they are sisters. Goneril even says in an aside; “I had rather lose the battle than that sister should loosen him and me” (I. i. 23-24). This shows the extent to which her desire to power leads to her corruption, as she desires for power so much, that she would rather kill her own sister, and lose the battle between her country and France, than to lose the power she would gain from becoming the wife of the new Earl of Gloucester, Edmund. All of her desire for power as she gains more and more of it, eventually leads her to doing more and more corrupt things in order to get where she wants.