Villains are a concoction of selfishness, insensitiveness, and manipulativeness. Shakespeare creates his villains with a predetermined requirement of characteristics. His villains are outsiders within their society of whom were wronged within their past. His evil characters have ambitions and desires, mainly bred from resentment, anger, bitterness, or pain. Throughout King Lear, Edmund’s villainous, analytical mind allows him to set up disputes between characters, while standing back and watching his schemes unfold themselves. Shakespeare allows wicked Edmund of King Lear to portray a villain whose motivation is merely fuelled by a lifetime of being the illegitimate son of Gloucester, causing him to feel no remorse as he betrays his family
