As the play progresses, the characters’ actions portray how misjudgments influence them to choose a destructive path. Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, Regan, and Goneril, the daughters of King Lear, use these misjudgments for their personal self gain. Edmund desires …show more content…
His son, Edmund, plots to steal his power and land from him. Gloucester 's blindness leads him to disowning his other son, Edgar, and believing he has “ grown so vile/ That it doth hate what gets it” (3.4.134-136). Realizing similarity between his and King Lear’s situation, Gloucester believes disowning this rebellious child, Edgar, will benefit him. Consequently, favoring Edmund, Gloucester is led down a dangerous path. His “[i]initial response to suffering and misfortune is despair and defeat” (Storozynsky). “Desiring only death” (Storozynsky), he feels defeated from mistakes he has made as a