King Lear - Power Corrupts

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other joys.” (1, 1, 79-80) They don’t really love Lear, but instead they love the power that Lear gives them. Once Lear had given the land to his daughters, the power that they have corrupts them. When Lear needs a place to stay, the daughters are not quick to react; Goneril allows him to stay but he must “disquanty his train” (1, 4, 126). She even goes to the extent of making Oswald “slack of former services” (1, 3, 10) to Lear in an attempt to make him leave. Regan is no better, when Lear comes to her door looking for a place to stay, “the old man and’s people cannot me well bestowed.” (2, 4, 330-331) That if Lear wants to stay then he has to give up his followers. The power corrupts them into treacherous beings, where respect and honor for their father are less important than their own well-being.
The power that makes Edmund corrupt is trust. He uses the trust to manipulate and control his father for the benefit of himself. He frames his brother by composing a false letter to ...

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