Icebergs In King Lear

Throughout King Lear written by William Shakespeare, Edmund, the cold, calculating bastard of Gloucester, personifies an iceberg. According to Meriam Webster, the word iceberg has two definitions: a large floating mass of ice, detached from a glacier and carried out to sea or an emotionally cold person. While Edmund is not an actual mass of ice, he displays all the characteristics of an emotionally detached, cold person. Just as icebergs have actually killed people through terrible accidents, Edmund also has caused died to either be killed or seriously injured. Edmund, mirroring an iceberg, acts as a catalyst to terrible decisions. From causing the estrangement of both Gloucester and Edgar as well as Goneril and Regan while also conspiring

Edmund, in a relationship with both Goneril and Regan, cannot decide who he wants to be with, and says, “Neither can be enjoy’d if both remain alive: to take the widow exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; and hardly shall I carry out my side, her husband being alive” (V, i). Thus, the iceberg does not care for either sister but instead worries about winning his own game. By virtue of being a cold, manipulating character, Edmund adopts an isolated and solitary characteristic that he shares with an iceberg. As well as portraying an icy, selfish person, Edmund is dangerous. Icebergs are dangerous for two reasons: one because no one can see how large it is underneath the sea and two because they are ginormous masses of ice. Edmund is treacherous because he hides his true intentions where no one can see its dangerous potential, showing his iceberg personality in its fullness. As evident by his manipulations, Edmund conveys his fatal desires, and even says, “A credulous father, and a brother noble, whose nature is so far from doing harms that he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty my practises ride easy” (I,iii). Edmund cares not for his father or his brother, all he desires for is their land and power. Therefore, Edmund