Symbolism In King Lear

What tale has family betrayal, love affairs and many violent deaths all wrapped up in one? The one and only, King Lear. A tale about a king who decides to divide him kingdom into three for this daughters so there will be no confusion after his death, but things don't go so smoothly. I decided to modernize scene one of act two. In this scene Edmund plans to inherit all of this father's land by tricking his dad into thinking his brother, Edgar, is trying to kill him. Also, he tricks Edgar into thinking their father is mad at him. This is how Edmund plans it out so his father and brother will not talk to each other. I modernized it by changing to setting to modern time and to a mother who has two daughters, and one wants all of her mother's money.

Sara looked nicer and more proper than Alyssa. We did this to show how Edmund is trying to get Gloucester to believe he is the better son. He does this by lying to his father and being really convincing about the mysterious letter he was reading and when Edgar supposedly stabbed him and then ran away. Lauren and I wear nicer looking clothes to show we are of authority. Much like Gloucester and Cornwall. Even though they are not the king, they are still of authority over Edmund. Using the costumes to show symbolism helped my better understand where the characters in the play were socially. Edmund wanted to be better than Edgar so we dressed Sara better than Alyssa. Lauren and I were of authority so we dressed proper and nicer

In this note it says Alyssa ran away, which is not true. She does this to make the situation seem more real and make her mother believe it. Edmund does this in the original. He writes a letter claiming it is from Edgar saying he plans to kill Gloucester so he and Edmund can have his land. This is also not the truth. Another thing Edmund does to make it more convincing it he stabs his arm. He does this and when his father comes he claims it was Edgar. His father is horrified and now thinks Edgar is the bad son. Doing this helped me understand Edmund's motivation for doing all that he did. He really wanted his father to believe all of those lies about Edgar so he came up with fake evidence. Lastly, I believe Sara's lies about Alyssa and what she has done. In the original, Gloucester thinks all these things about Edgar that Edmund has said are true. He believes him because Edmund is his son, even though he is not legitimate, he is still his son and wants a better relationship with him. I believe what Sara is saying because she is my daughter in the play. I trust that she would not lie to me. Gloucester also trusts his son. This helped me to understand Gloucester's emotions when found out none of the things he was told were true. He felt betrayed by his own son because he thought he could trust