discussion 1b; King Lear

For my post I am going to to a close reading of a passage from the 1.2 of King Lear. I am writing about this passage not only because of its importance to the larger themes of the play, but also because it deals with theme of familial relationship found in many, if not all, of Shakespeare's plays. The following passage takes place in 1.2.96 and is of Gloucester speaking to Edmund:

These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in
palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
and father. This villain of mine comes under the
prediction; there's son against father: the king
falls from bias of nature; there's father against
child. We have seen the best of our time:
machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our
graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall
lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the
noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his
offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.

Gloucester believes that the hatred he feels for his son to be natural. Not only does he believe that his sentiments towards his son are natural, but that all villainous thoughts in general are natural as well, "love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide". Gloucester cares not for any logical explanations for these ill feelings; he simply writes them off as being of the "moon" and "sun". This way of thinking excuses any wrongdoings. Any "discord" is simply natural. This philosophy allows people, then, to excuse their ill intentions as being part of the very fabric of human existence. Evil is natural, "machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquitely to our graves". "Disquietly" emphasizes the prominence of this theory - one need not shy away from evil but embrace it as part of life. This framework of thought is important because it excuses evil doings, and serves as a reason for King Lear's actions throughout the play.

- Michael Dacks Milliken