Edmund... you scare me so!

When watching the clip of Edgar's soliloquy I was very much disturbed. Mostly because of the lighting on Edmund's face. It provided an atmosphere filled with dread. That, I think, was the director's intention in the PBS film of King Lear. Also in the play I had envisioned Edmund's soliloquy to be much more fiery. Almost as if he was shouting at his gods for this unjust place of a label that is cemented upon him since birth. He never really speaks of his mother. The absence of a role could make an argument that he has become so bitter from lack of a mother figure that, that is why he chooses to reek havoc on the lives of Gloucester and Edgar.

Yet I also wonder that because Shakespeare does not put stage directions that he did it on purpose so his lines were up for interpretation of the director or actor. The actor who played Edmund took his tone quality of the words in an entirely different direction then what I had originally thought from the character of Edmund. But i really liked this different take. It made more sense to me that he would be more quiet and firm about his actions that he is going to take. In making his statement controlled and slightly dark he has captured my attention and made me feel like I am in on his game that I do not wish to be apart of.