edmundlear Edmund of King Lear as Nietzsches Free...

Edmund of King Lear as Nietzsches Free Spirit In King Lear, Shakespeare creates a brilliant tragedy whose plot is driven primarily by its villains. Of these, Edmund stands alone as a man who makes his fortune, surrounded by those who seize fortune only when it is handed to them. Shakespeares ability to create a vivid, living character in the space of a few lines of speech triumphs in Edmund, who embodies a totally different moral system than that of Shakespeares era. Three centuries later, Friedrich Nietzsches philosophy of the Free Spirit would respect these values. Like Edmund, Nietzsches unorthodox views have been deemed villainous ever since the time they were written. The Free Spirit is defined not†¦show more content†¦In Edmund, these characteristics are obvious - he questions the world created by men, but at the same time reflects that he is bound to Nature. Nietzsche likewise saw the rigid values of Christianity as false ones, clumsily laid over mans true, changing nature. The hierarchy of the good, however, is not fixed and identical at all times. If someone prefers revenge to justice, he is moral by the standard of an earlier culture, yet by the standard of the present culture he is immoral.1 When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madams issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got tween asleep and wake? (I.2.7-15) Edmund continues by expressing his outrage at the labeling of a man who is just as rightly made up as another, but is forced into a second-rate status by a society ruled by the dull and stale. Here he also acknowledges his humanity, but distinguishes himself from others by a quality of fierceness. Again, Nietzsches ideas shine through. Edmund cannot conceive why his station must be defined for him, when he is a fiercer human than others. Nietzsches Will to Power follows this reasoning closely. The