Act II; #3 - Edgar

Thanks to the helpful notes in the King Lear Folger edition, I have gotten a better understanding of what exactly Edgar is planning to do as far as disguising himself as Tom O'Bedlam. The description for Tom O'Bedlam is "a beggar who has escaped or been discharged from Bedlam (London's Bethelehen Hospital for the insane) or who pretends to be so in order to make people give him money" (38). Page 94 says "Edgar disguised himself as a madman-beggar to escape his death sentence". He decides to have the nickname "Poor Tom", which is "the name by which the kinds of beggars whom Edgar is imitating called themselves" (96).

Edgar has planned to disguise himself as Tom O’Bedlam, the beggar. He smears dirt on his face and body, ties his hair in knots, and covers himself with a blanket to make his physical appearance ideal to that of a typical beggar. His choice of this particular disguise goes right along with what has driven him to the idea of simply disguising himself. I believe Edmund has chosen this particular disguise to ease himself more into the company of his father, Gloucester, brother, Edgar, and the other characters in this play. This means that the characters will be more welcoming of his presence being that they may feel sorry for him, being that he is a beggar, and allow him to become protected by them or do work for them. I feel that Edgar’s main state of mind is that is it easy to become a beggar than it is to become any other person under disguise. It is easier to put first on your face and body and make your hair look like that of a typical beggar and do other things to set up a “beggar like” than it is to try to go out and look for a totally different outfit (when you can just use a blanket) and set up your hair in a neat looking way to present yourself as another character that belongs to the kingdom. What is mainly driving Edgar to do is his intentions to remain connected with his father, his brother, the King, and others. He wants to still be able to be around these people because these are basically the only people he knows. His great amount of fear has lead him to want to become a totally different type of person because he fears the danger that his brother, Edmund, has presented to him even though it is based off of lies and false accusations (because of his brother’s made up stories).