Edmund - Form of Soliloquy

• What does the form of soliloquy show?

  His inner thoughts
• How do we see Edmund now, after seeing his soliloquy?

  We see the real Edmund, no longer meek, but powerful and devious
• What technical devices are shown in Edmund's devious soliloquy?

  • Lots of plosives
  • Broken speech
  • Questions
  • Exclamations
  • Mockery - full of rage
• What does the use of enjambment show about Edmund?

  His breaking point
• Why does Edmund use long sentences?

  To express his rage, humanising him before us we see his real emotions coming out
• How does Edmund speak the taboos that undercut society's prejudices?

  His conception was "lusty", those products of marriage were "got" in a "dull state tired bed"
• What do the words "dull" "state" "tired" "bed" show?

  4 stressed monosyllables which emphasise the mockery in a half-way state between sleep and walking
• Why is there telescopic process to the monologue?

  To show Shakespeare compresses a lifetime of thinking into a minute soliloquy?
• What does the quote "Thou, Nature, art my goddess" highlight?

  • Edmund rejects "unnatural" things, such as the declaration and labelling of some people as "bastards"
  • He rejects the religious institution of marriage, and also religion and God as well
  • He declares himself as an athiest
• How does Edmund challenge the notion of marriage? (and by implication, religion)

  Through a series of rhetorical questions
• What does the quote "Edmund the base"/"Shall top the legitimate" mean?

  Edmund can't legally have the land, so he is going to take it by conquest
• How does Edmund represent the new man?

  • He is no longer respectful of the institutions and customs of Feudalism
  • He is rational, atheist, and in competition with his own brother
  • He embodies the new, Capitalist mentality that is coming into England in Shakespeare's time