”The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”
How many of us would make such a declaration I wonder? Edmund’s insight here shows a tragic grandeur even if his actions have been contaminated. His sense of self- responisibility stands out as rare in the play and indeed in life itself! For this is a character who does not look away or remain silent once he is facing the results of his villainy. When he declares ‘I am here.’ He is recognising the very presence of his presence. Most of the time perhaps we are simply ‘not here’. We inhabit a future or a past; we play with possibility rather than accept the presentness of our ‘now’ experience. Even when we may say’ I am here’ it may be that we have wandered offf, taking this road or that and Edmund’s gift to the play here is that he does not go wandering at all. He accepts.
‘I am here.’ It is like a mantra. Lear would never say it. He always inhabits alternative universes where his presence is altered. How many times are we imprisoned by our tenses? Yet for the moment, if we inhabit a moment, then we can survive. We may even thrive.
Unlike Iago in Othello, Edmund’s cruel and vengeful actions are explicable and do lead to some semblance of change. In this, we feel less psychologically ‘stranded’ or abandoned, for Edmund’s acknowledgement reveals self reflection and growth:
‘Yet Edmund was beloved.’
When Edmund is told of the mutual murder of Regan and Goneril he expresses perhaps wonder; perhaps ironic pride; perhaps ironic humour at the black ‘joke’ of finally enjoying the gift of passionate love after all. We just don’t know and neither perhaps does Edmund. He is expressing or inhabiting Keatsian ‘negative capability’ perhaps? It is as if Edmund is savouring the concept of being ‘beloved’ whilst dying himself. Wheels and circles once more. Coming ‘full circle’ suggests inevitability, fate. Karmic release?