Flaws in Human Nature – Projecting The Blame

by Molly Baraff

When things are going wrong, it is natural for humans to find some explanation or excuse for the unwanted events: “This is the excellent foppery of the world that when we are sick in fortune – often the surfeit of our own behavior – we make guilt of our disasters of the sun, the
moon, and the stars, as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion…”

(I.ii.25). Even though the fault is often our own, Edmund observes that when things do not go our way we tend to put the blame on another person, on fate, or on science. Edmund suggests that by doing this, we are implying that nature forced us to be villainous or stupid. It is not our fault, but the wrongdoing was out of our control and was bound to happen anyway. If we put the blame on another person we are attempting to feel less guilty ourselves, and if we put the blame on nature and science, then we are providing a solid explanation for why things happened the way they did. Edmund is attempting to take the blame of his illegitimacy off himself and his father and place it on the stars. Blaming others for one’s own benefit is one of the many human flaws Shakespeare illustrates throughout King Lear. -Molly Baraff.