character analysis

primary goal is to assist goneril in her wrongdoings

seemingly no moral compass or opinions of his own, life purely revolves around what goneril tells him to do. i.e., no problem killing gloucester

cruel and heartless for this reason but also just a shell. can he represent a greater picture?

represents the perpetration of greed in society all due to moral supremacy of power. whoever has the power (in this case goneril) is moral, therefore following them

oswald’s presence catalyses goneril’s tyranny, as his loyalty makes her more inclined to seek power, in which she becomes more greedy and sinister in her actions to garner more power

however oswald himself gives into greed as he betrays goneril to kill gloucester for regan. showing how greed is a cycle, and while some people may successfully rise from a subject to a powerful figure (e.g., edmund), subjects serving these new figures of power will eventually revolt and try to rise as well. i,e., shakespeare reinforces the importance of a chain of being otherwise everyone is trying to climb up to be the most powerful and social structure collapses

antithesis to other servants such as kent ; loyalty to the king is loyalty to the chain of being, which is why kent always stays loyal to lear even after being exiled, and goes to die with lear. but oswald is only loyal to greed, so his ‘god’ can be switched freely, by whoever provides the most power for him (which is why he betrays goneril for regan). kent has a stronger moral compass than oswald for this reason, because kent serves with morality (i.e., he stands up for his beliefs by disagreeing with lear over cordelia and by beating oswald) whereas oswald seems to have no personal opinion over any matter other than means to power. shakespeare gives power to the servants, as the best (or at least those who are seen more positively such as kent, gloucester, cornwall’s servant who kills cornwall) are those who act with morality, i.e., they have a particular reason to be a servant of this individual. shakesperean convention of giving more power to characters and less power to those in power, which is different from aristotelean tragic conventions

oswald is a messenger as we rely on his input to tell us what is happening in the play offstage. some kind of significance with that. unreliable narrator, audience is forced to rely on him for information, showing how the corruption is king lear is so apparent that the audience is forced to involve themselves with it as well

reliance on female power as he only follows the women of the play. equates albany’s army to goneril’s power by telling regan ‘your sister is the better soldier’ in act 4 scene 5. oswald is a feminine character in himself for only serving women #ally #girlboss

oswald is blinded fully by materialsitic wealth, seeing gloucester only in terms of his bounty. blindness as a form of only seeing money

‘a proclaimed prize! …

that eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh

to raise my fortunes’ - act 4 scene 6

oswald has a blind and selfish attitude, as he considers his own death as untimely but gloucester’s death as fair. shows that as people get more greedy they lose their emotional intelligence, sight, and morality ; they can literally only see themselves

oswald’s dying wish is for edgar to deliver his letters from goneril to edmund

finalises oswald’s identity as a subject rather than a ruling figure, as the final act of his character is to finish his mission. shows that even when characters try to act out of their social class, the chain of being is true and right (therefore the god’s divine right of kings is right)