How does Shakespeare’s play comment on family relationships and loyalty? Consider specific instances in which the text reveals the attitudes of the individual characters in the play.

Most of the conflict in King Lear arises from family drama: sibling rivalry, parents quarreling with their sons and daughters, jealous suitors, extramarital affairs, marriages falling apart. Within this play, these seemingly ordinary tensions between family members not only parallel the activities of governments, they directly influence them—with calamitous results that reach far beyond King Lear's family and circle of confidantes.

To answer this question more thoroughly, we might look at Gloucester's relationship with his son, Edmund. Edmund was illegitimate..... he is also Gloucester's youngest son. In keeping with his his sense of responsibility, Gloucester makes certain that Edmund is provided for and educated. An outsider would see Edmund's upbringing to be the same as that of any noble. Gloucester, none-the-less, treats Edmund as an inferior. Edmund is not in line to inherit because of his birth status, he is treated like a second class citizen by his family, and his father has no problem discussing the terms or embarrassment of his birth with outsiders. Edmund, of course, resents this treatment, regardless of what he has been provided with. The audience (reader), of course, sympathizes with the young man. It is also important to note that regardless of our feelings (or Edmund's), the laws of heredity at the time would have left Edmund in the same situation..... his brother, Edgar, would have inherited anyway, as he was the older brother.