My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Edgar reveals his true identity to Edmund after mortally wounding his half-brother in a duel. He says that the gods are just because they punish human beings for their wrongdoings. He believes that Edmund got what he deserved. But Edgar seems to suggest that Gloucester’s blinding is punishment from the gods for his illicit love which resulted in Edmund’s conception. Edgar claims that the woman Gloucester committed adultery with, Edmund’s mother, cost Gloucester his eyes and he calls her a "dark and vicious place." Not everyone would agree with Edgar’s belief that such divine retribution for Gloucester’s adultery is fair and proper justice. His blinding is the plays’s greatest act of cruelty and one of the most violent and shocking scenes in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. However, few would quibble with the justice of killing the evil Edmund.