Edward

As I was reading this final work from our Family Unit, it occurred to me the trend of disturbing and unhappy stories that each author has written about families. Not one has seemed to happily reflect a holy overall. Edward (written by an anonymous author) is no exception. The poem is about a sontelling his mother that he has killed his father. He denies this at first, then admits the truth and the mother asks what he son will do about the situation. I am curious as to why the son has done this. More than curiosity, this poem spurred anger and contempt for the son. He seems to feel no moral responsibility for anything in his life. He shows no regret for his horrible deed and proceeds to make himself appear worse with each question his mother asks. First, rather than face what he has done and pay the consequences, when his mother asks what his penance will be, he says he will escape on a boat. Then, he completely disregards his family, saying "the world is large, let them beg through life", meaning he intends to let his family suffer as a result of his selfish actions. Lastly, he tops all the horrible things he says with "the curse of hell from me shall te bear", putting the blame of his killing his father on his mother because of "such counsels you have me". The mother did not know whose blood was on the sword, so it is unlikely that she told the son to commit this act, therefore he proves furthermore his shallowness and selfishness with this statement of blame.