Goneril is attracted to the young, handsome, and obedient Edmund. Such qualities make him more attractive to her than her own husband. Goneril expects obedience from a man, but she also wants strength and a willingness to take what he desires — characteristics that match her own. The fact that Goneril is married does not appear to be a concern. The steward's news that Albany's political and personal alliances have changed only make Edmund more appealing to Goneril.
Albany's initial remarks to Goneril reveal how much he has changed from the beginning of the play. Albany's previous hesitation to confront his wife is now replaced by direct address of her wickedness: "You are not worth the dust which the rude wind / blows in your face." His attack on Goneril's integrity shows that Albany is a highly moral and humane individual, the antithesis of his wife, and an individual the audience has not witnessed earlier in the play. In his attack on Goneril, Albany's view of nature is the opposite of his wife's. Where Goneril has created chaos, Albany endorses nature's design and a view of nature's work within an organic framework:
That nature, which contemns it origin,
Cannot be border'd certain in itself;
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap, perforce must wither
And come to deadly use. (IV.2.32–36)
Albany accepts that nature's pattern is essential for survival. The hierarchy of father to child, king to subject, God to king, is essential to eliminating chaos of the world. Goneril has reversed that natural order in her treatment of Lear, and the resulting chaos and anarchy has turned man against himself.
