imagery in Shakespeare's King Lear
William Shakespeare, when writing King Lear, incorporates many effective images into this play. He refers to clothing, animals, wheels, sexual images, and blindness all to make his point. Shakespeare uses blindness in 2 paralleling plotlines, those of Lear and Gloucester. He uses animal imagery throughout the play, to show one character's feelings for another. And finally, he uses clothing imagery to exemplify the situation of certain characters. The images used by Shakespeare in this play are effective and paint a wonderful picture. Near the beginning of the play, in one of the early scenes, Lear is dividing his kingdom up between his three daughters. Imagery of an animal is developed here, and foreshadows Lear's eventual madness and demise, To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths while we Unburdened crawl toward death. (Act I, scene 1, 39-42) The word crawl suggests a wounded, tired, or perhaps hunted animal dragging itself nearer to death. Lear attempts to use this ironically; he still believes that all will be well.
More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child, the doubt. When Gloucester loses his eyes, he finally sees the truth about his sons; And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Imagery of eyes and blindness probably plays the biggest role in King Lear. Gloucester, when he is still physically able to see, is shown to be blind because he accepts everything at face value, and doesn't ask enough questions. When Edmund forges a letter from Edgar, (Act I, scene 2) Gloucester instantly takes the side of his bastard son, rather than give his "real" son the benefit of Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it. (Act IV, scene 6, 180-183) Clothing imagery also plays an important part in King Lear. Generally, it illustrates the mental capacity of Lear, or it exemplifies how Edgar went from riches to rags as Poor Tom. Edgar states, while he is masquerading as Poor Tom, "In nothing I am changed, But in my garments." (Act IV, scene 6, 12-13). When Lear meets Gloucester for the first time after Gloucester's eyes have been gouged out, he says, In King Lear, animal imagery is used extensively. At the beginning, it's almost a
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Approximate Word count = 771
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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