Summary:
Within King Lear, symbolism is, well, king. It's everywhere. It's subtle, it's bold, it's funny, it's sad, but it's what helps tie everything together. A majority of the symbolism in King Lear is portrayed through nature and animal symbolism.
King Lear Mini Essay
Within King Lear, symbolism is, well, king. It's everywhere. It's subtle, it's bold, it's funny, it's sad, but it's what helps tie everything together. A majority of the symbolism in King Lear is portrayed through nature and animal symbolism. Shakespeare uses the symbolism to help strengthen the many themes of play and to help allow the viewer a more invigorating experience.
Nature is used to symbolism a number of things within King Lear. One of the major uses of nature as symbolism would be the storm in King Lear. The storm represents a number of things throughout the novel. Lear, of course, is the focus of the symbolism. For Lear, the storm represents a whirlwind of hidden meanings, and themes. It represents his rage, anger, power, his loss of control, his blindness and his instability. It also represents the inner turmoil of Lear. You could also say that the storm doesn't just represent Lear, but all the forces that are against Lear. The storm symbolizes Lear's inner turmoil in that he is losing control and is blind to everything that is happening around him. The storm is blindly raging out of control, causing everyone to seek shelter. This could tie into that Lear is running from his problems, and when he is thrown into the storm, is confronted by them and it drives him over the edge. The storm represents everything against Lear in that it's Lear against the storm. The storm is all the people that are betraying him and their actions to take his power from him. Lear is left out in the cold with no defense; he just has to take everything. This gradually eats away at his sanity and soon leaves him with none. Only a select few still are behind the king. They're represented as the little hut that Lear goes into in the worst of the storm. The storm also ties into the theme of blindness a lot, both with Lear and Gloucester. Lear and Gloucester are blind to the betrayal that is taking part around them, thus the fog of the storm is making their vision unclear. It also ties into the fact that both of them had lost their sanity and it was as the storm was clearing, that they were coming out of their madness.
Animal symbolism is another huge part of King Lear and ties together a lot of subtle messages that strengthen the themes of King Lear. One of these would be the relation of Lear to both a bear and a wolf. Lear is like a bear in that he was strong and fierce and gentle like a teddy bear. The fierce part of Lear could be demonstrated both in the beginning and end of the play. In the beginning, Lear is fierce and quick to anger like a bear. In the end, Lear is in power again, so when Cordelia dies, he has that same fierce spirit. Lear's a teddy bear when he's insane. Cordelia must take him in and care for him like a mother bear for her cub. Lear's mind state and the way he acts could be easily pictured as a little teddy bear prancing around. Lear's also tied to a wolf and makes the reference that humans are like beasts himself. Not only does Lear howl when Cordelia dies, but he portrays characteristics of a wolf. A wolf is a loyal, sometimes lone, creature that is very prideful, like Lear. The wolf symbolism also ties to other characters as well. Wolves can be ravenous and fierce and turn on their own if they are hungry enough. These tie into Goneril, Regan, and Edmund and the betrayal of their parents. They were so greedy, they ravenously turned on their own blood to take what they wanted, leaving their kin out in the cold. You could also say that they tear away at their kin like a pack of hungry wolves. The loyalty ties in through Cordelia, Kent and Edger. They remained loyal to their parents/master, supported them and helped to restore them later. Another animal symbolism would be serpents. These tie in with Regan and Goneril. For one, snakes always represent the evil and deceitful, which is exactly what Regan and Goneril are. But the great part about the serpent symbolism is how it ties into original sin. Regan and Goneril, women, are the main betrayers, who betray their father and cause his downfall. This ties into original sin in that it was Eve who took the fruit from the snake and then gave it to Adam. Regan and Goneril were the snakes who whispered lies to get Lear to choose them and when he did, that was equivalent to Adam biting into the fruit and getting banished from paradise. Of course kicked out of paradise is equivalent to the characters death within the play.
The play King Lear ties in so much with both the plot and subplot that everything can be taken as some sort of symbolism. There are so many other ways that you could tie in nature and animal symbolism that you could rant on for days. But the importance is that you can do that. Shakespeare wanted to be able to tie in all these hidden messages in a beautiful intricate pattern that was a masterpiece of its own. The symbolism helped Shakespeare to get across all the themes he wanted to express to the people of the time, which are themes that any generation can understand.
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