King Lear Imagery Seminar

Symbolism/Imagery/Allegory in fairy Lear * The Storm (Imagery)Pathetic Fallacy By acting irresponsibility, Lear as a fag and then as a father ca rehearses a universal upheaval in the order of the universe. This upheaval is reflected and reinforced by the use of imagery (Pathetic Fallacy). The storm is a part of the universal disorder and is presented in a very delicate gentlemans gentlemanner. The storm is significant as it stands for external as well as internal human naturepresents the informal nature of human beings * In Act 3, Lear rushes from a fight with his daughters into a raging windfallstorm.The combination of thunder and lightning is pretty more than what is going on inside Lears mind, from his fury at his daughters to his impending madness. At hotshot point, Lear admits theres a tempest in his mind thats not unlike the storm that rages on the heath (3. 4. 4. ). In other reciprocations, the literal storm on the heath is a pretty accurate reflection of Lears menta l state. * One can argue that the storm parallels Britains fall into political chaos. Remember, Lear has divided his kingdom, civil war isbrewing, and the might (Lear) is being treated pretty shabbily by his daughters and some of his other subjects.Alternatively, the positionful storm in which Lear gets caught up is a dramatic demonstration of the accompaniment thatallhumans, even kings, are completely assailable to overpowering forces like nature. * The beasts (Imagery) The unspiritual images and the images of darkness also convey the impression of disorder in the universe. The bestial/animal imagery is partly designed to show mans place in the mountain chain of being, and bring out the sub-human nature of black character. It is also used to show mans helplessness compared with animals and partly to compare mans life to the life of the jungle.Because of the bad behaviour of G one and only(a)ril and Regan, Lear hates them and calls them worse than monsters to a greater exten t hideous when thou showst theeln a child than sea monster. Then turning to Goneril, he calls her tawdry serpent when he comes to k immediately her reality. She is often called tiger and sharp-toothed (vulture), while Regan is called most serpents like. To reveal the evil nature of both sisters, bestial imagery is employed very often as they are called adderas by Edmund. * Moreover in king Lear, the animal imagery is organized around compatible or reasonably foolish i. . deer, cat, dog, rat, cow, serpent, geese, snakes, dragon, foxes, and sparrows. They help to turn tail the moral drift of the play. They are set up to reinforce or to oppose each other. * Images of darkness and complaint The images of darkness and complaints are used to show chaos and stochasticity in nature. In the play, one is conscious all through of the atmosphere of buffeting, strain, and strife, and, at moments, of bodily emphasis to the point of agony. So naturally does this flow from the circumstance s of the drama and the mental suffering of Lear.This sensation is change magnitude by the generally floating images. To show the human system in torture, the words like tugged, wrenched beat out, scalded, tortured and finally broken on the rake, are used. Lear, in his agonized remorse, pictures himself as a man wrenched and tortured by an engine. He realizes his follies and he beats his head that lets his folly in. Goneril has the power to shake him with her tongue, the hot tears break from his heart. Lear cries that his heart will break into a hundred curtilage flaws.Albany wonders how far Gonerils eyeball may pierce. Gloucesters flawed heart is cracked, and finally it burst smilingly. Kent longs to tempo Oswald into mortar. Lear cried painfully It is more than murder. The Fool declares man torn into pieces by gods. Gloucester also cries, As wing to wanton boys, are we to gods they kill us for their sport. The sense of bodily torture continues to the end. Lear tells Cordelia that he is resound Upon a wheel of fire that my own tears do scald like molten pass by. The use of verbs and images of bodily torture are almost continuous and they are used to draw the ingest picture as in the treatment of Gloucester who is equally blind like Lear when it comes to telling the difference surrounded by his good son (Edgar) and his bad offspring (Edmund) Gloucester cant tell that Edmund has manipulated him into believing Edgar wants him dead. Later, Gloucester doesnt even recognize his son Edgar, who has masked himself as unworthy Tom the beggar.Eventually, Gloucesters eyeballs are plucked out, making his literal blindness symbolic of his unfitness to see the truth about his children. Finally, he is bound to a chair, plucked by the beard, his hair is ravished from his chin, and with his eyes blinded and bleeding, he is thrust out of the gates to smell his way to Dover. * InKing Lear, theres a whole lot of talk about literal vision and metaphorical blindness, e specially when it comes to fathers sightedness their children for who they genuinely are. When Lear mistakenly believes that Cordelia is disloyal and orders her out of hissight, his pal, Kent, gives him the following advice See break dance, Lear (1. 1. 14). In other words, Kent implies that Lear is blind to the fact Cordelia is the good daughter while Goneril and Regan are a couple of evil spawn. We can take this a step further by saying that the root of all Lears problems is his lack of good judgment he foolishly divides his kingdom, stages a silly love test to determine which daughter cares for him the most, etc. After Lear is boot out by Regan in her palace, he exclaims Well no more meet, no more see one another but yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter or rather a disease thats in my flesh, which I must needs call mine thou art a boil, a plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle, in my corrupted blood. (2. 4. 29). When Lear goes off on Goneril, he insists shes more like a di sease thats in his flesh than a daughter (his flesh and blood). Goneril, he says, is a boil, a plague-sore, a nasty little carbuncle and so on. In other words, Goneril, is kind of like a venereal disease. ) Lear is really good at insults this is a pretty elaborate way for Lear to tell Goneril that shemakes him sick. On the one hand, this flight is in keeping with just about everything else Lear says about women (especially Goneril and Regan) Lear frequently associates women with sexual promiscuity and pretty much blames all the problems in the world on the ladies. * Something similar is at work inKing Lear. When Lear imagines thathis bodyis diseased, we cant help but notice that hiskingdomis also not doing so well.After all, its just been hacked up into pieces by Lear and, with Goneril and Regan (and their spouses) at once in charge, its quickly becoming acorruptplace. Whats more, civil war (not to mention a war with France) is on the horizon. In King Lears mind, the corruption of his kingdom is caused by Goneril and Regan so, its not so affect that he refers to Goneril (in the passage above) as a plague-sore. * Nakedness vs. Clothing (Imagery) When Edgar disguises himself as Poor Tom, he chooses to disguise himself as a naked beggar.Then, in the big storm scene, Lear strips off his kingly robes. Lear has seen Poor Tom (naked) and asks, Is this man no more than this? Then, presumably to find out if man is indeed no more than this, he strips down to his birthday suit. Shakespeare seems to be implying that all men are vulnerable. In fact, man is zilch more than a poor bare, forked animal (3. 4. 10). Donning rich and opulent clothing (like Goneril and Regan do), then, is scarcely a futile attempt to disguise mans true, defenceless nature. Nothingness (Symbol) Shakespeare plays on the word nothing and the thinking of nothingness or emptiness throughoutKing Lear. Here are a few significant moments from the play In Act 1, when Lear stages his love test and a sks Cordelia What can you say to draw a third of the kingdom more opulent than your sisters? , Cordelia replies, Nothing. Lear cant believe what hes hearing. Nothing will come of nothing, he tells her. deal again. (In other words, youll get absolutelynothingfrom me unless you speak up about how much you love me. By the way, the express Nothing can come of nothing is a variation on the famous phrase ex nihilo nihil fit thats Latin for from nothing, nothing comes, which is an ancient Greek philosophical and scientific expression. The word nothing shows up again in the play when the Fool tells Lear he is nothing without his crown and power now thou art an O without a figure. I am better than thou art now Im a fool, thou art nothing (1. 4. 17). According to the Fool, King Lear is a zero and is no better than a shealed peascod (an empty peapod).The Fool also calls the retired king Lears shadow, which suggests that Lear, without his crown, is merely a shadow of his former self. The i dea is that Lear, (whose status has changed since retirement) isnothingwithout his former power and title. To sum up, imagery plays an important part in King Lear. The play is a complex work and makes use of imagery effectively to convey the themes, and to give pathos to the action. The disruption caused by Lears initial inability and refusal to see better is reflected in the images of darkness, animalism, and disease.