Animal Imagery in King Lear

Use of Animal Imagery in King Lear

"It is as if Shakespeare wished to portray a world in which most men and women are beasts, and only the exceptional few [are fully human]."–G.B. Harrison, ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952 (Page 1139) In Shakespeare’s King Lear, animal imagery is pervasive throughout the play. The discussion of animal imagery in this play comes only second to the theme of Nature. The ‘animal imagery’ is so much profusely used in the play that there is too much to cover within a limited framework. Nearly all of the major characters have at least one instance where they are represented as an animal or having animal tendency. Interestingly enough, the animal images used, almost always have two major qualities: one, they are an accurate portrayal of the character; two, they are often used when the character is giving into their emotions. Thus, it has to be said that the animal images are used to give clear insight into the characters, much like how the final words of a character are always completely honest, the animal images give the audience a clear view into a play dominated by deception.

The first example of animal imagery in the play is quite early and is interesting because it is Lear describing himself. This is when Lear tells Kent “come not between the dragon and his wrath” (King Lear, I, I, 122). This actually has precedent later on when Lear tends to describe himself using animal terms several times. Line 122 comes in the context of Kent trying to defend Cordelia right after she essentially does the right thing and says that now that she is married, her love belongs with her husband. If anything, this means that in the context of her times, she has done the right thing. Notice the similarity of her argument with that of Desdemona in the first act of Othello. Lear should be pleased in having, in the context of the times, a well raised daughter. Yet, he gives in to emotion and becomes like a dragon, an old creature jealously guarding his treasure. In this case, one can say that Lear is sitting on his daughter's obeisance and the trappings of his power. If you notice, he is willing to give up his kingdom for his children, but he jealously guards the symbols of his power. He still wants to remain as the figurehead king and the source of his quarrel with his two daughters is his retinue of knights, a key symbol of his authority. Cordelia has defied him by saying that her loyalty now resides with her future husband, she has “stolen” from Lear's treasure of the obeisance of his progeny. Like the dragon, he has thus become consumed with rage and Kent is caught in between it.

The next major use of an animal to describe a character is in scene two of act I where Edmund states that his father, Gloucester has “a goatish disposition” (I, II, 130). This plays into the fact that Gloucester is blaming his sexual, escapades upon the star he was born under. If the play is representative of his relationships with his children before this time, it seems that he may even be closer to Edmund than Edgar. This is well represented by the goat, which was seen as an extremely lustful animal, which Gloucester seems to be. Much like the dragon, the goat is a rather accurate portrayal of the character at the time and even could be said to show him being consumed by his desires and emotions. Animals give into fornication without thought, humans were supposed to be able to resist the temptation and in the case of Edmund, Gloucester was more of an animal.

A significant portion of the animal images used in conjunction with Lear and his daughters are centered upon the theme of ungrateful children taking advantage of a weakened father. The first occurs in scene 4 of the first act, where the fool sagely says “the hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it had its head bitten off by its young” (I, IV, 212). Lear has brought his daughter up into a position of power now, and seeing him weakened they seek to destroy him. This foreshadows Regan's treachery, which had not occurred yet in the play. It is noticeable that subsequently, Goneril is also called a “detestable kite” (I, IV, 260) and Regan a “vulture”(II, IV, 137), both are symbols of eating birds. These are stated by Lear and perhaps show that Lear realizes that he is no longer the power he once was, he is now a decaying corpse which is helpless as others tear apart whatever remains of him. Not to mention “these pelican daughters” (III, IV, 74), who feast on the blood of their father, who sees that this is judicious punishment for having brought onto the earth such dastardly children. There is also the significance of “wolvish visage” (I, IV, 306), which is once again directed at Goneril. Wolves tend to hunt down the weak and the elderly, and Lear is both. Once again, for a character who seems to be so convinced of still being in a place of power, he is surprisingly honest with the fact that he is in a much weakened state right now and that he is fast becoming unnecessary in the power structure.

In the matters of animal imagery, we have the interesting case of Edgar, who essentially is forced to pretend to be an animal in an attempt to set things right. He is a oddity because he is one of the most “human” of all of the characters, yet he takes on the personage of the most animalistic character of the play, that of “poor tom”. He has already been forced into the role of an animal, having been hunted by his father's men and so he disguises himself as a parody of the human race “that ever penury, in contempt of man” (II, III, 8). In a sense, he is there to show that though we may use animal images to describe the worst of the characters of the play, we are far more animalistic than we think we are. Poor Tom is the human race as it really is, we condemn the villains of this play for their “unnatural” evil, yet they are not the exceptions we want them to be. Poor Tom is described in almost purely animalistic terms, he is “hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness and lion in prey” (III, IV, 91-93).

Going back to the image of the dogs at court, we have some excellent images from Lear when he describes himself in two places as a dog at the court. In the first case, as he describes how, when he was in power, everyone strove to flatter him and to make it seem like he was God on earth:
“They flattered me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to every thing that I said!--'Ay' and 'no' too was no good divinity.” (IV, VI, 97-100) The second is the extremely telling line “there thou mightst behold the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office” (IV, VI, 156-159). Lear is once again giving us an insight into his character in these two situations. As evidenced by the scene with Cordelia and his daughters' betrayal, he did not commend that much respect, nor did he deserve it. He was respected only because he was in power and once he was out of it, everybody had most quickly abandoned him.

What soon follows in the play is probably the most graphic of all of the animal images in King Lear, namely the passage where Lear speaks about his daughters depraved sexuality.
“Beyond yond simpering dame, whose face between her forks presages snow, that minces virtue and does shake the head to hear of pleasure's name; the fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to't with a more riotous appetite. Down from the waist they're centaurs, though women all above” (IV, VI, 118-124) It is almost shocking how he goes about describing their lustfulness, saying that they about fornicating with more enthusiasm than animals. Even worse, is his description of them as “centaurs”, a reference to the mythological creatures who were half man half horse. In the tales themselves, they are by far the worst of the worst, they have all of man's vices but none of his control. They live to get drunk and take whatever they want, raping and pillaging everywhere they go. Lear is essentially saying that his daughters have all of the sins of humanity, but none of its redeeming features. They cannot control their desires, thus they turn on their father, they turn on their husbands and finally. Their unrestrained treacherous behavior comes to a fore in the fifth act when they finally turn on each other in their desire for Edmund (who is a magnificent bastard both literally and figuratively). As he says it “each jealous of the other as the stung is of the adder” (V, I, 59-60), they both know the each other’s character and thus they are rightfully suspicious of each other. The imagery of snake continues, when Albany accuses Goneril of being a “gilded serpent” (V, III, 86) and it is only fitting that Goneril poisons Regan before killing herself. The snake has struck for the last time.

To end it all, we have an excellent image of Cordelia in the final act when Lear states that “we two alone will sing like birds in the cage” (V, III, 9), because in many ways, that describes Cordelia quite well. For nearly the entirety of the play, Cordelia has been like a bird in a cage, only there to look pretty and sing sweetly. She does not deserve what happens to her, she has been the faithful daughter and wife she should have been and ends up getting killed for it. The bird lives at the will of the master and unfortunately, so does Cordelia. If anything, this image is probably the most powerful of the play because it brings to light the tragedy of it all. Lear was once trapped by his own vanity and illusions; now that he has dispelled these he now finds himself caged up by his treacherous daughters.

Thus, it seems that in a play dominated by treachery, animal imagery serves a role much like that of the dying speeches of a character. They offer a clear and accurate depiction of the characters and the situation which they face. There is no animal image in Lear that deceives the audience. In a lesser degree, the images also serve as a way to show when a character is devolving into an animalistic state of pure emotionality. Shakespeare seems to advocate that controlling our desires is what makes us human and Poor Tom is an excellent tool to show that we are often not as human as we think we are. We may condemn the villains of the play, yet we all too often fall down the same slippery slope they do.