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Animal Imagery in King Lear - Term Papers

Animal Imagery in King Lear

In King Lear, Shakespeare uses animal imagery to suggest that men have very little power over their own fates and to emphasize the vulnerability of some of his most regal-seeming characters. He further reinforces the idea of man’s helplessness through his recurring allusions to the gods, which imply that the gods don’t really care about helping or protecting people on earth. Shakespeare also emphasizes human frailty by repeatedly suggesting that man is “nothing,” a speck of dust that could blow away at any instant. The animal images therefore introduce a frightening, recurring theme of weakness: even a king can die as suddenly and pointlessly as an ant. Shakespeare’s references to ...

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should have life while his own young, extraordinarily wise daughter should be murdered without warning. Each of these animal images suggests that humans do not enjoy special status on earth, for they fall prey to the same sudden twists of fate and the same base appetites that dominate the animal world.

Likewise, Shakespeare’s discussion of the gods suggests that people are extremely vulnerable, for he describes an alternately sadistic and uninterested set of divine “protectors” who are supposed to be watching over the human race. When Gloucester worries that storms are a sign of the gods’ disfavor, Edmund posits the much more frightening notion that there are no gods at all, and a trust in divine intervention is “the excellent foppery of the world.” Gloucester later makes the memorable observation that man is to god as fly is to man, again discouraging anyone who would believe in the presence of loving, compassionate deities who guide and protect mankind. Noting the ...

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Animal Imagery in King Lear. (2021, April 30). Retrieved August 12, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Animal-Imagery-in-King-Lear/107695

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/30/2021 01:53:29 PM
Submitted By: Mira
Category: Shakespeare
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 663
Pages: 3

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