Animal Imagery
Shakespeare uses metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech to compare Regan,
Goneril, and other characters to animals. This imagery shows that human greed and lust
for power, as well as other negative qualities, turn people into rapacious or poisonous
beasts. It also demonstrates that the dilemmas people create for themselves can lower
them to the status of beasts. Among the animals to which characters are compared are
rats, wolves, sheep, goats, horses, dogs (including a mastiff, a greyhound, a spaniel, and a
mongrel), cats, mice, owls, wild geese, bears, monkeys, crabs, snails, an ass, a hedgesparrow, a cuckoo, and each of the following:
Kite: bird of prey that occurs in several varieties. It feeds on small land animals,
fish, garbage, and carrion. In Act I, Scene IV, Lear speaks this line to Goneril:
"Detested kite! thou liest" (Line 284).
Vulture: scavenger bird that feeds primarily on carcasses. In Act II, Scene IV,
Lear bemoans Goneril's behavior by saying that “she hath tied / sharp-tooth'd
unkindness, like a vulture, here [points to his heart]” (Lines 136-137).
Serpent: large snake, such as a python or boa constrictor; any poisonous snake;
the devil in the form of a snake. In Act II, Scene IV, Lear says Goneril "struck me
with her tongue, / Most serpent-like, upon the very heart" (Lines 162-163).
Pelican: bird of prey that feeds on fish. In Act III, Scene IV, Lear "scolds"
himself for fathering Regan and Goneril, saying “‘twas this flesh begot those
pelican daughters” (Lines 76-77).
Tiger: Tiger: largest member of the cat family. In Act IV, Scene II, the Duke of
Albany condemns Regan and Goneril for their treatment of Lear, comparing them
to tigers.
The use of animal imagery in King Lear prompted critic G.B. Harrison to write, "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)