"Themes of King Lear are skilfully presented through imagery and symbolism"

King Lear is rife with animal imagery, as the play is known for interrogating whether mankind is anything "more" than animal after all. Most often, animal imagery appears in the form of savage or carnivorous beasts, usually associated with Goneril and Regan. By using this imagery to describe the two sisters, the play sets them up as the clear antagonists in the narrative while at the same time suggesting that other characters will become victims of their attacks.

Throughout the play, Lear makes frequent reference to his desire to return to a state similar to infancy, where one is not plagued with responsibility. The imagery of carefree children pervades the first half of the play. However, Lear soon learns that old age and infancy also share the same vulnerabilities. As Lear grows old, he becomes powerless and less independent, a realization compounded by Goneril and Regan's humiliating infantilization of their father.

The storm that occurs in Act Three symbolizes Lear's chaotic mental state. At one point, he even states that he has a "tempest in [his] mind" (3.4). The thunder and lightning of the storm signifies the uncontrollable fate of Lear and many other characters in the play, while also suggesting England's own descent into political turmoil after Lear had divided his kingdom.

Early on in the play, Lear's fool remarks that Lear has mistakenly cut his crown in two by choosing to divide his kingdom. As such, Lear's crown is a symbol of both his own power and his kingdom's stability. Later in the play, Lear appears wearing a crown made only of flowers, a symbol that suggests his complete loss of power. This flower-crown also associates Lear with another Shakespearean character, Ophelia from Hamlet, who distributes wildflowers to passers-by just before her death. Ophelia's behavior has often been interpreted as a form of grief-driven madness, and the same could be said about Lear at the end of the play.