In King Lear. Shakespeare uses images of great depth and imaginative resonance to convey his major themes and to enhance the reader's experience of the play. Certain image patterns predominate. In my opinion, it is the images of wild animals and monsters that leave the most lasting impression. The imagination is filled with images of wild and menacing creatures, voracious in their appetite, cruel in their instincts. The underlying emphasis in such images is on the baseness of which humanity is capable. It is often used in connection with Goneril and Regan. Throughout the play, the sisters are compared unfavorably to animals and monsters. Lear often uses metaphors of animals and monsters to describe the cruelty and heartlessness of his daughters. He calls Goneril a "demon with a heart of marble" and says that his ingratitude is more hideous than that of a sea monster. Lear says that the pain of ingratitude is “sharper than a serpent’s tooth.” he returns to this image later, telling Regan that his sister "struck me with her tongue,/very like a snake." Before Lear goes out into the storm, he says that he would rather "be comrades with the wolf and the owl" than return to Goneril. The reader now begins to see the true hatred towards his evil daughters. Poor Tom uses animals as emblems of the Seven Deadly Sins, "the pig in sloth, the fox in stealth, the wolf in greed." The very nature of man himself is defined by Lear in terms of animal imagery as he watches naked Tom disguised as a Bedlam beggar: “Is man only that? Consider it carefully. You don't owe the worm any silk; beast, no skin; sheep, no wool; the cat, no perfume; there you are, you are the thing itself which is no longer... middle of paper... ...of them and poorly dressed to face the elements. The emphasis on the nudity of Lear and Edgar allows the reader to fully understand the vulnerability of the king. We also learn that the king realized he was nothing more. a normal human being like the rest of society, he is no longer above anyone and can therefore deliver his great speech of compassion without condescension: “Poor wretches, naked wherever you are / Who await the surge of the merciless storm , / How Your homeless heads and unfed sides / Your looped and windowed rags will defend you / From seasons like these". In conclusion, I found the powerful imagery surrounding animals, violence and the clothing added to the effect of the play on the reader The numerous images allowed the reader to visualize the gruesome and detailed scenes and gave them a better understanding of the play King Lear...