King Lear: Metaphors 6 key examples

Lear’s rage knows no bounds in King Lear, and the first glimpse of the king’s capacity for anger comes in the very first scene of the play. In Act 1, Scene 1, when Cordelia refuses to issue a flowery proclamation of her love for her father, Lear’s anger turns first to his daughter and then to his servant Kent, who attempts to intervene:

Peace, Kent.
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I loved her most and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery.

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King Lear is an especially brutal tragedy because the damage done to Lear and his kingdom is largely, if indirectly, self-inflicted. The seeds of his eventual destruction are sown in the very first scene of the play, as the audience witnesses Lear’s fateful division of his kingdom between his two deceitful daughters and his abandonment of his only loyal daughter. A few characters in the play are able to see the folly in Lear’s decisions, most notably the Fool—who can speak truth to power on account of his status as a jester—and Kent. Although Lear rebukes Kent and eventually casts him out for his impudence, Kent nonetheless attempts to show the king the error of his ways, using a metaphor in which he presents himself as Lear's doctor:

Kent: Now, by Apollo, King,
Thou swears't thy gods in vain.

Lear: O vassal! Miscreant!

Albany, Cornwall: Dear sir, forbear.

Kent: Kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow
Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift,
Or whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,
I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

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At the heart of King Lear is a proper family drama, and Lear’s family is dysfunctional on an epic—and, of course, tragic—scale. Once he is aware of their machinations, the king’s duplicitous daughters, Regan and Goneril, draw quite a bit of ire from their father. He makes his discontent known in Act 2, Scene 4:

I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad.
I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewell.
We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee.

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In Act 3, Scene 4, as Lear finds himself caught in a terrible storm, he reflects on his plight and the nature of the threat he now faces, using a storm-related metaphor to portray the way he's feeling:

Thou thinks't 'tis much that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin. So 'tis to thee.
But where the greater malady is fixed
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear,
But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea,
Thou'dst meet the bear i' th' mouth. When the
mind's free,
The body's delicate. This tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!

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To the compatriots and servants of Lear who remain loyal throughout the bloody ordeal with his family, the emotional wounds that Regan and Goneril inflict on their father—notwithstanding the actual threat of physical harm—feel especially violent. When Gloucester admits to his attempts to aid the king and confronts Regan over her betrayal, in Act 3, Scene 7, he says as much through the use of a metaphor:

Gloucester: I am tied to th’ stake, and I must stand the course.

Regan: Wherefore to Dover, sir?

Gloucester: Because I would not see thy cruèl nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.

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Once Edmund discovers that Gloucester has knowledge of the coming French invasion, it is clear that the Earl has sided with Lear and therefore against Cornwall, Regan, and Gloucester. Newly informed of this treachery, Cornwall and Regan arrive at Gloucester’s castle and eagerly await an opportunity to ambush the Earl, speaking about him using both a smile and a metaphor:

Cornwall: Go seek the traitor Gloucester
Pinion him like a thief; bring him before us.
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our power
Shall do a court’sy to our wrath, which men
May blame but not control.

Enter Gloucester and servants

Who’s there? The traitor?

Regan: Ungrateful fox! 'Tis he.

Cornwall: Bind fast his corky arms.

Gloucester: What you mean your graces? Good my friends, consider
You are my guests. Do me no foul play, friends.

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