In King Lear. Shakespeare uses imagery of great imaginative depth and resonance to convey his major themes and to heighten the reader's experience of the play. There are a few predominant image patterns. 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, ravenous in their appetites, 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 show, the sisters are compared unfavorably to animals and monsters. Lear often uses animal and monster metaphors when describing his daughters' cruelty and heartlessness. He calls Goneril a "marble-hearted demon" and says that his ingratitude is more horrible 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, / almost like a serpent." Before Lear goes out into the storm, he says that he would rather "be a companion of the wolf and the owl" than return to Goneril. The reader is now starting to see the true hatred towards his evil daughters. Poor Tom uses animals as emblems of the seven deadly sins, "pig in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greed." The very nature of man is defined by Lear in terms of animal images as he looks at the naked Tom disguised as a beggar of Bedlam: "Is man nothing but this? Consider him well. Owe no silk to the worm; beast, no skin; the sheep, no wool; the cat, no perfume; Here are three sophisticated things: the man is no longer suitable for you... ...d like them and badly dressed to face the elements of both Lear and Edgar allows the reader to fully understand the vulnerability of the king We also learn that the king has realized that he is nothing more than a normal human being like the rest of society he can then make his great speech of compassion without condescension: "Poor naked wretches where are you / Waiting for the outbreak of the merciless storm, / How your homeless heads and your unfed hips / Your raggedness closed with windows and eyelets will defend you / from seasons like these." In conclusion, I found the powerful imagery surrounding animals, violence, and clothing to add to the work's effect on the reader. The numerous images allowed the reader to visualize horrific and detailed scenes and gave the reader a better understanding of the play King Lear.