Loyalty and betrayal: Cymbeline is a moral play that prizes good intentions and punishes cruelty: the evil Queen fails in her plots and then dies, while the loyal and moral princess is allowed to marry her true love. However, despite the play’s resounding moral message, Shakespeare complicates traditional notions of morality and loyalty by showing that the value of both traits lies in intention alone: sometimes loyalty is immoral, while sometimes deception—when used with proper intentions—is necessary and good. (examples: the king and queen, Imogen and Posthumus, Posthumus and Iachimo, the queen and Pisanio.)
Reconciliation and forgiveness: Throughout Cymbeline, characters make bold decisions that are not easily undone or forgiven. Despite many characters’ seemingly irrevocable actions, moments of forgiveness and reconciliation guide the play to its happy conclusion. Identified alternately as tragicomedy or romance, Cymbeline operates within these genres’ demands. Tragicomedies and romances tends towards the comic, and end in moments of regeneration or rebirth. Through this artistic choice, Shakespeare makes a bold claim that when all is lost, reconciliation proves to be, quite literally, the only way forward.
Gender roles/Gender Performance: There is an awareness that gender roles constrict the options of male and female characters alike. Ancient Rome—and, by extension, Roman Britain—was a patriarchal society. Shakespeare acknowledges these pervasive gender roles, but also challenges them by showing women subverting socially prescribed behavioral standards (the queen and imogen), as well as men falling short of masculine ideals (cymbeline and posthumus).
Deception: the Queen utters hollow proclamations of love and loyalty; Posthumus is deceived into believing that Imogen has been unfaithful even though she remains steadfast in her love for him; Imogen disguises herself as a male page (Fidele) to join the Romans and return with them to Italy to find Posthumus; after Imogen swallows a potion and goes into a stupor, Arviragus and Guiderius believe she is dead; after Imogen awakens she mistakes the dead Cloton, who is wearing Posthumus's clothes, as Posthumus; Belarious would appear to be a forest dweller, but disguises his true identity-a banished nobleman.
Set in a world that is part Celtic, part Roman, Cymbeline is rich in symbols. Shakespeare uses symbols to expose the spirituality of the play: the animals, the names, and the stars reflect Elizabethan social manners, but are based on ancient beliefs about icons.
Bracelets and Rings as Symbols: In antiquity, rings, bracelets and necklaces were worn to preserve the link between the body and the soul removed to facilitate their separation at the moment of death.
The ring is by nature female and negative, as in the Celtic circles that might be obvious in the setting of this play. Shakespeare brilliantly uses circles to bind the lovers to the play's antagonist. Imogen gives a cherished ring to her husband, to whom she has pledged her faithfulness.
In spite of reports to the contrary, Imogen remains chaste in Posthumus's absence and faithful to her young husband. The villainous Iachimo steals the bracelet from Imogen's wrist as she sleeps unaware. This is in keeping with the traditional concept associated with ring symbols: the double bind is inherent in this symbol, which includes both domination and submission for the wearer.
Names as Symbols: Several names in Cymbeline have symbolic meanings.
1. "Posthumus Leonatus": post (after) + humus (mortality) = dead, and leo (lion) + natus (born) = Born of a Lion. This soldier has earned a title fit for a king. The name signifies one who is mighty in life and in death.
2. Imogen chooses the name Fidele for her male alter-ego. Fidele = faithful one.
3. Queen is the only name given to the king's wife. She has no name in either the play or in history. Shakespeare's use of the name Queen is less an attempt to symbolize her role than it is an attempt to avoid placing unnecessary importance on the office of queen, since Shakespeare wrote this play for King James.
Birds and Fowl as Symbols:
Act I Scene 7- Birds and fowls often symbolize freedom, intelligence, and spiritual quest. A reference to birds can also signal the dangers of obsessive thought, as when the duplicitous Iachimo first encounters Imogen. He finds her even more beautiful than he anticipated and lustfully describes her as unique as a phoenix.
Act V Scene 4- Eagles symbolize light, conquest, power, and consciousness with an all-seeing eye. The eagle was known to carry Jupiter's thunderbolt between his talons. The eagle was also a conveyor of the dead to their final rest. Shakespeare uses both these interpretations, when the spirits of Posthumus's parents rise to the balcony, followed by Jupiter on his eagle.