Describe symbolism in The Lion in Winter by Anthony Harvey

In Act II, Scene III, all the play's political and personal conflicts come to a head in this climactic scene in which the play's most potent symbol reappears in the form of the knives brought in by Eleanor. It's interesting at this point to look back at the one previous appearance of a knife, in Act 1, Scene 3, when Eleanor begins to carve her will into her arm. At that moment, she's preparing to draw her own blood but also Henry's "territorial" blood by ensuring that Richard holds on to the Aquitaine. In both instances, then, knives represent the desire for destruction that lives in every member of this family, the way they all wield hatred and love and provinces as they would a dagger in hopes of drawing both territorial and emotional blood.