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Hyperbole
Definition of Imagery
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Wedding Cake:
The novel uses decadent imagery to establish the superficial wealth and values of the bourgeoisie, such as with Emma and Charles’s wedding cake in Part 1, Chapter 4:
It was in the wagon-shed that the table had been laid…They had brought in a pastry-cook from Yvetot for the tarts and the cakes…At the base, to begin with, there was a square of blue cardboard representing a temple with porticoes, colonnades and stucco statuettes all around, in little niches decorated with gold paper stars; then on the second layer there was a castle made of Savoy cake, encircled by tiny fortifications of angelica, almonds, raisins and segments of orange; and finally, on the upper platform, a green field with rocks and pools of jam and boats made out of nutshells, there was arrayed a little Cupid, perched on a chocolate swing, its two poles finished off with two real rose-buds, just like knobs, on the top.
The cake is described with imagery of royal and mythical proportions, such as the references to castles and Cupid. Such exorbitance and high associations contrast with the reality of the cake being for a small-town wedding and emphasize the ridiculousness of bourgeois attempts at mimicking nobility through sheer accumulated decadence alone. Rather than the description highlighting the elegance or beauty of the cake, the lavish imagery exposes the cake as a crude amalgamation of various class signifiers (e.g. classical imagery, castles, expensive ingredients).
This superficial focus on aesthetics is also reflected by how some parts of the cake are useless beyond aesthetic value, such as cardboard and nutshells. This further emphasizes the class divide between the bourgeois and the lower class as the bourgeois value novelty over utility, which is a value they can afford while the poor cannot. Due to the setting, some aspects of the wedding are more rustic and sacrifice aesthetics for utility, such as the food being laid out in the wagon shed rather than a more fanciful venue, making these moments of exaggerated decadence even more ridiculous.
Furthermore, beyond making commentary on class, the cake’s frivolous artistry also foreshadows how Emma’s own idealized and fantastical images of love are superficial constructions of her imagination rather than reflective of real love. In the same way that the cake mimics the romantic imagery of love and demonstrates greater care for presentation than taste, Emma’s love for Charles is artificial.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Religious:
Beyond literature on adventure and romance, Emma also roots her romantic ideals in her religious upbringing, viewing the heightened emotions and intrigue of Catholic sainthood and martyrdom as another way of finding meaning and fulfillment in her life. She rediscovers this fervor after falling ill when Rodolphe abandons her instead of running away with her. In Part 2, Chapter 14, the novel demonstrates her zealousness in this new form of escapism through sumptuous and dramatic religious imagery:
Holy water was sprinkled on the sheets of her bed; the priest took the white wafer from the holy ciborium; and she was swooning with a celestial joy as she parted her lips to receive the body of the Saviour offered to her. The curtains over her alcove swelled out gently around her, rather like clouds, and the rays from the two candles burning on the bedside-table seemed to her eyes like dazzling haloes. She let her head drop back, fancying that she heard upon the air the music of the harps of seraphim, that she glimpsed in a sky of blue, upon a throne of gold, God the Father, resplendent and majestical, and with a sign He was sending to earth angels on wings of fire to carry her off in their arms.
Despite being trapped in her sick bed and reeling from the disappointment of another failure to achieve her dreams of a life like those she’s read about, religion offers another fantasy for her to cling to and insert herself into. She transforms her dire reality into something heavenly, with objects as mundane as candles becoming dazzling haloes. This imagery reveals how she views religion less as a form of salvation from sin and more as salvation from her boredom with mundane reality. The over-the-top imagery highlights the superficiality of her approach to Catholicism. Emma is solely interested in what glory and power religion can provide for her, as seen by the visual greediness of the imagery. She imagines being saved by God and later becoming a saint, not in relation to performing good deeds or out of spiritual devotion, but because of the aesthetics it provides.
Related Themes:
