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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
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—Tarred Major Molineux:
At the climax of the story, Robin and Major Molineux make eye contact after the Major has been tarred and feathered and is being paraded through the streets by a malevolent mob. The narrator uses imagery in this moment in order to capture Robin’s shock:
They stared at each other in silence, and Robin’s knees shook, and his hair bristled, with a mixture of pity and terror. Soon, however, a bewildering excitement began to seize upon his mind; the preceding adventures of the night, the unexpected appearance of the crowd, the torches, the confused din, and the hush that followed, the spectre of his kinsman reviled by that great multitude, all this, and more than all, a perception of tremendous ridicule in the whole scene, affected him with a sort of mental inebriety.
The imagery here engages several different senses at once—readers can feel Robin’s knees shaking and “his hair bristl[ing],” as well as join him in the feelings of “pity,” “terror,” and “bewildering excitement.” Readers can also hear “the confused din” from earlier that night and “the hush that followed,” as Robin puts all the pieces together, understanding that everything he experienced was leading to this moment of utter chaos.
Finally, readers can also experience “mental inebriety” alongside Robin as he feels overwhelmed and near-drunk, reckoning with the fact that his cousin is not the respected and revered man Robin believed him to be, but a ridiculed and “reviled” laughing-stock.
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Explanation and Analysis—Sleeping Town:
After having an unpleasant interaction with the horned man on the street, Robin sits down on the steps of a church, resigning himself to waiting there for Major Molineux to pass by. In this moment, the narrator uses imagery and a personification to capture the sounds of the town:
Then he strove to speed away the time, by listening to a murmur, which swept continually along the street, yet was scarcely audible, except to an unaccustomed ear like his; it was a low, dull, dreamy sound, compounded of many noises, each of which was at too great a distance to be separately heard. Robin marvelled at this snore of a sleeping town, and marvelled more, whenever its continuity was broken, by now and then a distant shout, apparently loud where it originated.
The imagery here engages readers’ sense of hearing via descriptions of a “scarcely audible” murmur that is “low, dull, dreamy,” and seemingly “compounded of many noises,” broken up now and then by “a distant shout.” The personification—in which the town is presented as “sleeping” and “snor[ing]”—helps readers to experience the low murmur as a sort of sonorous snore.
Overall, this passage presents readers with a moment of calm before the storm—little does Robin know that the “low murmur” is not a gentle snoring but the sounds of the townspeople preparing to tar and feather Major Molineux and then fiendishly parade him through the streets. Robin’s naïve interpretation of the sounds signals his innocence, an innocence which will be gone once he witnesses the sort of violence the townspeople are capable of.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Parade:
When describing the parade of townspeople who have tarred and feathered Major Molineux, the narrator uses both a simile and imagery, as seen in the following passage:
In [the horned man’s] train, were wild figures in the Indian dress, and many fantastic shapes without a model, giving the whole march a visionary air, as if a dream had broken forth from some feverish brain, and were sweeping visibly through the midnight streets. A mass of people, inactive, except as applauding spectators, hemmed the procession in, and several women ran along the sidewalks, piercing the confusion of heavier sounds, with their shrill voices of mirth or terror.
The simile here—in which the narrator describes the scene as being like “a dream” that “had broken forth from some feverish brain”—captures the eerie and otherworldly mood in this moment. As a sheltered young man from the countryside, Robin has never witnessed such chaos, and thus experiences it more as a dream than as reality.
The imagery comes through in the vivid visual descriptions of these revelers “in the Indian dress” “sweeping visibly through the midnight streets” as well as the auditory descriptions of the spectators “piercing” the sounds of the procession “with their shrill voices of mirth or terror.” All of these descriptions combine to create a scene of utter chaos and confusion as colonists prove that they have control of Boston rather than the British.
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