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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
Chapter 25: The Three Together
Explanation and Analysis—The Masquerade:
Visual imagery helps elucidate the symbolic meaning of each character's costume in the masquerade scene. When Coverdale goes walking in Chapters 24 and 25, he stumbles upon the inhabitants of Blithedale dressed up in the forest:
Hollingsworth was in his ordinary working-dress. Priscilla wore a pretty and simple gown, with a kerchief about her neck, and a calash, which she had flung back from her head, leaving it suspended by the strings. But Zenobia (whose part among the masquers, as may be supposed, was no inferior one) appeared in a costume of fanciful magnificence, with her jewelled flower as the central ornament of what resembled a leafy crown, or coronet. She represented the Oriental princess, by whose name we were accustomed to know her.
Most of the visual imagery focuses on clothing. Each person dresses according to the personality they present at Blithedale—Hollingsworth wears working clothes, Priscilla dresses simply, and Zenobia wears ornate and beautiful clothes. Zenobia's dress in particular suggests that she puts on more of a performance than the other characters; her tendency to dramatize her own circumstances echoes in her loosely allegorical story about the demise of a project similar to Blithedale. In this particular chapter, she receives a lot of the narrator's attention, and in the following passage he notes that "his eyes were on fire" and her cheeks "each had a crimson spot, so exceedingly vivid." The emphasis on visual imagery in these scenes helps the reader see the difference between the character's costumes and their usual clothing, as well as Zenobia's dramatic beauty.
Related Themes:
Chapter 27: Midnight
Explanation and Analysis—Zenobia's Death:
Visual imagery heightens the emotional impact of Zenobia's suicide. In Chapter 27, Coverdale describes what she looked like when they found her in the water:
Of all modes of death, methinks it is the ugliest. Her wet garments swathed limbs of terrible inflexibility. She was the marble image of a death-agony. Her arms had grown rigid in the act of struggling, and were bent before her, with clenched hands; her knees, too, were bent, and—thank God for it!—in the attitude of prayer. Ah, that rigidity! It is impossible to bear the terror of it. It seemed—I must needs impart so much of my own miserable idea—it seemed as if her body must keep the same position in the coffin, and that her skeleton would keep it in the grave, and that when Zenobia rose, at the Day of Judgment, it would be in just the same attitude as now!
Visual imagery here includes "limbs of terrible inflexibility" as well as the description of Zenobia's color in the phrase "the marble image of death-agony." This passage permits the reader to visualize the struggle that Zenobia must have undergone in order to commit suicide by drowning. The "marble" whiteness of her skin after death creates a contrast with her vibrant, colorful presence during her life; the rigidity and signs of struggle are striking changes from her formerly graceful and powerful presence. This is one of the most dramatic and emotional scenes in the whole novel, and visual imagery enhances its impact on the reader.
Related Themes:
