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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
Chapter 15 – Number 34 and Number 17
Explanation and Analysis—A Failure of Imagination:
In Chapter 15, Dumas relates the extent of Dantès's predicament as he sits in prison in terms of that which Dantès does not know: uneducated as he is, Dantès has no means to entertain himself with knowledge of literature or memory of historical anecdotes. Dumas articulates this plight with a series of literary devices, including visual imagery, metaphor, and an allusion to the vividness of oil painting:
Dantès was a simple, uneducated man; to him, the past was covered by a murky veil that can be raised only by knowledge. In the solitude of his dungeon and the desert of his thoughts, he could not reconstruct ages past, revive extinct races or rebuild those antique cities that imagination augments and poeticizes so that they pass before one’s eyes, gigantic and lit by fiery skies, as in Martin’s Babylonian scenes. All he had were: his own past, which was so short; his present – so sombre; and his future – so uncertain: nineteen years of light to contemplate, in what might be eternal darkness!
Dumas uses metaphor to compare the act of remembering the past and anticipating the future to attempting to look through a haze or a veil—the object of sight is obscured through the opacity of time. He also invokes the English artist John Martin, a Romantic painter who would have been a contemporary of Dumas, to demonstrate the power of a well-educated imagination: had Dantès known more, he might be able to conjure scenes in his head like those of Martin's massive paintings of biblical events.
By demonstrating Dantès's lack of education and refinement, Dumas foreshadows the forthcoming crash-course in cultural and military knowledge and aristocratic behavior that he will receive from the Abbe—the very education that will enable him to transform into the Count of Monte Cristo. Dantès will leave the prison capable not only of imagining a wild future for himself but also with the power to make that future into reality.
Related Themes:
Chapter 58 – Monsieur Noirtier de Villefort
Explanation and Analysis—Noirtier's Inner Light:
In Chapter 58, Dumas invites the reader into a conversation with Noirtier, the old Monsieur de Villefort himself—an apparently ancient man who has lost the power of speech and movement but nonetheless retains his presence of mind. Dumas introduces Noirtier with a slew of literary devices, including hyperbole, metaphor, simile, and the imagery of light and darkness:
Motionless as a corpse, he greeted his children with bright, intelligent eyes .... Sight and hearing were the only two senses which, like two sparks, still lit up this human matter, already three-quarters remoulded for the tomb. Moreover, only one of these two senses could reveal to the outside world the inner life which animated this statue, and the look which disclosed that inner life was like one of those distant lights which shine at night, to tell a traveller in the desert that another being watches in the silence and the darkness.
Though Noirtier cannot move, Dumas conveys his "inner light" in a wash of visual imagery: his "bright" eyes, like "sparks," light Noirtier up from within. Dumas then uses hyperbole to convey just how close to the grave Noirtier appears to be—"three-quarters" on the way, to be exact, his body well en-route to some sort of self-mummification turning him from human being to metaphorical "statue."
Chapter 62 – Ghosts
Explanation and Analysis—Good Housekeeping:
In Chapter 62, Bertuccio prepares the house at Auteuil for the Count's massive dinner. Describing the extravagant transformation of the house, Dumas relies heavily on the imagery of sight and smell:
In all, this house, which had been empty for twenty-five years and only the day before had been dark and gloomy, impregnated with what might be called the aroma of time, had in a single day recovered an appearance of life, full of the master’s favourite perfumes and even his preferred amount of daylight: nothing could better have illustrated the steward’s skill and his master’s understanding...
Dumas leaves the reader to imagine for themselves how the musty smell of time might pervade a largely abandoned home, and how that "aroma" might give way to the heavy scents of luxurious perfumes. At the same time as Bertuccio rids the house of the old smells, he also rids it of darkness itself: he brings in the "preferred amount of daylight" to further restore the life of this place.
Everything and everyone in The Count of Monte Cristo—from fortunes and ambitions to appearances and even identities—changes quite quickly, and physical spaces are no exception. Just like the Count remakes his image to serve his new quest for revenge, Bertuccio restores the house at Auteuil to serve the Count.
Related Themes:
Chapter 69 – Information
Explanation and Analysis—Hotel Decoration 101:
In Chapter 69, Villefort waits to interview Lord Wilmore to get more information on the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo. As he waits for Wilmore to arrive, Dumas treats the reader to a vivid description of Wilmore's residence aided by visual imagery and allusions to literature:
The visitor waited in the drawing-room; there was nothing remarkable about this room, which was like any other in furnished lodgings: a mantelpiece with two modern Sèvres vases, a clock with Cupid drawing his bow and a mirror, in two sections; engravings on each side of the mirror, one showing Homer carrying his guide, the other Belisarius begging alms; wallpaper, grey on grey; a sofa upholstered in red, and printed in black—this was Lord Wilmore’s drawing-room. It was lit by two lamps with shades of frosted glass that gave only a feeble light, as if deliberately designed not to strain the tired eyes of the prefect’s emissary.
Color and light imagery suffuses this passage, as the reader imagines for themselves the decor arranged before Villefort. To make his description even more specific, Dumas has included specific allusions to literature-influenced artworks: an engraving of Homer carrying his guide, presumably after the painting of the same name by 19th century French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Belisarius—a Byzantine General—begging for alms, after the painting by 18th century French painter Jacques-Louis David.
Dumas knows the familiar references to which his audience will be able to relate, and he fills the narrative of The Count of Monte Cristo with them. Here, the invocation of two famous paintings in the middle of a highly descriptive sequence helps the reader better visualize Wilmore's residence.
Chapter 115 – Luigi Vampa’s Bill of Fare
Explanation and Analysis—Prison Cuisine:
In Chapter 115, as Danglars sits imprisoned by Vampa and his crew, he watches them eat a miserable meal that becomes more and more appetizing as he realizes his own hunger. Dumas conveys Danglars's thoughts on the food through the use of vivid visual and taste imagery:
...it may be that the crudest of victuals can address a tangible invitation in quite eloquent terms to a hungry stomach. Suddenly Danglars felt that at this moment his was a bottomless pit: the man seemed less ugly, the bread less black and the cheese less rancid. Finally, those raw onions, the repulsive foodstuff of savages, began to evoke certain sauces Robert, certain dishes of boiled beef and onions which his cook had adapted to more refined palates when Danglars would tell him: ‘Monsieur Deniseau, give us a spot of plain home cooking today.’
Even though the food seems relatively awful—black bread, rancid cheese, and raw onions are hardly a hearty meal—Danglars nonetheless comes around on eating it due to his fast-growing appetite. In his mind, he transforms the raw onions into a palatable version of actual, fine cuisine as he might have requested from his own chef. No matter how high the station of a character in The Count of Monte Cristo, they are not safe from a fall from grace. Danglars's ability to justify eating the rotting food is a visceral reminder of just how far he has fallen.
Dumas himself wrote a cookbook of sorts and he alludes to this work—and his evidently extensive knowledge of cooking practices—in this scene. In the cookbook, which Dumas called his Dictionary of Cuisine, he even writes about the sauces Robert! Throughout The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas makes an effort to connect his story to his own life and the world at large. Allusions like this could build his connection with his reader and create a more engaging and relatable reading experience.
Related Themes:
