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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—The Doll's House:
At the beginning of the story, the narrator introduces readers to the titular doll’s house, using imagery in the process:
[T]he smell of paint was quite enough to make any one seriously ill, in Aunt Beryl’s opinion. Even before the sacking was taken off. And when it was.…
There stood the doll’s house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow. Its two solid little chimneys, glued on to the roof, were painted red and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a little slab of toffee. […] There was actually a tiny porch, too, painted yellow, with big lumps of congealed paint hanging along the edge.
Mansfield uses imagery here to engage readers' sense of smell and sight. The description of the smell of the paint being “quite enough to make any one seriously ill” (even before it was taken out of its case) helps readers understand how intense and off-putting the paint fumes are. The descriptions of the “dark, oily, spinach green” color of the house, the “little slab of toffee” of a front door, and the “big lumps of congealed paint” hanging off the front porch all help readers picture this off-putting and less-than-perfect house.
The imagery in this passage is significant because it communicates to readers that the dollhouse is not all that the Burnell children (and, later, all of their peers at school) make it out to be. In many ways, the dollhouse symbolizes the Burnells themselves, who (minus Kezia, the youngest) feel themselves to be more enviable and important than they actually are.
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