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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
Chapters 43–58
Explanation and Analysis—Strickland's Masterpiece:
While Strickland's wall masterpiece has been destroyed, the painting he gifted Dr. Coutras still exists. When the narrator sees the painting for the first time, he uses imagery to describe the scene:
They were sombre blues, opaque like a delicately carved bowl in lapis lazuli, and yet with a quivering lustre that suggested the palpitation of mysterious life; there were purples, horrible like raw and putrid flesh, and yet with a glowing, sensual passion that called up vague memories of the Roman Empire of Heliogabalus; there were reds, shrill like the berries of holly—one thought of Christmas in England, and the snow, the good cheer, and the pleasure of children—and yet by some magic softened till they had the swooning tenderness of a dove’s breast; there were deep yellows that died with an unnatural passion into a green as fragrant as the spring and as pure as the sparkling water of a mountain brook... They were heavy with tropical odours.
This dynamic and detailed description of Strickland's painting evokes the senses in a powerful manner. The reader cannot help but envision the images and the colors they evoke. After the measly description of Strickland's painted walls, this imagery fulfills both the narrator and the reader's curiosity and senses. As a result, the imagery here is meant to stand in place of the wall masterpiece: though the narrator is looking at a painting in a consulting room, he is meant to feel like he is back in Strickland's house, looking at the Garden of Eden walls.
This is one of most extended descriptions in the novel, so it is only natural that it should serve as a transplant description of Strickland's masterpiece. His masterpiece was also the painting that gave him enough personal fulfillment to finally die, or, as the narrator believes, exorcise his "demon" of passion.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Arriving in Tahiti:
When the narrator first arrives in Tahiti to interview those who knew Strickland, he paints the island with vivid imagery:
The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion. They are sensual with an unashamed violence that leaves you breathless. And the crowd that throngs the wharf as the steamer draws alongside is gay and debonair; it is a noisy, cheerful, gesticulating crowd. It is a sea of brown faces. You have an impression of coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky.
Although the narrator's initial observations are specific and colorful, noting the red royal poincianas against the cerulean sky, his later observations are more general. The narrator notes the "sea of brown faces," a generalization of the Tahitian people. By describing the crowd of Tahitians as a "coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky," the narrator groups the Tahitian people together so that they cannot be singularly identified. This grouping illustrates the twisted European perspective on the people of colonized islands, that they not civilized enough to be distinguished as individuals. Moreover, the way in which the narrator pairs vibrant colors with "unashamed violence" to describe Tahiti's attraction, demonstrates how the island was a place of both inspiration and demise for Strickland in the end.
