Definition of Imagery
O'Farrell uses imagery and simile to immerse readers into Hamnet's perception as he wakes up beside his feverish twin sister, Judith. This passage appears early in the novel, when the plague has entered the family home and Hamnet first confronts the physical reality of Judith's illness:
He twists his head and then he remembers everything. A form lies flat, next to him, head twisted to one side. Judith's face is waxen and still, a sheen of sweat making it glimmer like glass ... Hamnet swallows, his throat closed and tight.
When Judith falls ill, O'Farrell renders Agnes's shock with imagery so physical it feels almost unbearable. The passage begins:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Agnes seems to split in two. Part of her gasps at the sight of the buboes. The other part hears the gasp, observes it, notes it: a gasp, very well. Tears spring into the eyes of the first Agnes, and her heart gives a great thud in her chest, an animal hurling itself against a cage of bones. The other Agnes is ticking off the signs: buboes, fever, deep sleep.