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Idioms
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
Key Examples in Richard III
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Summer Discontent:
In Richard’s opening soliloquy, he uses tactile imagery and verbal irony to lay down the emotional foundation for his character and motivations.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Curtail'd:
In the opening of Richard III, the protagonist describes his physical appearance in an introspective and revealing monologue filled with visual imagery:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
[...]
Deformed, unfinish’d, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up [...]
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Key-Cold Figure:
Lady Anne’s mourning over the corpse of King Henry VI in Act 1 is imbued with powerful visual and tactile imagery and several poignant uses of alliteration:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster,
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood,
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,
Stabbed by the selfsame hand that made these wounds.
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Explanation and Analysis—Congeal'd Mouths:
As she grieves over Henry VI's corpse, Lady Anne employs a metaphor of wounds speaking, and some accompanying and unpleasant visual imagery to accuse Richard III of murdering him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+See, dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh!
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Act 3, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Blasted Sapling:
Richard professes to Hastings that he believes that Queen Elizabeth has cursed him. He uses tactile imagery and a simile comparing his arm to a withered tree to paint a picture of weakness and rot:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Look how I am bewitched; behold, mine arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up.
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Act 4, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Innocent Arms:
Sir James Tyrrell, who has been sent by Richard to murder the princes in the Tower, describes the sad scene of the two young princes before their deaths. He tells the audience about it using visual sensory language, and pathos:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] girdling one another
Within their alabaster innocent arms.
Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
And in their summer beauty kissed each other.
A book of prayers on their pillow lay [...]
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Loathèd Issue:
In this passage, Queen Margaret deploys hyperbole and vicious tactile imagery to express her loathing for King Richard. She is enraged by his treachery and doesn't hold back on her scathing insults:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb,
Thou loathèd issue of thy father’s loins,
Thou rag of honor, thou detested—
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Act 5, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Despair and Die:
Richard is visited by the ghosts of those he has wronged on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field. The Ghost of Henry VI gives a chilling prediction, using alliteration and tactile imagery to drive his point home:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When I was mortal my anointed body
By thee was punchèd full of deadly holes.
Think on the Tower and me. Despair, and die!
Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die.
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