In a conversation early in the novel between Mrs. Dashwood and Marianne, Marianne uses imagery to describe her experience of Edward:
“Edward is very amiable, and I love him tenderly. But yet—he is not the kind of young man—there is a something wanting—his figure is not striking; it has none of that grace which I should expect in the man who could seriously attach my sister. His eyes want all that spirit, that fire, which at once announce virtue and intelligence.”
Marianne’s more figurative description of Edward—that “his eyes want all that spirit, that fire”—makes this an important example of imagery. It is not literally possible for eyes to contain spirit or fire, so what does she mean by it? Most likely, Austen includes this lyrical description of Edward so that readers can understand Marianne’s character better, by understanding the lens through which she views potential romantic partners. She does not think Edward is a good fit for Elinor because she—Marianne—would not want to have a partner who lacks passion, energy, and spirit, traits Edward's eyes fail to display. In allowing readers to “see” Edward through Marianne’s eyes, Austen shows them how important emotionality and a zest for life are to Marianne.
In an unusually lyrical passage near the end of the novel, Austen uses imagery to capture the romantic way in which Marianne views the English countryside, and especially Cleveland, the house where she has just arrived with her family:
Marianne entered the house with a heart swelling with emotion from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from Barton, and not thirty from Combe Magna; and before she had been five minutes within its walls, while the others were busily helping Charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper, she quitted it again, stealing away through the winding shrubberies, now just beginning to be in beauty, to gain a distant eminence; where, from its Grecian temple, her eye, wandering over a wide tract of country to the south-east, could fondly rest on the farthest ridge of hills in the horizon, and fancy that from their summits Combe Magna might be seen.
Marianne’s heart is “swelling with emotion” as she takes in the “winding shrubberies” and “Grecian temple,” and she lets her eyes “fondly rest” where she imagines she sees Willoughby’s estate. In a book with very little imagery or description of landscapes, this moment is significant. Austen shifts her writing style in order to show readers what it is like inside Marianne’s “sensible” (sensitive) mind and heart as she takes in the beauty of the countryside. Not only that, but it also shows Marianne’s continued longing for Willoughby, even after he has broken her heart.
