The Beast in the Jungle

by Henry James

The Beast in the Jungle: Imagery 2 key examples

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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Charm of Weatherend:

Visual imagery enriches the narrator's description of Weatherend in Chapter 1:

The charm, happily, was in other things too—partly in there being scarce a spot at Weatherend without something to stay behind for.  It was in the way the autumn day looked into the high windows as it waned; the way the red light, breaking at the close from under a low sombre sky, reached out in a long shaft and played over old wainscots, old tapestry, old gold, old colour.

Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—May in April:

The most striking example of visual imagery in the novella appears in Chapter 4. Just before the story's climax, the narrator describes an elderly May sitting next to an empty hearth:

He had gone in late to see her, but evening hadn’t settled and she was presented to him in that long fresh light of waning April days which affects us often with a sadness sharper than the greyest hours of autumn. The week had been warm, the spring was supposed to have begun early, and May Bartram sat, for the first time in the year, without a fire[...] Her own aspect—he could scarce have said why—intensified this note.  Almost as white as wax, with the marks and signs in her face as numerous and as fine as if they had been etched by a needle, with soft white draperies relieved by a faded green scarf on the delicate tone of which the years had further refined[...]

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