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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
Key Examples in The Daughters of the Late Colonel
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—Gentle Beams:
In this passage, the author uses personification to capture an important moment of introspection for Josephine toward the end of the story. As she drifts into a mixture of memory and daydream, Josephine observes that:
The sunlight pressed through the windows, thieved its way in, flashed its light over the furniture and the photographs. [...] The rest had been looking after father and at the same time keeping out of father's way. But now? But now? The thieving sun touched Josephine gently. She lifted her face. She was drawn over to the window by gentle beams.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Bubbling Notes:
As she describes light and sound entering the house through the window, Mansfield employs visual and auditory imagery to hint at the appealing world that waits outside the house for Constantia and Josephine:
Unlock with LitCharts A+On the Indian carpet there fell a square of sunlight, pale red; it came and went and came–and stayed, deepened–until it shone almost golden.
"The sun's out," said Josephine, as though it really mattered.
A perfect fountain of bubbling notes shook from the barrel-organ, round, bright notes, carelessly scattered.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Faded Mother:
Toward the end of the story, Mansfield uses visual imagery and personification to describe Josephine’s melancholy reflections on how absent her mother seemed in comparison to the Colonel. The sun coming through the window prowls around the house investigating its contents:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When it came to mother's photograph, the enlargement over the piano, it lingered as though puzzled to find so little remained of mother, except the ear-rings shaped like tiny pagodas and a black feather boa. Why did the photographs of dead people always fade so? wondered Josephine.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Like Doors in Dreams:
Even though the Colonel is gone, his unnerving presence still lingers everywhere in the Pinner house. Mansfield uses visual and tactile imagery and a simile to depict the sisters' unsettling experience as they enter their father's bedroom to go through his things:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They might have suddenly walked through the wall by mistake into a different flat altogether. Was the door just behind them? [...] Constantia felt that, like the doors in dreams, it hadn't any handle at all. It was the coldness which made it so awful. Or the whiteness–which? Everything was covered. The blinds were down, a cloth hung over the mirror, a sheet hid the bed [...] Constantia timidly put out her hand; she almost expected a snowflake to fall. Josephine felt a queer tingling in her nose, as if her nose was freezing.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Red and Green and Black:
In this passage, the author uses visual color imagery and a simile to explore Josephine and Constantia's reluctant adjustment to mourning attire after their father’s recent death:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Josephine thought of her dark-red slippers, which matched her dressing-gown, and of Constantia's favourite indefinite green ones which went with hers. Black! Two black dressing-gowns and two pairs of black woolly slippers, creeping off to the bathroom like black cats.
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