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Hyperbole
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
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—The Moon God:
Collins uses intense, austere, and sometimes even paradoxical visual language in the first Prologue to show the splendor and scale of the Moon God's temple in India. He goes on to allegorize the British conquest of the subcontinent in the same passage. The anonymous narrator tells the reader that "Here, in a new shrine – in a hall inlaid with precious stones, under a roof supported by pillars of gold – the moon-god was set up and worshipped." The fragment of the sentence that describes the temple here appears in em-dashes, which separate it from the rest of Collins's writing. It is as if even the description's language is too splendid to be surrounded by other normal words.
Related Themes:
The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Sucking Darkness:
The darkness of the sensory language surrounding the Shivering Sand in Period 1 Chapter 4 is a literal version of the gloomy mass of contradictory facts, dark truths, and hidden evidence in The Moonstone. Rosanna uses hyperbolic language and provocative alliteration to describe the Sand. Her intense descriptions of it also foreshadows her own death within its depths. When Rosanna and Betteredge stand looking over the Sand together in Chapter 4, Betteredge says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I looked where she pointed. The tide was on the turn, and the horrid sand began to shiver. The broad brown face of it heaved slowly, and then dimpled and quivered all over. ‘Do you know what it looks like to me?’ says Rosanna, catching me by the shoulder again. ‘It looks as if it had hundreds of suffocating people under it – all struggling to get to the surface, and all sinking lower and lower in the dreadful deeps! Throw a stone in, Mr Betteredge! Throw a stone in, and let’s see the sand suck it down!’
Related Themes:
The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—A Diamond Man:
In Chapter 5 of the First Period, the sinister Colonel Herncastle is described by the manservant Betteredge through a series of visual and auditory images. These foreshadow his sinister motives:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I expected him to break out, even at that polite way of putting it. To my surprise he did nothing of the sort; he alarmed me by taking the thing with an unnatural quiet. His eyes, of a glittering bright grey, just settled on me for a moment; and he laughed, not out of himself, like other people, but into himself, in a soft, chuckling, horridly mischievous way.
Related Themes:
The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Diamond:
When Betteredge describes first seeing the Moonstone diamond in Period 1, Chapter 9, Collins immediately presents the reader with powerful visual imagery of paralysis, depth, color, and intensity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lord bless us! it was a Diamond! As large, or nearly, as a plover’s egg! [...] When you looked down into the stone, you looked into a yellow deep that drew your eyes into it. [...] It seemed unfathomable; this jewel, that you could hold between your finger and thumb, seemed unfathomable as the heavens themselves. We set it in the sun, and then shut the light out of the room, and it shone awfully out of the depths of its own brightness, with a moony gleam, in the dark.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—India-Rubber Girls:
Collins uses a simile describing India-rubber in Narrative 1 Chapter 9 to describe the "speaking, yellow haired" and vivacious Ablewhite sisters. This simile accompanies the visual and tactile imagery of largeness, yellowness, and abundance where these girls are concerned. Mr. Betteredge, a little overwhelmed, describes the arrival of Godfrey Ablewhite and his sisters at the Verinder house:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They were nearly as big as their brother; spanking, yellow-haired, rosy lasses, overflowing with superabundant flesh and blood; bursting from head to foot with health and spirits [...] I declare they bounced on the ground as if they were made of india-rubber. Everything the Miss Ablewhites said began with a large O; everything they did was done with a bang; [...] Bouncers – that’s what I call them.
Related Themes:
The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Straight, Supple Rachel:
In Chapter 18 of the First Period, Collins employs similes which compare Rachel Verinder to both a lily and a cat. Through this and other comparisons, he establishes that how a character looks on the outside generally indicates their interior nature in The Moonstone. When Betteredge sees Rachel approaching, he observes that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She came swiftly out to us, as straight as a lily on its stem, and as lithe and supple in every movement she made as a young cat.
Related Themes:
The Discovery of the Truth: Second Narrative: Mathew Bruff: Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Dark Features:
In the Second Chapter of Blake's Second Narrative, the reader is introduced to Ezra Jennings through visual imagery that aligns him with the novel's Indian characters. In The Moonstone, where India is described as being a site of both savagery and mystery, this can't be a good thing. In this chapter, a law clerk tells the solicitor Mr. Bruff that he's just encountered:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] rather a remarkable-looking man, sir. So dark in the complexion that we all set him down in the office for an Indian, or something of that sort.
Related Themes:
The Discovery of the Truth: Third Narrative: Franklin Blake: Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Unclouded Beauty:
In Chapter 4 of Narrative 3, Collins juxtaposes the visual imagery of natural beauty with the bleak emotional landscape of the horrified Mr. Blake. This contrast foreshadows the unpleasantness of the investigations into the Moonstone's theft, while Blake believes himself to be responsible. After Blake realizes he's actually the diamond thief, having read Rosanna's letter, he stands on the shore of the Shivering Sand and notices that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The sunlight poured its unclouded beauty on every object that I could see. The exquisite freshness of the air made the mere act of living and breathing a luxury. Even the lonely little bay welcomed the morning with a show of cheerfulness; and the bared wet surface of the quicksand itself, glittering with a golden brightness, hid the horror of its false brown face under a passing smile. It was the finest day I had seen since my return to England.
Related Themes:
The Discovery of the Truth: Third Narrative: Franklin Blake: Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Dark Features:
In the Second Chapter of Blake's Second Narrative, the reader is introduced to Ezra Jennings through visual imagery that aligns him with the novel's Indian characters. In The Moonstone, where India is described as being a site of both savagery and mystery, this can't be a good thing. In this chapter, a law clerk tells the solicitor Mr. Bruff that he's just encountered:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] rather a remarkable-looking man, sir. So dark in the complexion that we all set him down in the office for an Indian, or something of that sort.
Related Themes:
The Discovery of the Truth: Third Narrative: Franklin Blake: Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Dark Features:
In the Second Chapter of Blake's Second Narrative, the reader is introduced to Ezra Jennings through visual imagery that aligns him with the novel's Indian characters. In The Moonstone, where India is described as being a site of both savagery and mystery, this can't be a good thing. In this chapter, a law clerk tells the solicitor Mr. Bruff that he's just encountered:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] rather a remarkable-looking man, sir. So dark in the complexion that we all set him down in the office for an Indian, or something of that sort.
Related Themes:
