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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
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
Light and dark imagery appears throughout the novel as a motif, often representing secrets and disclosure. For instance, in Chapter 12, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl stand together on the scaffold at night but under the light of a meteor:
And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Pine-Tree Puritans:
In Chapter 6, the narrator describes how Pearl plays imaginary games by herself, imagining that the trees and flowers around her are people from town. Vivid imagery contributes to the personification of plants as people:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The pine-trees, aged, black and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully.
Related Themes:
Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
Light and dark imagery appears throughout the novel as a motif, often representing secrets and disclosure. For instance, in Chapter 12, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl stand together on the scaffold at night but under the light of a meteor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.
Related Themes:
Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Wild Child:
In Chapter 15, Pearl tosses rocks into the water while Hester and Chillingworth have a secret conversation outside of town. The narrator uses nature imagery to emphasize that Pearl is both a "wild" creature and a human child:
Unlock with LitCharts A+One little gray bird, with a white breast, Pearl was almost sure, had been hit by a pebble, and fluttered away with a broken wing. But then the elf-child sighed, and gave up her sport; because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself.
Related Themes:
