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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—Introducing Mr. Merrick:
When the narrator introduces Mr. Merrick, they use imagery and a simile, as seen in the following passage:
Feeble steps were heard on the stairs, and an old man, tall and frail, odorous of pipe smoke, with shaggy, unkept grey hair and a dingy beard, tobacco stained about the mouth, entered uncertainly. He went slowly up to the coffin […] seeming so pained and embarrassed by his wife’s orgy of grief that he had no consciousness of anything else. He did not even glance toward the coffin, but continued to look at her with a dull, frightened, appealing expression, as a spaniel looks at the whip.
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Explanation and Analysis—Mrs. Merrick Beating Roxy:
At Harvey’s funeral, as Steavens is trying to process the cruel and unsophisticated nature of most of Harvey’s family members and extended community, he hears a loud sound. The narrator uses imagery here to capture the source of the noise as well as Steavens’s reaction to it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+From the kitchen an uproar was sounding; when the dining-room door opened, the import of it was clear. The mother was abusing the maid for having forgotten to make the dressing for the chicken salad which had been prepared for the watchers. Steavens had never heard anything in the least like it; it was injured, emotional, dramatic abuse, unique and masterly in its excruciating cruelty, as violent and unrestrained as had been her grief of twenty minutes before. With a shudder of disgust the lawyer went into the dining-room and closed the door into the kitchen.
Related Themes:
