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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
First Entry
Explanation and Analysis—The Room:
Jane’s bedroom is meant to be a sanctuary, a place where she can relax and heal from her postpartum depression. However, imagery reveals why the room actually impedes her recovery and contributes to her mental breakdown later in the story:
It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.
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Explanation and Analysis—Unclean Yellow:
Imagery helps establish the wallpaper as both a trigger of Jane’s mental decline and a symbol of how her depression haunts and confounds her. Confined to the house and unable to socialize, Jane diverts all her attention to the grotesque wallpaper:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I never saw a worse paper in my life […]
It is dull enough to confuse the eye following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.
The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.
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Fourth Entry
Explanation and Analysis—Stooping and Creeping:
The emergence of the mysterious figure in the wallpaper represents the final stage of Jane’s mental illness, as she begins to obsess over the wallpaper and seemingly hallucinates that there’s a figure trapped behind its pattern. She uses both visual imagery and a simile to describe what she sees:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.
Related Themes:
