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Idioms
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 3
Explanation and Analysis—Red and Gold :
James employs vivid visual imagery to describe Catherine's rebellious choice of attire when she’s old enough to choose her own clothes:
Catherine’s back was a broad one, and would have carried a good deal; but to the weight of the paternal displeasure, she never ventured to expose it, and our heroine was twenty years old before she treated herself, for evening wear, to a red satin gown trimmed with gold fringe; though this was an article which, for many years, she had coveted in secret. It made her look, when she sported it, like a woman of thirty; [...]
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Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Unspeckled Bower:
In describing the interior of Mrs. Montgomery's residence, the narrator employs rich visual imagery and a metaphor referring to a bowerbird’s mating ritual:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She received him in a little parlor, which was precisely the parkour he had expected: a small unspeckled bower, ornamented with a desultory foliage of tissue-paper, and with clusters of glass drops, amid which—to carry out the analogy—the temperature of the leafy season was maintained by means of a cast-iron stove, emitting a dry blue flame, and smelling strongly of varnish. The walls were embellished with engravings swathed in pink gauze, and the tables ornamented with volumes of extracts from the poets, usually bound in black cloth stamped with florid designs in jaundiced gilt.
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Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Magnified Babyhouse:
James offers a picturesque portrayal of Mrs. Montgomery's home, filling this passage with intense visual imagery and a simile referring to a toy shop. This all comes together to differentiate it from the grand Washington Square residence:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There were green shutters upon the windows, without slats, but pierced with little holes, arranged in groups; and before the house was a diminutive yard, ornamented with a bush of mysterious character, and surrounded by a low wooden paling, painted in the same green as the shutters. The place looked like a magnified babyhouse and might have been taken down from a shelf in a toy-shop.
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Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Formally Submissive:
The narrative presents Catherine's internal conflict about Morris Townsend—namely, her desire to assert herself against her father's overwhelming will—using tactile imagery and a simile referring to the debilitating effect of being crushed by a great physical weight:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The idea of a struggle with her father, of setting up her will against his own, was heavy on her soul, and it kept her formally submissive, as a great physical weight keeps us motionless.
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Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—A Physician's Hands:
While they’re high in the Alps, Catherine finds herself immersed in situational irony, fearing not the barren landscape, but her own father's motivations. The visual imagery James employs casts an unsettling atmosphere:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The place was ugly and lonely, but the place could do her no harm. There was a kind of still intensity about her father which made him dangerous, but Catherine hardly went so far as to say to herself that it might be part of his plan to fasten his hand—the neat, fine, supple hand of a distinguished physician—in her throat.
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