Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Imagery
Etymologically, the literary term, imagery, seems to have originated from the archaic French word, image. It soon transformed into imager which means making an image, or imagerie that entered the English language as imagery. In Middle English, it meant statuary or carved images. It is also said that the term has originated from a Latin term, imitari which means to copy or imitate something.
Now, it is used as imagery which also means images. In grammar, it is a noun.
Definition of Literary Device of Imagery
As a literary term, imagery means the use of language in novels, poems, short stories, or essays, showing the use of figurative language intended to evoke sensory experiences of the readers. It often appeals to the five senses: sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste. In other words, it means the verbal description of things to create mental images in readers.
Common Examples of Imagery
Imagery is common in everyday language. People often use these images to make their audience picture things.
- His gait was abnormally dismal like a lame duck.
- The trees were shedding leaves like a hailstorm.
- The leaves were making a blanket on the grass.
- The grass was waving its long arms in the wind.
- The darkness was threatening their calm walk.
Literary Examples of Imagery
Example # 1
From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
“Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.”
This is a very good use of descriptive language Shakespeare uses in his play, Julius Caesar. The images that Cassius creates about Brutus and his eyes show that he lacks gentleness. This shows that his hand is not only strange but also stubborn. The metaphorical language creates two powerful images; strange eyes and strange hands that both have turned to their benefactor, though, the owner of both is Brutus. This is a beautiful way of indirectly saying things to a person about another person through the use of imagery.
Example # 2
From Hamlet by William Shakespeare
So, oft it chances in particular men,
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth–wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin–
By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason.
These lines from Hamlet show that the readers or audiences see the use of the metaphor of a mole, the personification of nature, and images of color create a strong sense of an evil person. This is the use of images of color, sight, and sound that makes these lines powerful. The sense that the imagery creates is that of an evil.
Example # 3
From Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Mrs. Darling Screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door opened, and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled and sprang at the boy, who leapt lightly through the window. Again Mrs. Darling screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, and she ran down into the street to look for his little body, but it was not there; and she looked up, and in the black night she could see nothing but what she thought was a shooting.
This passage occurs in Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. The images of sound in the second line show the use of figurative language and the sensory experience of sound that the readers will go through. It seems as if Nana is a dog. The response is almost the same as Mrs. Darling shows the same thing. Again, an image of color appears by the end. This passage shows the use of imagery.
Example # 4
From “Past, Present, Future” by Emily Bronte
Tell me, tell me, smiling child,
What the past is like to thee?
‘An autumn evening soft and mild
Wind a wind that sights mournfully.’
Tell, what is the present hour?
‘A green and flowery spray
Where a young bird sits gathering its power
To mount and fly away.’
These verses from the poem “Past, Present, Future” by Emily Bronte show the use of different images. The image of touch “soft and mild,” the image of sight of color “green and spray” and of movement such as “mount and fly” show that Emily Bronte has used balanced imagery to make the children read this rhyming poem as a song.
Example # 5
From “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’s shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
These lines from “A Birthday” shows the beautiful use of different images. The use of metaphors makes these images accentuate as the singing bird, water, heart, apple, boughs, fruits, and sea seem to create a powerful scene in the eyes of readers.
How to Create Imagery
- Select an object, thing, idea, or figure.
- Create a metaphor or simile to relate it with.
- Write down its features and create and use sound devices and structural devices to bedeck it with more images.
- Place that person or object in a setting and write lines about the setting and the relation of the person with the setting in a timeline.
Benefits of Using Imagery
- Imagery helps writers to engage readers and audiences.
- It helps in making reading interesting.
- It helps in clarifying things, events, scenes, and characters.
- It helps in associating meanings with symbols and things.
Literary Device of Imagery in Literary Theory
- As imagery creates mental pictures, it not only embodies things, persons and events but also gives them a referential position with reference to consciousness and rationality. Having four varieties of mental imagery, it is important for a literary narrative to create an asymmetric relationship between words and referents.
- Imagery is an essential element of figurative language. Therefore, it is important in the formalistic analysis of a poem or a piece of prose to draw meanings that the writers put into their writings.
- As far as other literary theoretical perspectives, imagery is important in postmodern as well as in indigenous critical theory, as both draw their meanings from the environment as well as descriptive features of characters, objects, and events.
Suggested Readings
Finke, Ronald A. Principles of Mental Imagery. The MIT Press, 1989. Print.
Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print. Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
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