IMAGERY IN LITERATURE
Imagery refers to the language that stimulates the reader’s senses. It can be
through taste, touch, smell, sound and sight.
Imagery means to use figurative languages to represents the objects, actions in
such a way that appears in the reader’s mind.
Generally, there are seven types of imageries. But the most common imageries that
are used in literatures are:
• Visual Imagery – the sense to see
• Auditory Imagery - the sense to hear
• Tactile Imagery – the sense to touch
• Olfactory Imagery - the sense to smell
• Gustatory Imagery - the sense to taste
• Kinaesthetic Imagery - the sense of the actions and movements of an
object or a character
• Organic Imagery – the senses of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain
• Abstract imagery- the sense of appealing to the intellect or a concept
In Literature, the writer includes some words and thoughts with deep
understandings that triggers the reader’s mind and recall images, mental pictures
that engage one of the five senses: sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Imagery is
an imagination that create images in the mind of reader after reading or hearing
literature.
Such as:
• The children were shouting and screaming.
Here, shouting and screaming stimulates auditory imagery the sense to
hear.
• The fresh oranges are very sweet and cold.
Here, sweet oranges or cold oranges stimulates gustatory imagery, the
sense of taste.
• "The tide of my death came whispering like this
Soiling my body with its tireless voice."
- from Peter Redgrove's “Lazarus and the Sea”
These two lines a clearly auditory, but the use of the word "soiling" may suggest
the tactile; likewise, it could suggest the olfactory. A sense of one's own death
could be considered an abstract image.
These lines from Peter Redgrove's Lazarus and the Sea contain all these kinds of
image:
The tide of my death came whispering like this
Soiling my body with its tireless voice.
I scented the antique moistures when they sharpened
The air of my room, made the rough wood of my bed,
(most dear),
Standing out like roots in my tall grave.
They slopped in my mouth and entered my plaited blood
Quietened my jolting breath with a soft argument
Of such measured insistence, untied the great knot of my heart.
They spread like whispered conversations
Through all the numbed rippling tissues radiated
Like a tree for thirty years from the still centre
Of my salt ovum. But this calm dissolution
Came after my agreement to the necessity of it;
Where before it was a storm over red fields
Pocked with the rain and the wheat furrowed
With wind, then it was the drifting of smoke
From a fire of the wood, damp with sweat,
Fallen in the storm.
It is often the case that an image is not exclusively one thing or another; they
overlap and intermingle and thus combine. Thus, the kinaesthetic may also be
visual.
In this quotation the first two lines are clearly auditory, but the use of the word
'soiling' may suggest the tactile; on the other hand, for some, the word may have
olfactory associations.
The third line is olfactory.
In the fourth and fifth lines we have a combination of the tactile and visual.
The sixth line intermingles the tactile, olfactory and gustatory.
The phrases 'quietened my jolting breath' and 'through all the numbed rippling
tissues' are kinaesthetic but are also visual and tactile.
'But this calm dissolution/Came after my agreement to the necessity of it;' is
abstract. 'Untied the great knot of my heart' is visual-cum-kinaesthetic.
The other images in the poem fall readily into one of the categories mentioned.
SYMBOLISM
Symbolism is a figure of speech where an object, a person, a situation, or an action
that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings.
Many poets used symbolism to deepen the meaning of their poems. Here is an
excerpt from William Blake’s “Ah Sunflower.” In it, William Blake refers to life
cycle and uses sunflowers to represent humankind and that they desire everlasting
life.
Ah! sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;
In another poem of Robert Burns “My love is like a red, red rose…”, he expresses
his love by using the “rose” as a token of love or symbol of love.
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
Two Types of Symbols:
1. General
A general symbol is universal in its meaning. Even if the symbol were removed
from a work of literature, it would still suggest a larger meaning.
Ex: While the sea symbolizes the universal voyage from life to death in The
Odyssey, it retains this association independent from literature. The "sea" is
a general symbol.
Ex: In poetry, a "rose" often is not only a flower, but also a general symbol
for romantic love.
2. Specific
A specific symbol is not universal in its meaning. It acquires a specific meaning
based on how it relates to the content of a novel, poem, etc. The symbol's
significance exists only within the context created by the author.
Ex: A hunting cap in “The Catcher in the Rye” has no universal meaning, but
within the novel it is worn backwards and symbolizes a looking back at
childhood.
Ex: A pair of eyes on a billboard in “The Great Gatsby” has no universal
meaning, but within the story symbolizes the eyes of God watching
humanity.
Tips about Symbols:
• The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically.
Symbols nearly always signal their existence by emphasis, repetition, or position.
• The meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire
context of the story. The symbol has its meaning in the story, not outside it.
• To be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kind from its
literal meaning; a symbol is something more than its class or type.
• A symbol may have more than one meaning. This does not mean that the symbol
can mean anything you want it to because possible meanings are always controlled
by the context.
