IMAGERY IN SHAKESPEARE
Dr. S. Sreekumar
Imagery
Merriam-Webster defines imagery as
the “language that causes people to imagine pictures in their minds”. Mental
images created in the mind of the reader/listener are products of imagination.
For example, when we come across a sentence like the following—
‘It
was dark and dim in the forest’ —the words ‘dark’ and ‘dim’
create visual images in our mind. This is imagery at its simplest form.
However, master craftsmen like Shakespeare had created complicated mental
images through the clever use of language. Romeo praises Juliet thus in Act I
Scene V—
O,
she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It
seems she hangs upon the cheeks of night
Like
a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear
Rich mental images are employed here
to convey the beauty of Juliet. Juliet teaches the torches to burn bright by
her example. Torches dispel darkness in the night. [In Shakespeare’s England
they were the only means to drive away darkness.] The poet goes on to compare
Juliet to a rich jewel that hangs upon the cheeks of night, as in the ears of
an African woman. Here the comparisons get multi-dimensional. The night is as
black as the African woman. Her face is brightened because of the bright jewel
she is wearing. Similarly Juliet brightens the dark night. Then there is a
subtle implication that Juliet is unaware of her beauty as the African woman is
unaware of the price of the rich jewel she is wearing. These explanations do
not exhaust the meaning. Thus we can see that the use of imagery aids the
reader’s imagination by enlarging his senses.
