Black Beauty: Imagery 9 key examples

The repeated emphasis on the color black—which dominates the scene, from the coaches to the horses—is more than just a description of the upholstery of the funeral procession. Sewell wields the total overload of this color, which in British tradition is associated with mourning, death, and melancholy, to emphasize the somber and grave nature of the event. All funerals are sad, but because this one celebrates the death of a young man, it seems particularly so. The parade of black horses seems infinitely long to the young narrator, as "another and another and another" pass him.

The sadness of the scene is also amplified by its context: two horses have also died before their time as a result of Gordon's accident. A hunting expedition—meant to be an entertainment—has taken the lives of a hare, two horses, and a boy in one day. Although there is no funeral for them, the narrator’s own mourning and sense of doom is echoed by the “tolling, tolling” of the bells. Black Beauty can't understand the need for all of this senseless death, and so the funeral procession seems bewildering and endless to him.

The deliberate emphasis on the bit's tactile attributes—its chilling temperature, its unyielding hardness, and its invasive presence—serves to bring Black Beauty's pain and discomfort to the forefront. Bits are used to control horses, and there is a lot of discussion of what happens when humans pull and tug on them. Given this, it seems even worse that the bit itself would be such an uncomfortable thing to deal with. Later in the passage, Beauty says that he only accepted it because "all horses did when they were grown up," but that even having one on was "very bad! yes, very bad."

 The impression one gets from this passage is of a horrible mouthful of metal, pressing down the tongue and with "ends coming out," stretching the face. Readers are encouraged, almost coerced, into empathizing with Black Beauty through the tactile imagery here. The use of sensory language makes readers acutely conscious of their own mouths, almost feeling a phantom bit forcing their teeth apart. 

The phrase "shone like a rook’s wing" compares Black Beauty’s coat to the iridescent black feathers of birds in the crow family. These birds have plumage that is deep, dark, and rich in color. Rooks belong to this group and although they’re black, in the sunlight their iridescent feathers shimmer brilliantly with many colors. Thinking of Black Beauty’s coat as being like the wing of a rook provides a vivid image of its plushness and its gleaming shine to the reader.

This passage’s visual imagery serves a dual purpose. It points to Black Beauty's well-kept condition and, by extension, his initial contentment with his situation. Birds are often associated with freedom and happiness in Black Beauty, as they aren’t constrained by human rules and human cruelties. This imagery emphasizes that when Black Beauty is cared for, he flourishes. However, the author also suggests that the inverse is true. Neglect and poor treatment can make something beautiful become ordinary, a point reinforced later in the story when Black Beauty's coat loses its luster.

Sewell doesn't merely tell her audience about the pain, but rather invites readers to feel it, emphasizing the injustice being done to Ginger and animals like her. She renders the physical sensations Ginger experiences due to the bearing rein in excruciating detail. The description of "froth," "blood," and "wetness" elicits a feeling of helplessness and agony in the reader; they're stuck in the reins with Ginger. The mention of the "blood from my tongue" coloring the froth paints a poignant picture of her inability to prevent himself from being hurt. The reader can almost feel the wet, frothy mixture in their own sensitive mouth.

By asking the reader to imagine wearing a bearing rein themselves, Black Beauty evokes feelings of indignity, confinement, and distress. The description of the head held “unnaturally high,” the aching neck, and the inability to move creates a sense of bring trapped. The reader is drawn into this uncomfortable scenario through Ginger's diction, making her plight more relatable and immediate.

This language of immobility and constraint serves to emphasize the unnecessary harshness of the bearing rein, which was only used to keep horse’s heads fashionably "high." This description is not just an illustration of the horse's pain, but a broader political statement against the needless violence of this equipment.

Before the narrator visually perceives the flames, the sounds of the fire reach him. The words "soft rushing" and "low crackling and snapping" evoke the distinct sounds of a fire burning. However, what makes this imagery notable is its deceptive softness. The sounds, typically associated with comfort when connected to a fireplace or campfire, seem oddly ominous in this context, hinting at the danger ahead. Black Beauty has never seen a fire before, but just from hearing it, he knows something is wrong and trembles “all over.”

This “soft rushing” premonition foreshadows the impending calamity. The stables are burning down around him. Even though Black Beauty isn’t yet aware of this, his unsettled response gives readers a clue that something is amiss. His trembling, provoked by the unfamiliar sounds, signals to the reader that a threat is looming. Describing Black Beauty's anxiety before revealing its cause enhances the sense of foreboding, especially for younger readers. They are made to feel the suspense and unease the narrator does, as he wonders what the alarming sounds could mean.

Black Beauty has just finished a long gallop. He makes his physical condition clear to the reader through descriptions of his steaming body heat and pouring sweat. The passage focuses intensely on the sensory language of moisture, capturing the narrator’s dripping body and his labored breathing. He is so sweaty that he has “not a dry hair” in his whole coat. He is literally soaked through, and so worn out that he can “only stand and pant.”

To further emphasize the intensity of his effort and the heat emanating from his body, Sewell employs a simile that likens Black Beauty to a boiling pot on a fire. The phrase "I steamed all over [...] like a pot on the fire" gives a vivid picture of the clouds of white steam emerging from Beauty’s black body. It’s as if he is boiling the water inside him from all the effort he’s just made. The reader can almost feel the steam rising from his overheated body.

The common—an English term for a large swath of public land—is portrayed as a space that is green and lush. It’s almost like a bit of moorland, with ground unevenly covered by heather and “dark green furze bushes.” Adding to this textured, deeply green image are scattered thorn trees, open spaces of short grass, and a few things that Beauty knows are there but that he can’t see, such as “ant-hills” and “mole turns.” This comprehensive visual serves to immerse the reader into the physical setting, making them feel they’re galloping alongside the narrator through the English countryside.

However, the vivid descriptions also have another purpose. They set the stage for the subsequent events in the narrative, providing hints of what's to come. When Beauty says the common is "the worst place I ever knew for a headlong gallop," he subtly indicates the challenges and potential dangers awaiting Lizzie. Lizzie is already a “nervous mare” and unlike Black Beauty, she doesn’t know the "uneven ground" of the common "very well.” The intricacies of the landscape the narrator previously described, combined with this hint, give the reader a sense of anticipation and unease, preparing them for the alarming events that follow.

Through this description, readers are made to feel the sharp, stinging pain of the whip and the excruciating discomfort caused by the broken hoof. Without a horseshoe to protect it, Black Beauty's hoof is being destroyed by pounding on the hard surface of the road. The “quick” of a hoof is like the horse version of a human’s nailbed. The hoof is being described here like a painfully split toenail being repeatedly stubbed. The word "cutting" and the mention of the hoof being "split down to the very quick" particularly evoke tactile sensations, making readers almost feel the rawness and anguish of Black Beauty's predicament.

The vividness of this imagery serves two purposes. It emphasizes the unnecessary harm caused by the driver's negligence, and it also underscores Black Beauty's helplessness in such circumstances. Though Black Beauty knows better than the driver about the dangers he's being subjected to, he can’t communicate them. In order to avoid situations like this, the novel implies, people should be trained in proper horse care and treatment. This passage demonstrates that often—as in this circumstance—cruelty to horses stems from ignorance.

This passage is tragic, as are most of the moments in the novel which involve Captain. There’s a big change in tone from the prideful and triumphant beginning of this chapter. The reader already feels pity for the horse, but when he describes his "dear master," the author evokes a strong emotional connection between Captain and his owner. This illustrates a bond the reader can empathize with. The language describing the old horse's fear and grief also appeals to the reader's sense of pathos, as Captain describes his pitiful situation alone on the "great slaughter ground."

The tactile and visual imagery here vividly portrays the chaos of a battlefield. The rushing horses, the sensation of being swept away, and the "great slaughter ground" itself all paint a clear picture of the war's harrowing nature. Although Captain is a big animal, Sewell describes him as "trembling" all over, making the reader feel his anguish and terror as he's "beaten" by the swords and caught in the flood of bodies. Through Captain's experiences, the narrative showcases the devastation of war for Sewell's reader. Battles are as frightening and violent for horses as they are for the humans who ride them.