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Hyperbole
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 6
Explanation and Analysis—Gothic Nature:
Chapter 6 consists of several stories/parables told inside of the main narrative, including one about the Five Sisters of York. These sisters allegorize 1830s society, representing the secular, materialist worldview Dickens seeks to satirize in Nicholas Nickleby.
For this particular story, Dickens uses imagery in the gothic sense of the word, relating upsets within the natural world to upsets within the characters themselves. Within the story of the Five Sisters, the following instance of gothic imagery precedes their worldly condemnation for refusing to give up on materialism:
‘There was a sullen darkness in the sky, and the sun had gone angrily down, tinting the dull clouds with the last traces of his wrath, when the same black monk walked slowly on with folded arms, within a stone’s-throw of the abbey. A blight had fallen on the trees and shrubs; and the wind at length beginning to break the unnatural stillness that had prevailed all day, sighed heavily from time to time, as though foretelling in grief the ravages of the coming storm.'
This passage also includes an important instance of personification: "the sun had gone angrily down, tinting the dull clouds with the last traces of his wrath." Dickens's use of imagery and figurative language in this passage points to some sort of dour future for the young women in the story. Nature is angry; in Gothic fiction, this always foreshadows something bad.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Pale Faces:
In Chapter 8, Nicholas encounters the Dotheboys Hall boys and is appalled by what he witnesses. The boys are malnourished and unkempt; several of them have medical conditions that the narrator refers to as "ugliness" and "distortion." The sensory imagery in the following passage is strong, meant to embody the emotions Nicholas feels upon first witnessing such human suffering:
Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men, deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long
meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together; there were the bleared eye, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, and every ugliness or distortion that told of unnatural aversion conceived by parents for their offspring, or of young lives which, from the earliest dawn of infancy, had been one horrible endurance of cruelty and neglect.
This passage is a bit of a visual sensory overload, and Dickens intends it that way. Readers might feel crowded or overwhelmed while reading this excerpt: "bleared" eyes, "meagre legs," and "stunted growth" all point towards malnutrition and neglect. One can very nearly feel the children's pain and hunger through the passage. Nicholas encounters these boys for the first time and is, naturally, overwhelmed by the horrific state of their accommodations and treatment. This use of imagery reflects Nicholas's state of mind, which in turn affects the reader's mood.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Lacing Stays:
In Chapter 13, Dickens includes several scenes intended to characterize Mr. and Mrs. Squeers for readers. The following passage includes one such instance of characterization, achieved through a combination of auditory imagery and simile:
‘Now then,’ cried that gentleman, ‘are you going to sleep all day, up there – ’
‘You lazy hounds?’ added Mrs Squeers, finishing the sentence, and producing at the same time a sharp sound like that which is occasioned by the lacing of stays.
Mrs. Squeers, after directing her insult towards the Dotheboys children, makes a sound like the "lacing of stays." This example of both auditory imagery and simile is distinct, providing a portrait of Mrs. Squeers's character through her actions.
At the time Dickens wrote Nicholas Nickleby, it was common for women to wear restrictive undergarments that had to be tightened and laced. In the above passage, the "stays" serve as a form of sensory imagery, conjuring up the feeling of restriction and entrapment as Mr. and Mrs. Squeers viciously exert their control over the Dotheboys children. Mrs. Squeers is quick to insult the young boys, quick to activate her sharp tongue; and so, the sharp sound "like [...] the lacing of stays" accurately mirrors her character and actions.
Related Themes:
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Ghostly Parliament:
Toward the beginning of Chapter 16, Dickens includes a description of Parliament's workspace. Upon encountering this place, Nicholas is left with an unexpectedly negative first impression. One might assume that the offices of Parliament are dignified and energetic, populated by powerful people intent on getting important work done. Dickens utilizes imagery and satire to reveal the opposite.
In damp weather the place is rendered close by the steams of moist acts of parliament and frowsy petitions; general postmen grow faint as they enter its infected limits, and shabby figures in quest of franks, flit restlessly to and fro like the troubled ghosts of Complete Letter-writers departed.
In this space, acts of parliament are "moist" and "steam[ing]," interspersed with "frowsy petitions." The limits of the building are "infected"; postmen "grow faint" as they enter. The sensory imagery used in this passage suggests a building full of decay and death—perhaps a hospital or morgue—not the vibrant, self-important Parliament office one might expect. Dickens uses this imagery to satirize government, depicting its offices as defunct, decaying, and out-of-touch. Those who enter become ghosts, forced to wander through its halls and face the possibility of "infection." This may be a critique of the inefficacy or lack of imagination that Dickens finds endemic to the British government.
Related Themes:
Chapter 56
Explanation and Analysis—Iron Heart:
In Chapter 56, Ralph and Arthur enter Mr. Bray's house following the older man's death. The two men stand in the house, dumbfounded, processing the series of events leading up to this point in the narrative. During this scene, Dickens utilizes vivid sensory imagery to describe the house's haunting atmosphere:
It was the same dark place as ever: every room dismal and silent as it was wont to be, and every ghostly article of furniture in its customary place. The iron heart of the old grim clock undisturbed
by all the noise without, still beat heavily within its dusty case, the tottering presses slunk from the sight as usual in their melancholy corners, the echoes of footsteps returned the same dreary sound; the long-legged spider paused in his nimble run, and scared by the sight of men in that his dull domain, hung motionless upon the wall counterfeiting death until they should have passed him by.
In this passage, sensory imagery serves two purposes: setting the mood, and representing Ralph and Arthur's personal emotions. Everything in the room appears to mimic death or old age. One can hear the "iron heart of the old grim clock" beating "heavily within its dusty case." The spider on the wall "counterfeit[s] death," waiting for the two men to leave its "dull domain." Death is in the air, waiting to come for Ralph and Arthur both. The resulting mood is melancholy and foreboding, sentiments that the two men cannot help but respond to with trepidation and anxiety.
Chapter 62
Explanation and Analysis—The Cemetery:
In Chapter 62, Ralph reckons with the consequences of his actions, shocked at the realization that Smike—whom he has tormented for months—is his biological son. While Ralph contemplates his life choices, he walks through a cemetery. The imagery in this passage speaks to Ralph's internal state and foreshadows his eventual demise:
Ralph Nickleby left the city behind him and took the road to his own home. The night was dark, and a cold wind blew, driving the clouds furiously and fast before it. There was one black, gloomy mass that seemed to follow him; not hurrying in the wild chase with the others, but lingering sullenly behind, and gliding darkly and stealthily on. He often looked back at this, and more than once stopped to let it pass over, but somehow, when he went forward again it was still behind him, coming mournfully and slowly up like a shadowy funeral train.
Dickens's use of imagery in the above passage is distinctly gothic: the night is dark, cold, and stormy, and an ominous cloud follows behind Ralph, seeming an ill omen. This ominous cloud is Ralph's veritable stalker, following him on his walk home "like a shadowy funeral train." The sensory imagery here foreshadows Ralph Nickleby's eventual death, implying through nature imagery and proximity to the cemetery that something bad is about to happen.
