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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
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis:
The foreboding horror of "The Birds" is realized through du Maurier's vivid imagery. Imagery is crucial for suspense. It allows the reader to feel Nat's fear by describing his sensory experiences. Take, for example, Nat's battle with the birds in the children's bedroom:
How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew, and through the density of the blanket he was aware of light. He waited, listened; there was no sound except the fretful crying of one of the children from the bedroom beyond. The fluttering, the whirring of the wings had ceased.
Here, the confusion and chaos of the moment—and then the reprieve from danger when morning comes—is realized through sight, touch, and sound. The reader, with Nat, sees nothing, then a vague light. The reader also feels the oppressive weight of the blanket and hears silence in the aftermath of "the fluttering, the whirring" of wings.
Similarly, when Nat sees the gulls in formation over the bay, du Maurier conveys the shocking image with both sight and sound:
There had been no sun all day, and now, at barely three o’clock, a kind of darkness had already come, the sky sullen, heavy, colorless like salt. He could hear the vicious sea drumming on the rocks. He walked down the path, halfway to the beach. And then he stopped. He could see the tide had turned. The rock that had shown in midmorning was now covered, but it was not the sea that held his eyes. The gulls had risen. They were circling, hundreds of them, thousands of them, lifting their wings against the wind. It was the gulls that made the darkening of the sky. And they were silent. They made not a sound.
First, Nat notices the darkness, but then he comes to the horrifying realization that it is not clouds but thousands of birds. The complete silence makes the moment even eerier, drawing on auditory imagery to effectively convey the terror of this strange experience.
