Women, What are You Gonna Do?
Men and women—such as we understand the division of sexes—almost never seem to understand each other. Or, then again, perhaps this inability to penetrate into the mind of the other is just a trope of fiction. Maybe the divide is not really as expansive and deep as it is made to seem by writers. Whether that is the case or not, one thing is for sure: this stereotype is here to stay and will inspire imagery to describe it for the foreseeable future:
“Colin decided then and there that the female mind was a strange and incomprehensible organ—one which no man should even attempt to understand. There wasn't a woman alive who could go from point A to B without stopping at C, D, X, and 12 along the way.”
First Kiss
Even the first episode of actual intercourse does not see to have the ability to inspire the use of imagery in fiction like the first kiss. The problem, of course, that this happens to be the case. And the result is that it is almost impossible for a writer to devise language which can create the visuals in the mind that actually match the intense emotions of the act. The author here goes in the opposite direction with the result being non-imagery statement of pure fact that works even better as imagery:
“No words for the passion. No words for the need. No words for the sheer epiphany of the moment. And so, on an otherwise unremarkable Friday afternoon, in the heart of Mayfair, in a quiet drawing room on Mount Street, Colin Bridgerton kissed Penelope Featherington. And it was glorious.”
Thunderbolts and Not-Thunderbolts
The image of the thunderbolt as the means by which someone is hit upside the head with love permeates the narrative. Colin has been led to expected that this is the way love is by his brother:
“He'd always thought love would hit a man like a thunderbolt,”
Only to be informed by his sister otherwise:
“Love grows and changes every day. And it isn't like some thunderbolt from the sky”
Before discovering the truth for himself:
“His love hadn't been a thunderbolt from the sky. It had started with a smile, a word, a teasing glance. Every second he had spent in her presence it had grown, until he'd reached this moment, and he suddenly knew”
Bridgerton Glue
One of the oddest uses of imagery—odd in a whimsically offbeat and sweet kind of way, that is—involves what becomes a comical repetition of the word “glue.” It all commences with Colin’s sticking to Penelope like glue at what is described as the party of the season. This protective act then becomes a directive to family members and from there the imagery, the repetition and comic absurdity just continues to build:
Violet: “He was quite emphatic. He underlined the word glue, you know.”
Hyacinth: “If his ink had been any darker, I’m sure I would have had to go out and slaughter a horse myself…but there’s something rather enjoyable about the word glue. Slides off the tongue rather pleasingly. Glue. Gloooo.”
Eloise: “Is it me or has she had gone mad in the head?"
“For the next hour, they just milled about, mingling with the other guests, and moving—Penelope, Violet, and Hyacinth—as one giant being. `Three heads and six legs have we,” Penelope remarked as she walked toward the window, the two Bridgerton women bustling right alongside her.”
