Sea
The setting of the play is the Atlantic Ocean; accordingly, the stage is set to evoke the scene of a stormy sea, complete with billowing fabric and aesthetically placed mermen. The dialogue is full of sea imagery as well: Oceanus and Niger are both bodies of water personified as deities, so they use language such as "My ceaseless current" and "Mix thy fresh billow with my brackish stream" (both quotes from Oceanus).
Darkness
This play is about the desire of black-skinned maidens to become white-skinned, so there is understandably a substantial amount of imagery dealing with darkness and its undesirability. Phrases like "black despair" and "rude defects" (referring to blackness) permeate the dialogue, underscoring the worldview of white superiority held at the time this masque was written.
Light
Conversely, there is also plenty of light imagery to highlight the contrast between black and white. The daughters of Niger desire to become light-skinned, and the goddess who instructs them how to do so is the goddess of the moon, who famously has a pale complexion. Most telling, though, is the representation of their savior, the king of Britannia, as a gloriously brilliant sun, whose bright radiance can wash the darkness from their bodies.
Britain's Magnificence
Aethiopia spares no trouble in her laudatory description of the far-off kingdom of Britannia: she uses many metaphors and vivid descriptions to evoke its majesty, including the comparison of Britain to a diamond atop a ring. This type of imagery serves to stoke the flames of British pride among the masque's audience, despite its rather obvious hyperbolic flattery.
