Description of the study
The study is described as, ‘Slightly to the left of the window and at a shallow angle would be a long country table covered with a large red blotter. Wooden boxes, flat pen-holders and pots of all kinds would hold pencils, paper-clips, staples large and small. A glass tile would serve as an ashtray. A circular black leather box decorated with gold-leaf arabesques would be filled with cigarettes. Light would come from an old desk-lamp, adjustable only with difficulty, fitted with a green opaline lampshade shaped like a visor. On each side of the table, virtually facing each other, would be two high-backed wood and leather armchairs. Still further to the left, along the wall, would be a narrow table overflowing with books. A wing-chair in bottle-green leather would lead to grey metal filing cabinets and light wooden card-index boxes.’
The imagery in the description of the study if visual imagery. It has been built by the use of adjectives that describe the color, shape and size of various items in the study. The adjective old has been used to describe the desk-lamp whereas the adjective green describes the color of the lampshade.
The couples' living conditions
The narrator describes the actual living conditions of the couple as, ‘They lived in a quaint, low – ceilinged and tiny flat overlooking a garden. As they remembered their garret – a gloomy, narrow, overheated corridor with clinging smells – they lived in their flat, to begin with, in a kind of intoxication, refreshed each morning by the sound of chirping birds. … flowers in pots, bushes, even primitive statues, there wound a path made of rough, large paving stones which gave the whole thing a countryside air. It was one of those rare spots in Paris where it could happen, on some autumn days, after rain, that a smell would rise from the ground, an almost powerful smell of the forest, of earth, of rotting leaves. ‘
The narrator has achieved imagery in the description of their living conditions by using adjectives. These adjectives include gloomy and narrow to describe the corridors. Olfactory imagery has been built by the description of the smells such as ‘… an almost powerful smell of the forest, of earth, of rotting leaves.’
Description of the bedroom
The narrator describes the bedroom that the couple wished for as, ‘The first door would open onto a bedroom, its floor covered with a light-colored fitted carpet. An English double bed would fill the whole rear part of it. On the right, to both sides of the window, there would be tall and narrow sets of shelves holding a few books, to be read and read again, photograph albums, packs of cards, pots, necklaces, paste jewelry.’
The imagery in the description of the imagined bedroom is built by the use of adjectives. These adjectives are tall and narrow to describe the shape and size of the shelves. The imagery in the description is visual imagery for the narrator can be able to visualize the bedroom in their mind.
Description of the living room
The narrator describes the living room that the couple wished they had as,’…there would be a large sofa upholstered in worn black leather, with pale cherry wood bookcases on either side, heaped with books in untidy piles. Above the sofa, a mariner’s chart would fill the whole length of that section of the wall. On the other side of a small low table, and beneath a silk prayer-mat nailed to the wall with three large-headed brass studs, matching the leather curtain, there would be another sofa, at right angles to the first, with a light-brown velvet covering.’
The imagery in the description of the living room is visual imagery. This is because the narrator uses adjectives such as pale cherry to describe book cases, small and low to describe a table. The adjectives used have an overall effect of creating visual imagery.
