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Period 2 Literary Device: Imagery

English 12 AP

December 13th, 2010

Literary Device (5)

Imagery: The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions or ideas.

(Mifflin)

Example: “It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my

toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life

around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.

It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my

candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw

the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion

agitated its limbs...that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in

which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips.”

Function: In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein she sets up the setting in November which

tends to be a month of chilly weather. The creature created by Victor Frankenstein is

explained in a very specific manner which lets the reader picture the creature’s features.

Mary Shelley incorporates imagery in this part of the book which is highly

important for the novel. The imagery used for the creature’s features show how it greatly

influences the feelings of his creator Victor. His creator spent so much time and energy to

create the monster during many sleepless nights, that when he finally finished his most

wanted creation he didn’t know how to react to the creation. Shelley purposely uses

intense imagery to get her audience as shocked as Victor Frankenstein was at the view of
the creature. The way that Victor describes his creation almost gets the reader to connect

to Victor’s opinion on the creature as beautiful. Just by the creature being given a

description opens the doors for him to have life and the rights a human receives when

breathing in its first gasp of air. Shelley’s use of imagery in this section of the story is

important to grab the reader’s attention because she built on getting one’s attention and to

get the reader to wonder what the creature looked like. This sets a stepping stone for

Shelley’s purpose and for the reader because it is the first step for the reader to be able to

side on Frankenstein or his creation which is one of the main outcomes of the novel.

Shelley’s heavy use of imagery accomplishes many things in her novel and sets

up the themes of the story. One of the main themes that are pointed out to the readers is

the theme of infinite knowledge. Frankenstein is shown how he breaks the limits of

human knowledge by surpassing the fact that he literally created a living being, not

necessarily human but it lived. Walton is also shown as trying to surpass the normal

knowledge given to a human by risking his life by going to the North Pole, this gets him

stuck between two sheets of ice and almost drives him to his death. However,

Frankenstein caused his own death and his most loved ones by the pursuit of infinite

knowledge. We are shown this by the imagery used throughout the novel, specifically

with Frankenstein’s creation.