The Use of Imagery and Its Significance in Literary Studies

The Outlook: Journal of English Studies

[A Peer-Reviewed, Open Access Journal; Indexed in NepJOL]
ISSN: 2565-4748 (Print); ISSN: 2773-8124 (Online); JPPS Star-Ranked Journal
Published by Department of English, Prithvi Narayan Campus
Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Nepal
http://ejournals.pncampus.edu.np/ejournals/outlook/

The Use of Imagery and Its Significance in Literary Studies

Homa Nath Sharma Paudyal
Department of English, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara, Nepal

Article History:1Submitted 11 Apr. 2023; Reviewed 29 June 2023; Revised 5 July 2023
Corresponding Author: Homa Nath Sharma Paudyal, Email: homanath.pkr11@gmail.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/ojes.v14i1.56664

Abstract
Imagery is one of the various techniques that poets and other writers consciously or
unconsciously use to make their expressions more powerful. It is, therefore, imperative
for readers to have adequate knowledge about this literary technique, but most readers
fail to seriously notice the application of imagery and to describe how it assists in the
effective literary analysis and pedagogical process. Particularly used in poetry, ‘imagery’
has its great importance as it helps readers activate their’ sense organs and perceive the
message as intended by poets or other writers. The main issue that encouraged this study
is to explore the reasons behind the application of imagery and the extent of contribution
it can make to literary analysis and pedagogy. The objective of the study is to explain the
significance of imagery in the literary analysis and pedagogical process. Various print as
well as online materials have been consulted to gather references in the article. Thus
qualitative research method based on secondary sources has been applied to substantiate
the argument. The findings of the study suggest that the use of imagery makes any text
formally artistic and functionally appealing. The study also concludes that the use of
imagery in literary texts enhances readers’ perception power as it motivates them by
arousing their interest and activating their sense organs.
Keywords: Imagery, image, figurative language, sensory experience

Introduction
Imagery is a much discussed term in literary analysis. The term is derived from
another term ‘image’ that came into English via French from Latin word imago that is
synonymous to picture. Thus, both ‘imagery’ and ‘image’ are complimentary to each
other. In this sense, imagery is about images and is a literary device that activates any of
our senses and stimulates them to respond to what is put in a poem or other literary texts.
The term ‘image’ has different connotations such as physical likeness or visible copy,
mental construct or idea, figurative language (that is, imagery), optical effect and
perceived identity, or public image (Pope 215-16). In this paper, the word ‘image’ is
regarded as mental construct or idea and the word ‘imagery’ as a literary device.
The main issue that encouraged this study is to explore the reasons behind the
application of imagery and the extent of contribution it can make to literary analysis and

1
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pedagogy. In most of the literary texts, we find the use of imagery; we read them but we
do not take its presence in the texts so seriously. In fact, imagery has special importance
in literary analysis and it also contributes a lot to pedagogical process. Therefore, the
answers to the questions why the knowledge of imagery is important in the study of
literature and how this knowledge contributes to effective teaching form the foundation
of the present study. Thus, the objective of the study is to explain why imagery is used in
literary texts and how it helps in literary analysis and pedagogical process.
Qualitative method based on secondary sources is applied to support the
argument and reach the conclusion. Textbooks, published and unpublished written
articles and web materials are taken as supportive reference materials. The study is
intended to reach conclusion with the hypothesis that imagery provides a powerful way
of communication resulting in effective teaching.
Different types of imagery have been discussed in the study of literature.
Categorizing imagery, Naresh Chandra identifies the following types: perceptual
imagery, conceptual imagery, emotional imagery, compound imagery and artistic
imagery (qtd. in Kothawale 17-23); however, this study only discusses the perceptual
images and their contributions to convey the intended meaning to the readers. The study
also discusses how imagery help beautify the form of a text.

Figurative Language and Literary Studies

Writers compose different forms of writing such as novels, short stories, poetry,
plays and many others, using special types of words that create some type of mental
pictures or make sensory appeals. In literary studies, writers use special types of words.
Through their words, they make us see some things or people, and listen to some types of
sounds with our minds. Moreover, these writers enable us to taste some food or smell
some aroma through the words used in the text. They appeal to our different senses and
help us imagine relevant objects through comparison and contrast between what is said
and what it refers to in our minds by using words in two different ways: literal use and
figurative use.
In the literal use of language, the writers express their views directly. They do
not use words or phrases with implied meanings. What is expressly said is the intended
meaning. Readers do not have to put much labour to work out the meaning of the
expressions, as the meaning is quite straightforward. A dictionary meaning is enough if
the words are used literally. For example,
“That man is hideous.”
The given example gives a straightforward meaning, that is, “ugliness of the man.” It is
not difficult for even lay readers to work out the right meaning of the expression
regarding the picture of the man because he has been described with just the dictionary
meaning of the words. Here, the words have been used literally. In contrast to the
description given above, the following description of the same person has something
special:
“The man is a toad.”
This expression is not straightforward and lay readers are puzzled as the description
applies special technique of language use. Here the sentence says, “Man is a toad.” Is it
possible that a man is a toad? No, man is a man, not a toad. In this expression, one
should be able to identify the literariness of the expression, that is, the special use of a
word for a different thing. Here, the toad has not been used in a literal sense, but in a
figurative sense, that is, toad implies ugliness. This figurative meaning is an extra
linguistic feature. It means a reader should be able to think outside the box of linguistic
arena. The word ‘toad’ has been used as an image for ugliness. The word does not

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literally indicate that idea but it is the mental construct of the readers, which they borrow
from the real world experiences. The comparison between the man and the toad creates
imagery.
Literary or figurative use of language has implied meanings. In this use of
language, what is overtly said is not the intended meaning. Readers are forced to work
out the underlying meaning. That is why William Wordsworth aptly suggests that poets
write poetry “in a selection of language really used by men, at the same time, to throw
over them a certain coloring of imagination whereby ordinary things should be presented
to the mind in an unusual aspect” (qtd. in Shrawan 7). The message is clear that poets’
imagination is inherent in words in literary expressions, and the words are coloured with
some special features. The result is that ordinary words give extraordinary meaning.
Distancing is another feature of figurative language. It means the familiar is
made the unfamiliar. Pointing out this special feature of figurative language, P. B.
Shelley in his “Defense of Poetry” points out that it “lifts the veil from the hidden beauty
of the world, and makes familiar objects to be as if they were not familiar” (qtd. in
Shrawan 7). It clearly suggests that readers of literary text should be very careful and
cautious to find out what is distanced in such special expression.
Connotation is what we find in literary language. This is all done by using the
words with special meanings that are different from dictionary meanings. Besides
connotations, writers use some other special linguistic techniques to make literary texts
formally and functionally engaging. The list of some of these techniques includes
foregrounding, deviation, creativity, defamiliarization, etc. These special features of
literary language demonstrate a writer’s expression with an artistic creation. For these
artistic expressions, literary writers have the leave to convert the usual into the unusual,
and the familiar into the unfamiliar. In this regard, Jacinta Onyekachi Awa maintains:
“Literary Language is all about linguistic and stylistic deviation. It is about the otherness
of language, literariness, defamiliarization, foregrounding of language, which heightens
the aesthetics, signification, communication and meaning in literature. The literary writer
is allowed, in contrast to the everyday speaker, to turn aside rules, conventions and
maxims of language” (54). The quote clearly speaks about the rights of established
literary writers’ poetic license, which allows them to violate the usual rules of natural
languages, and this violation creates literariness, which we find in all literary texts.
Various stylistic techniques are used to create unusualness in a literary language.
Imagery is one of the most practiced techniques for this. Any unusualness in language is
like a metaphor as both of them give implied meaning:
Since literary representation does not represent by likeness the way pictorial
images do, literary representation is itself only and always metaphorical, whether
or not it employs particular figures. . . . We might also note that the literal-
figurative distinction itself appeals to an implicit distinction between "letters"
(writing) and "figures" (images; pictures; designs or bodies in space). (Preminger
and Brogan 577)
Literary language is indirect, or metaphorical. There is no direct resemblance between
the form and function of a word. To work out the real meaning out of a literary
expression, dictionaries do not help us, instead we need some knowledge outside from
the linguistic area. We should be able to associate the meaning of a literary expression in
the way we understand an image or picture by associating it with someone or something
else.
By applying the technique of using imagery, creative writers try to appeal to
almost all of the senses to make the readers’ perception clear in a forceful way. The
technique of language use that can appeal to our senses is known as imagery. In simple

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terms, imagery is a use of language that is evocative and descriptive to create images in
the readers’ or hearers’ minds.

Imagery as Figurative Language: Types and Uses

Due to the pictorial aspects of literary language, three technical terms related to
literature come under special considerations: image, imagery and imagination. In this
regard, Rob Pope remarks:
An image can be strictly visual (e. g. a painting, a photo) or, by extension, it can
be a verbal representation of something visual (e. g. a description in a novel).
Imagery refers to figurative or metaphorical language invoking a comparison or
likeness, chiefly in poetry or ‘poetic’ writing. Imagination, meanwhile, can be
provisionally defined as the capacity to conceive, ‘grasp’ or ‘see’ things, both in
a visual and in a more general intellectual sense. Taken together, then, all the
terms in this entry have something to do, at least initially, with ways of seeing
and saying, and with issues of representation, verbal, visual and otherwise.
(214)
Here, Pope categorizes these three terms based on their functions. Image as a picture and
verbal representation of something, imagery as the use of figurative language to refer to
some concept through comparison and contrast and imagination as the perception power
of readers or hearers. However, the terms have something to do in common regarding the
perceivers’ verbal, visual and mental power, associating them with the language used in
a literary text.
The use of imagery helps readers or listeners perceive the real message almost
with its intended meaning expressed by the writer or speaker. Imagery is created by the
use of descriptive or figurative language. In a broader sense, it covers the use of language
to represent objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of minds and any sensory
and extra sensory experience (Cuddon 322). Though brief, Cuddon’s definition of
imagery covers the use of language for representation of both concrete and abstraction.
Pope defines imagery in a slightly different way: “Imagery refers to figurative or
metaphorical language invoking a comparison or likeness, chiefly in poetry or ‘poetic’
writing” (214). Pope’s definition focuses on the formation of figures through a
comparison between the terms and the concepts.
Most literary writers usually use different types of imagery to make readers
understand the message clearly. As the use of figurative or descriptive words paint
pictures in the minds of readers, they feel they are seeing or hearing or feeling or tasting
or smelling something while reading a text. Imagery directly or indirectly appeals to
senses, so it is not difficult to make pictures in the minds. In this sense, writers help
readers create mental pictures in their minds. The poet imagines something and uses a
special technique of language to create imagery to describe what he/she has imagined.
Readers equally contribute to make the use of imagery significant by translating it into
images. Here, imagery forces the readers to imagine what the poet saw, heard, touched,
smelled, or tasted.
A lot of scholars have defined imagery. Lindi Miller’s definition of the term is
worth mentioning: “In simple terms, imagery refers to the ‘pictures’ or ‘images’ that a
writer helps to create in the reader’s mind through the language that he or she uses.
However, the pictures are not always concerned with what we see” (33). She means to
say that these pictures can be:
 Visual – to do with what we see;
 Aural – to do with what we hear;
 Tactile – concerned with what we can feel or touch;
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 Olfactory – about what we smell; or

 Gustatory – to do with the sensation of flavor and texture in the mouth. (33)
Miller points out these five types of imagery used in a literary discourse that can create
images in the readers’ minds. One important point she adds is that these mental pictures
are not only associated with a visual aspect.
Different imageries appeal to different sense organs while creating mental
pictures. The following sections briefly describe different types of imagery and the
corresponding sense organs they appeal to.

Visual Imagery
This type of imagery appeals to the sense of sight. Readers or listeners are made
to make a picture by visualizing something. The words appeal to the sense of sight in
such a way that readers or listeners happen to envision something while reading
something or listening to someone. For example, the following excerpt from William
Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” presents a good example of this type of
imagery:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. (lines 1-6)
In the lines above, Wordsworth exploits the visual image to create images in the minds
of readers by making them visualize a cloud floating over the valley and hills, and a host
of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze under the trees beside the lake. A
reader does not have to go to that place to see the clouds, and colour, number and the
movement of daffodils. The lines themselves form the images of them in their minds. If a
reader reads these lines seriously and carefully, he/she finds himself/herself by the lake
described in the poem. Apart from such images, the poet has skillfully created an
imagery by using simile, that is, “I wondered lonely as a cloud/ that floats high o’er vales
and hills.” Through this imagery, the poet has been able to make us visualize his
movement like that of a cloud.

Aural Imagery
A writer or speaker, through his/her words, try to create images in readers’ or
listeners’ minds by making them hear some sounds. This type of imagery has a strong
impact on our hearing sense. When the words echoing some sounds are uttered or
written, readers or listeners create the images related to the sound. In literary writings,
alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia are often used for aural images. The following
lines from S.T. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner present a good example of
this type of imagery:
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound! (lines 60-64)
The lines highlight the presence of ice. Along with the abundance of the ice around the
ship, the words ‘cracked’ and ‘growled,’ ‘roared’ and ‘howled’ convey their meaning
through the sound they produce. The huge splitting ice chunks produce noise when they
fall into the sea. The words have echoed the noise, creating the images of the sound of
distant roar as heard by a person in a swooning fit. It is very interesting that the poet has
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created even stronger images with the application of zoomorphism when he attributes ice
with the sounds animals produce: “It cracked and growled, and roared and howled/ like
noises in a swound!” This is also a simile, which has created a strong imagery about that
ice.

Tactile Imagery
Some words produce such sensory feel that they make readers, or listeners feel
as if they are touching something or are being touched. In this type of imagery, the words
that we read or hear make us feel that we are touching something rough, smooth, hard,
soft, cold, or hot. The words used to describe temperature, textures, softness and
hardness of some object create images in our mind, and the imagery appeals to our
touching sense. William Butler Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan” presents a good example of
this type of imagery:
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast. (lines 1-4)
In this excerpt, readers create mental images through the words like blow, beating,
caressed, caught and hold, clearly understanding the violence of rape and at the same
time they also happen to feel the pain experienced by Leda during that attack. These
words have the meanings to appeal to the skin, and a reader feels how Leda was hit,
beaten, caressed, caught and held tightly. We have pity upon this helpless lady and
hatred towards the swan for its assaults. This pity is aroused due to the images created by
the feeling of touch.

Gustatory Imagery
This type of imagery is connected to the sense of taste. Here, the tongue
becomes active to create images. The impressive use of gustatory imagery makes readers
or listeners salivate. By using gustatory imagery, a description becomes so arresting or
intense that it controls the readers’ or listeners’ tongues. John Keats in his “La Belle
Dame Sans Merci: A Ballad” presents such imagery:
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said –
I love thee true. (lines 25-28)
The gallant knight is provided with the roots of relish sweet, honey and manna by the
madame. The sweetness of the roots is combined with honey and manna dew that make
our mouth salivate. The nectorous sounds of the words have been accompanied by the
soft sounding words of true love. A reader imagines the food was so sweet, and so was
the language of the lady, and her love. The correspondence between the sweetness of
honey and the pleasing language of love contribute to the formal beauty of the poem.

Olfactory Imagery
Olfactory imagery appeals to our sense of smell and activates our nose. Writers
or speakers use the terms related to smell to create images in readers or listeners.
Edmund Spenser’s ‘Sonnet 64’ presents good examples of olfactory imagery. In this
sonnet, the speaker describes his beloved in terms of olfactory images, especially
focusing his delight obtained from her scent while they are engaged in sensual kissing:
Comming to kisse her lyps (such grace I found)
Me seemed I smelt a guardian of sweet flowers

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That dainty odours from them threw around

For damzels fit to decke their lovers bowres.
Her lips did smell lyke onto gillyflowers,
Her ruddy cheeks lyke onto roses red;
Her snowy browes lyke budded bellamoures,
Her lovely eyes lyke pincks but newly spreads,
Her goodly bosome lyke a strawberry bed,
Her neck lyke to a bounch of cullambynes;
Her breast lyke lillyes ere theyr leaves be shed,
Her nipples lyke young blossomed jessemynes.
Such fragrant flowers doe give most odorous smell,
But her sweet odour did them all excel. (735)
The speaker first compares his beloved’s parts of the body with the colour and scents of
different flowers like, carnations, roses, bellflowers, strawberry, columbines, lilies and
jasmines. He takes delight from those scents but finally he says that the scents from her
body excel those from the flowers. While reading the lines, readers are made to feel that
they easily smell the scents of those flowers and compare them with the speaker’s
beloved’s fragrance.
The images discussed above are all related to five senses of organs. It means that
the mental imagery is created through the perception of one of the senses or all the
senses altogether. Besides the images discussed above, critics also add two other types of
images to the list: kinesthetic and organic.

Kinesthetic Imagery
An effective description of natural or artistic physical movement or actions of
the characters and objects help create kinesthetic imagery. N. Pam M. S. defines it as
“the cognitive recreation of the feeling of movements.” Obviously, the words that we
read or hear make us form the images of the movement the character(s) have
demonstrated. Edgar Allan Poe presents the moving picture of a manic boy’s
movements: “With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He
shrieked once — once only. In an instant, I dragged him to the door, and pulled the
heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done” (112-13). In his
story “The Tell-tale Heart,” Poe presents the boy’s physical movement as if in a horror
movie when he kills the old man having a hideous eye that vexed the boy. The
successive occurrence of motion verbs ‘threw open,’ ‘leaped into,’ ‘dragged,’ and
‘pulled’ have been used in such a way that the boy’s movements and the intensity of
their speed are clearly conveyed to the minds of readers. Readers can see the boy’s
movement through their minds and feel the intensity of his action.

Organic imagery
This type of imagery “deals with creating a specific feeling or emotion within
the readers. Phrases that make the readers feel sad, fearful, nostalgic, elated even lost are
all extremely effective organic imagery” (Rowan). Organic imagery does not appeal to
any sense organs but emotions.
In the short story, “About Love,” Anton Chekhov beautifully paints the two
characters Alyohin and Anna Alexeyevna with organic imagery at the time when these
lovers are about to part from each other:
When our eyes met right there in the compartment our spiritual strength deserted
us both, I took her in my arms, she pressed her face to my breast, and tears
flowed from her eyes. Kissing her face, her shoulders, her hands wet with tears –

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oh, how miserable we were! – I confessed my love to her, and with a burning
pain in my heart I realized how needless and petty and deceptive was all that had
hindered us from loving each other. (22-23)
The writer describes their powerful feelings in such a way that the readers notice their
emotional state and corresponding physical reactions as if we have seen in real life.
Readers are also filled with the emotions described in these lines. This vividness has
been possible through the writer’s skillful application of organic imagery.
A little later, Chekhov describes the emotions of Alyohin in the similar way, and
readers’ minds are filled with the figures of that character: “I kissed her for the last time,
pressed her hand, and we parted forever. The train was already moving. I walked into the
next compartment – it was empty – and until I reached the next station I sat there crying.
Then I walked home to Sofyino . . .” (23). What a heart touching description! The use of
imagery in these lines has created a special type of gravity and intensity of emotion in
the readers. This time, too, Chekhov has used such a strong imagery that readers clearly
visualize the picture of that character and share with his emotional expressions.
W.B. Yeats, in his poem “The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner,” describes
emotions of an old man who mourns the loss of his beautiful, energetic youth and suffers
mental and physical agony in his age:
There is not a woman turns her face
Upon a broken tree,
And yet the beauties that I loved
Are in my memory;
I spit into the face of time
That has transfigured me. (lines 13-18)
In such a strong vividness, the poet describes the old man’s anger towards time. The
words create the pictures of old people that are stamped in our minds. The word ‘spit’
brings into our minds the picture of the speaker’s disgust through his emotional outburst.
While analyzing a literary text, we can find different types of imagery working
together in the same text. For example, the lines from “Leda and the Swan” quoted above
not only present tactile imagery but also kinesthetic (the movement of the bird and of the
victimized Leda), organic (the swan filled with strong sensual emotions and Leda with
pain) and visual imagery (we, as readers, visualize the bird upon the girl attempting a
rape). We cannot deny that a particular text may have one dominant image and others as
minor ones. This situation is known as the presence of compound imagery.

The Use of Imagery in Literary Analysis

The function of imagery in literature is to generate a life-like, graphic
presentation of a scene, taste, odour, touch, flavor, motion, or emotion. A writer uses
imagery to demonstrate how impressively he/she can convey sensory information to the
readers by activating their sense organs so that the details of any description be clear. It
helps promote the imagination power of readers to envision the characters and the scenes
in the literary writing. Apart from facilitating readers in clear perception of information,
images drawn by using figurative language like metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia,
personification, etc., serve the function of beautifying a piece of literature.
Not only to literature, imagery contributes a lot to other disciplines, too. To
highlight the functions of imagery, Beverly-Colleene Galyean brings the references of
classical philosophers’ views:
Einstein resolved complex mathematical and physical problems through his keen
ability to perceive, feel, and interpret inner images. Aristotle believed that
thought was housed in images that evoked emotions and revealed inner

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knowledge. Pythagoras taught his disciples to solve mathematical problems by

consciously evoking dream imagery. The German chemist Kekule discovered
the molecular structure of benzene while imagining a snake swallowing its tail.
And the French mathematician Poincare solved complex mathematical problems
in moments of visual reverie. (54)
Imagery is applicable in all areas of cognitive functions and has a strong hold upon our
ability to solve problems. Knowledge in imagery provides us with some insight that
helps us create mental pictures which drive us to perceive anything in a better way.
Beverly-Colleene Galyean further stresses on the use of imagery and asserts: “A
common use of imagery is to develop thinking skills and accelerate mystery of cognitive
material presented in class. Teachers usually have district-mandated cognitive objectives
to guide their lesson planning; they use imagery activities to enhance mastery of those
objectives” (54). If students are well familiar with imagery and can make mental pictures
out of words, they can solve any problem better and more quickly. For example, if
students are asked to write an essay on ‘a river,’ they write it better if they make the
images of a river in their minds than they do not form an image of it. Imagery presents
far more aspects of an object or issue than without it.
Imagery creates mental images. Without these images, the expression in the texts
is less appealing to the readers. Pointing out the importance of imagery, Lindi Miller
states: “It is about the emotional response that the writer evokes in you, the reader, and
about the feelings or the atmosphere that he or she creates in the text.” She further adds:
“Perhaps the most important aspect of all is that imagery tells us about how the writer
feels towards the subject about which he or she is writing” (36). This clearly shows the
writer’s tone and attitude towards the subject matter and readers. Further, the writer
attempts to create emotional responses from readers with the help of imagery.
Savita Ramchandra Kothawale, highlighting the functions of imagery, states: “It
is true that the imagery is inseparable part of poetry. It gives shape, meaning and life to
poetry. Every image carries various messages through the word-picture. . . . It helps the
reader in grasping the total meaning and giving aesthetic pleasure” (25). Besides helping
readers understand the tone and attitude of the writer, imagery functions as the
decorative factor, contributing a lot to the formal features of a text. Elizabeth Drew,
interestingly, observes the function of imagery and calls it a tool to awaken the dead
(151). It is interesting that imagery is a break in the regular pattern of an activity. The
regular pattern, let us say a continuous lecture, will cause a type of monotony and the
students will lose interest in the teacher’s delivery. In such a situation, when a sudden
change in pattern occurs, there is a type of awakening in their senses. An application of
imagery, especially guided imagery, provides some newness for a change. Now, they
naturally get refreshed and get interested in the lecture.
Many studies have demonstrated various functions of imagery, which are the
special techniques of expression with some impressive way of imparting message. C.
Day Lewis points out that imagery functions at three levels: freshness, intensity and
evocative power (qtd. in Kothawale 27). Lewis suggests that reading is a long process,
which may cause monotony. However, if there is some newness in the writing
intermittently, that newness helps remove the monotony, giving readers a feel of some
freshness. The special use of words functions as a recess in the continuous process of
reading. The second function, that is, intensity, might suggest that imagery demands
readers’ greater concentration on the deviated expression, that is, imagery. The level of
concentration is so intense that readers pour all their consideration upon the expression,
as they have to work out the intended meaning as appropriately as possible. The third

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function is creating evocative power. This means that the use of imagery drives readers
to bring in their conscious minds the images created by the words or phrases.

The Use of Imagery in Pedagogy

In pedagogy, it is universally accepted that the pictorial presentation is much
more impressive than the straightforward description. In saying so, it does not mean that
imagery shows the physical pictures and readers visualize them, but it means that readers
or listeners happen to form the mental pictures by means of the words the writer has
used. This special technique of using words makes readers feel that the words appear as
if they are presenting the pictures, and thus more effective communication, and
impressive teaching.
In this connection, the research conducted by Anderson and Hiddle showed the
result that “imagery instructions facilitate performance by forcing attention to meaning,
since an image cannot be formed without dealing with the meaning of the sentence.”
They further conclude: “Sentences which evoked vivid images were better recalled than
sentences which evoked vague images, but the effect was not strong.” The study suggests
that students who are taught the way of forming the mental pictures are found to be
better in recalling what they read irrespective of the other effects. Another of their
findings concluded that “. . . people instructed to form images of the events described in
sentences recalled more than three times as many words on a surprise test as people who
merely pronounced the sentences” (qtd. in Doore 15). This clearly shows the positive
impact of imagery in pedagogical process.
In our classroom setting with heterogeneous students, lecturing with the
straightforward description cannot draw attention of students. Some may find it much
easier and do not attend the teachers’ explanation, while others might find it complex and
get discouraged, thinking that they cannot go with the idea. Therefore, students’ interest
and concentration go out of line. In such a situation, the use of imagery poses some type
of unusual situation or newness, and that becomes interesting to them. They attend the
explanation well and the perception is better.
Imagery also helps students in their reading process. Jorm’s research results
support this argument: “Children with a specific reading disability find high-imagery
words easier to read than low-imagery words. Word imagery was related to reading
difficulty because it facilitates learning to read by whole word methods. When learning
to read words by a whole word method, word imagery predicts ease of learning for both
good and poor readers” (qtd. in Doore 17). The word-pictures not only help easy
perception, but they also assist students with poor reading skills. Studies have shown that
imagery provides easy ways for good and poor students to read as well as to perceive the
information. Imagery makes this process easier by encouraging students to apply whole
words approach, in which students grasp meaning of the entire words not an individual
word in sentences.
Teaching comprises instilling newer concepts, thinking skills and analysis
power. If teaching is done by creating the mental pictures, the knowledge that is acquired
has a strong hold in students’ mind. Doore highlights this aspect of teaching:
Imagery can develop thinking skills and accelerate mastery of cognitive material.
Imagery can be used as a tool for awareness and acceptance of self and others.
When an image of success is imprinted in the brain, the person’s actions will
follow positive directions. Imagery activities seem to expand the range of
intellectual capabilities and increase students’ interest in curricular offerings.
(20)

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 The Use of Imagery and Its Significance in Literary Studies

The role of imagery is not limited to better perception. Its positive impact expands
throughout the cognitive process. In this sense, imagery also helps in promoting thinking,
perceiving, storing and retrieving information.
Guided imagery is a type of practice of imagining different aspects of an object
through meditation. According to Beverly-Colleene Galyean, in this imagery, “whenever
necessary, teachers ask students to close eyes, take a deep breath, and picture a specific
object such as a piece of fruit, and examine it in detail.” They point out a positive impact
of guided imagery on the children’s sensory awareness. Galyean further notes: “When
students become accustomed to basic imagery exercises, they engage naturally in shorter
focusing exercises throughout the day that enable them to quiet mind chatter, dispel
distractions, and sharpen mental attentiveness” (54). Naturally, a person should meditate
when he/she has to contemplate different aspects of an object, and this meditation
removes diversion and establishes awareness.
Researchers have identified a lot of positive impacts of guided imagery on
pedagogy. Galyean gives an example of a guided imagery exercise to emphasize the
positive effect on teaching:
Students in the sixth grade are asked to write compositions about “Things That
Bother Me at School” and “Things I Like at school.” The teacher begins the
lesson by having the students close their eyes and imagine themselves as
photographers taking pictures of things and situations they like and dislike about
school. Then they’re directed to draw what they “photographed” and write about
what happened during the imagery journey. Students tend to write more original
material (as opposed to parroting ideas from books or other students) after the
imagery prompt. (54)
The experimentation gives the message that learning through mental imagery is creative,
original and genuine. Expressions based on the mental images are certainly more forceful
than they are made through parroting the material. Besides writing skills, the children
can enhance drawing skills if they practice guided imagery exercises.
Galyean further focuses on the importance of the formation of imagery through
meditation before students are given any task to complete, especially, related to drawing,
reading and writing. This meditation helps them form various relevant images, which
they can easily copy in their real-life practice, resulting in better writing that presents
pictures. After various observations, he concludes:
As we have observed in these projects, imagery activities seem to expand the
range of intellectual capabilities and increase students’ interest in and penchant
for current curricular offerings. Advocates of imagery-based learning activities
predict that their continued use will not only reduce trends toward diminishing
academic achievement, but will also enable students to uncover and experience
vast and diverse ways of using their minds to gather and process data leading to
new, even more creative forms of knowledge. (57-58)
The argument in the quote above indicates that imagery-based activities at schools not
only boost students’ academic performance but they also help promote their critico-
creative thinking. Students are enabled to create new ideas through imagery. Diverse
ways of thinking are encouraged by imagery. Therefore, they develop skills of critical
thinking once they attempt to deeply analyze imagery.
Teaching through the application of imagery has special impact upon the
students. Referring to his own research results of 1980, 1981 and 1982, Galyean points
out this aspect of imagery as
Students taught via imagery process merged with other affective procedures tend
to score significantly higher on measures of cognitive evaluation for oral and

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 The Use of Imagery and Its Significance in Literary Studies

written communication and reading and writing skills. Both empirical and
observational reports indicate that students also tend to be more attentive in
class, work more cohesively with others, attend classes more frequently, and do
more of whatever work is assigned. (55)
Guided imagery not only helps strengthen students’ communicative skills, but it also
helps enhance their interest in their studies, contribute to make them attentive and
creative, and do their assignment more properly. It encourages students to be more
regular and punctual. In a sense, the application of imagery in teaching involves all
round development of students.
In many situations, mental imagery can also be used as a means of consolation in
times of pressure upon students. The images that are formed by the words become
amusing and provide a type of recreation for them. Doore’s study has also concluded the
same idea: “Mental imagery can be used in the classroom to alleviate undue anxiety and
tension among students” (21). With the mental pictures they have formed, students find
emotional outlets and come into a normal temperament.
However, it is a debatable issue in the pedagogical arena that there are views for
and against the mental images. Alex Preminger et al. point out both strengths and
weaknesses of imagery in teaching literature:
In the first place, the concept of mental i. has encouraged catholicity of taste, for
once it is realized that not all poets have the same interests and capacities, it is
easier to appreciate different kinds of poetry. . . . Second, the concept of mental
i. provides a valuable index to the type of imagination with which a given poet is
gifted. . . . Third, the concept of mental i. is pedagogically useful, for a teacher or
a critic may encourage better reading habits by stressing this aspect of poetry.
(560)
The text clearly highlights the merits of mental images in pedagogical performance. The
mental image is said to help readers or researchers to appreciate poetry, explore the
imagination power gifted to a particular poet and to encourage better reading habits. It
means the knowledge of mental imagery strengthens a critic or a reader to make a deep
analysis of a poem. It is, in fact, a truth that if a reader cannot get to the poet’s intended
meaning, the analysis sounds less effective. It is imperative that readers understand the
level of imagination power in a poet to assess what kinds of images and for what purpose
they have been used. The most important aspect of mental imagery is that it arouses
reading habits once readers enjoy the application of images as they put the readers in a
certain type of emotional state. Concisely, the mental images sharpen the analyzing
power of a reader or a researcher.
The mental imagery in pedagogy is also seen to be hampering the way we
perceive things. In this regards, Preminger et al. themselves speak in counter to their own
views about the merits of mental images. They point out the following weak points of
imagery:
But the disadvantages of the mental i. approach almost outweigh its advantages.
For one thing, there is an insoluble methodological problem, in that readers are
just as different from one another in their i.-producing capacities as poets, and
therefore the attempt to describe the imagination of a poet is inextricably bound
up with the imagination of the critic who analyzes it. Second, this approach tends
to overemphasize mental i. at the expense of meaning, feeling and sentiment
(Betts). And third, in focusing upon the sensory qualities of images themselves,
it diverts attention from the function of these images in the poetic context. (560)

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 The Use of Imagery and Its Significance in Literary Studies

Different views against teaching through imagery seem to be equally strong. In fact, it is
true that there are readers with diverse capacity to perceive information. Most probably,
majority of readers fail to understand the intended meaning a writer wants to convey
through his/her imagery method. In some cases, wrong interpretation of a work cannot be
ignored, and it clearly misleads many readers. Likewise, metaphors and similes are so
strong expressions that readers are often filled with certain type of emotion, and this
emotional outburst deprives them of working out a correct meaning of that expression.
Further, readers might sometimes misinterpret the functions of images that appeal to
senses.

Conclusion
Based on the available literatures, the study concludes that teaching through
imagery has various advantages like arousing interest in readers and developing the
power of imagining different meanings. Imagery as a literary technique helps students
with effective and long memory, encouraging imagination power in students. It is
equally useful for teachers as it can get their students engaged in extensive reading and
literary analysis. The focus of this study is, especially, to observe whether imagery helps
students understand the taught information clearly, and how far they can retain and apply
the acquired information. Further, the available literatures also confirm that the merits of
teaching by using guided imagery far outweigh the demerits.
With the knowledge of imagery, students can create new ideas, as they have to
think seriously to work out the real meaning. They are compelled to think critically
because they have to critically consider different connotations of imageries as they are
figurative language and straightforward meaning is of no use.
The application of imagery in pedagogy has another significance. Teaching in
lecture method often sounds monotonous. Even a few minutes’ lecture causes monotony
to students. If the teachers cannot change the situation intermittently during the teaching
process, it is a pedagogical failure. A teacher’s ability to bring in some newness during
teaching repeatedly gets students refreshed every time the situation is changed. The use
of imagery is a type of newness and can create a break in that monotony. Once the
monotony gets disconnected, students naturally show interest and become active in the
learning process. Imagery is unusualness. When unusualness occurs, it provides certain
mental energy or freshness, encouraging learners to take active part in learning.
Therefore, it has great role in modern pedagogy.
In conclusion, the study reveals that the use of imagery helps students practise
creative and critical thinking. If readers seriously try to work out the real function of
imagery, they really get engaged in the meaning making process, and the result is that
they come up with some new ideas, thus giving a way to creativity. On the other hand,
readers have to consider a lot regarding different aspects of that imagery. They try to
examine the causes, consequences, appropriateness and significance of imagery. When
they think critically, they come up with some novel ideas, so there is a chance of
creativity.

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