importance of imagery in essay

Select a year to see courses

Learn online or on-campus during the term or school holidays

• OC Test Preparation
• Selective School Test Preparation
• Maths Acceleration
• English Advanced
• Maths Standard
• Maths Advanced
• Maths Extension 1
• English Standard
• Maths Extension 2

Get HSC exam ready in just a week

• UCAT Exam Preparation

Select a year to see available courses

• English Units 1/2
• Maths Methods Units 1/2
• Biology Units 1/2
• Chemistry Units 1/2
• Physics Units 1/2
• English Units 3/4
• Maths Methods Units 3/4
• Biology Unit 3/4
• Chemistry Unit 3/4
• Physics Unit 3/4
• UCAT Preparation Course
• Matrix Learning Methods
• Matrix Term Courses
• Matrix Holiday Courses
• Matrix+ Online Courses
• Campus overview
• Castle Hill
• Strathfield
• Sydney City
• Year 3 NAPLAN Guide
• OC Test Guide
• Selective Schools Guide
• NSW Primary School Rankings
• NSW High School Rankings
• NSW High Schools Guide
• ATAR & Scaling Guide
• HSC Study Planning Kit
• Student Success Secrets
• Reading List
• Year 6 English
• Year 7 & 8 English
• Year 9 English
• Year 10 English
• Year 11 English Standard

Year 11 English Advanced

• Year 12 English Standard

Year 12 English Advanced

• HSC English Skills
• How To Write An Essay
• How to Analyse Poetry
• English Techniques Toolkit
• Year 7 Maths
• Year 8 Maths
• Year 9 Maths
• Year 10 Maths
• Year 11 Maths Advanced
• Year 11 Maths Extension 1
• Year 12 Maths Standard 2
• Year 12 Maths Advanced
• Year 12 Maths Extension 1
• Year 12 Maths Extension 2

Science guides to help you get ahead

• Year 11 Biology
• Year 11 Chemistry
• Year 11 Physics
• Year 12 Biology
• Year 12 Chemistry
• Year 12 Physics
• Physics Practical Skills
• Periodic Table
• VIC School Rankings
• VCE English Study Guide
• Set Location

Welcome to Matrix Education

To ensure we are showing you the most relevant content, please select your location below.

Literary Techniques: Imagery

In this post, we explain the different types of imagery, how to analyse it in your texts, and how to write about it in your essays.

Guide Chapters

• How to analyse poetry and prose
• Colour Palette
• Character Archetypes
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• In medias res
• Juxtaposition
• Lighting - Film
• Mise en scene - Film
• Montage - Film
• Music - Film
• Shot angles - Film
• Symbolism - Film

Get free study tips and resources delivered to your inbox.

Join 75,893 students who already have a head start.

" * " indicates required fields

You might also like

• How to answer ‘Explain’ HSC Physics Questions
• Bo’s Hacks: How I Scored An ATAR Of 99.60
• 25 Module A Textual Conversations Practice Essay Questions for the Eng Adv HSC
• 2020 HSC English Standard Exam Paper 1 Sample Responses | Section 1
• Kia’s Hacks: How I Scored A 99.15 ATAR

Related courses

Year 11 english, vce english units 3 & 4.

Welcome to our glossary of literary techniques: imagery post. This post expands on the definitions found in our Literary Techniques Part 1: Techniques for Analysing a Written Text post.

Here are some common questions asked about imagery:

What is imagery?

• Are there different types of imagery?
• How do I analyse imagery in a text?
• How do I explain what imagery does in a text?

In this post, we will discuss the literary technique of  IMAGERY.  Read on while we show you some examples, discuss its effect in these examples, and explain how you should discuss it in your responses.

Want to know the key to sophisticated analysis?

Download your free Textual Analysis Planner

Learn how to analyse texts and produce insightful notes!

Done! Your download has been emailed.

Please allow a few minutes for it to land in your inbox.

We take your privacy seriously. T&Cs  and  Privacy Policy .

Table of Contents

1. What is imagery? 2. Different types of Imagery 3. How does imagery work? 4. How to analyse imagery – step-by-step 5. Imagery examples

Literary techniques: Imagery

Imagery is one of the most common and most effective techniques used in texts. It describes things for a reader so they can get an accurate sense of what the composer is trying to represent.

Imagery is language that evokes one of the five senses, and you must always refer to the specific kind. In other words, never use simply ‘imagery,’ but always

• ‘ Olfactory imagery ,
• ‘ Tactile imagery ’
• ‘ Visual imagery ’
• ‘ Auditory imagery ’
• ‘ Gustatory imagery .’

Clearly, there are different types of imagery. Let’s see what they are and how they work!

Different types of imagery?

As we mentioned above, there are several different varieties of imagery:

• Olfactory imagery  – Olfactory refers to that which we can smell. Thus, olfactory imagery refers to descriptions of smells and odours. For example, “The mechanic stank of petrol.”
• Tactile imagery  – Tactile refers to the sense of touching things. Tactile imagery describes how things feel to the touch. For example, “The toad was slimy in her hands.”
• Visual imagery  – Visual imagery describes how things appear. When people think of imagery, they usually think of visual imagery. For example, “The boy had rosy cheeks.”
• Auditory imagery  – Auditory refers to how things sound. Auditory imagery conveys how things sound to an audience. For example, “Tom Waits is famed for his coarse gravelly voice.”
• Gustatory imagery  – Gustatory refers to how things taste. When composers use gustatory imagery, they describe how things taste. For example, “Suzy tasted the acrid flavour of high octane fuel as her pit crew filled the tank.”

It is important that you be specific when you discuss different types of imagery in your essays, so your markers get a clear picture of how you are using it to support your ideas.

Learn how to use imagery in your responses

Develop your writing skills and learn how to incorporate imagery into your responses in our Matrix English course!

Produce insightful analysis and Band 6 essays!

Expert teachers. Band 6 resources. Proven results. Boost your English marks this term with our On Campus Course.

Learn more ?

How does imagery work?

Imagery is an effective technique because it is readily recognised as describing something from a sentient point of view. As humans, we experience the world through our senses. This is why we can relate quickly to the thing being described because it reflects how we engage with the world – we look, see, touch, smell, taste, and hear.

Composers know this, and they use it as a means of conveying complex ideas and experiences to their audiences.

Think about that for a moment.

We can easily share our experiences with one another because our sensory experiences give us a common language to use to refer to things.

An example of olfactory imagery

Let’s look at an example:

Most people recognise petrichor , the smell of rain, even if they don’t know the word for it. It is a distinct smell, so when a composer wants to share a character’s experience of the weather with readers, they will draw on this shared experience.

The composer could write “Josephine paused outside her front door as the sky growled in the distance. The perfume of rain and hot tarmac serenaded her. She enjoyed it for a moment, before dashing back inside to grab her umbrella.”

This example uses two types of imagery, auditory, in the distant sound of thunder, and olfactory, the smell of petrichor and hot road surface.

This use of olfactory imagery is recognisable to readers used to Australian summer thunderstorms. Using imagery in this way is a quick and very effective way to represent these experiences to an audience. This example will appeal to audiences better than “Josephine went outside and smelled petrichor. She dashed inside to get her umbrella.”

Notice, too, how the composer doesn’t need to use complex amounts of adjectives and adverbs to describe things. Imagery is an effective way of “showing” rather than “telling” because it compels readers to draw on their own experiences.

How to analyse imagery – A step-by-step guide

It is possible to be systematic when analysing imagery. Let’s see what this process looks like:

• Read the passage to see if there is something recognisable to the senses
• Figure out which sense is being used
• Ask yourself, “what sense does this example use?”
• Ask yourself what this imagery is representing?
• Write about what this imagery does, and how it supports your argument using a T.E.E.L structure.

Now we have an idea of what this process looks like, let’s examine it in detail.

Step 1: Read the passage to see if it represents sensate experiences

Imagery conveys sensory experiences. When we analyse a passage to for it, we need to look for depictions of sensory experience. As you read, ask yourself is a sensory experience being represented here?

Let’s consider a passage from Act Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s The Tempest :

Caliban :all the infections that the sun sucks up From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me And yet I needs must curse. But they’ll nor pinch, Fright me with urchin–shows, pitch me i’ the mire, Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark Out of my way, unless he bid ’em; but For every trifle are they set upon me; Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I All wound with adders who with cloven tongues Do hiss me into madness.

If we read through this passage we can see that Caliban is describing the torments that the tyrannical magician Prospero is inflicting on him. He is describing sensory experiences. This is imagery.

Now, we need to figure out what kinds it is and what it is doing.

Step 2: Identify the examples and types of imagery used

To identify imagery, we need to figure out what senses the examples are using to convey meaning.

In this example, Caliban describes how things look, how they sound, and he describes how things feel. So, let’s see what these examples are doing:

• Sound: “sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me” “sometime am I / All wound with adders who with cloven tongues / Do hiss me into madness” – this is auditory imagery .
• Sight: “But they’ll…Fright me with urchin–shows” – this is visual imagery .
• Touch: “then like hedgehogs which / Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount / Their pricks at my footfall” – this is tactile imagery .

Now we’ve broken the sensory imagery down into groups of senses, we need to figure out what Shakespeare is representing with these images.

Step 3: Understand what the Imagery is representing

Now we’ve found the imagery, we have to understand what it is doing.

In this extract, Caliban is complaining about how Prospero, a magician, torments him. Caliban describes the different creatures and spirits that the crotchety and cruel tyrant uses to keep Caliban in line.

Caliban describes how Prospero would torment him:

• By scaring him with visual imagery – “But they’ll…Fright me with urchin–shows”
• By terrifying him with auditory imagery – “sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me” “sometime am I / All wound with adders who with cloven tongues / Do hiss me into madness”
• By physically torturing him with tactle imagery – “then like hedgehogs which / Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount / Their pricks at my footfall”

Now we need to describe how this is conveying this to the reader in a such a powerful manner.

Step 4: Describe how the imagery is representing meaning in the text

We have ascertained that Caliban is complaining about his treatment at the hands of Prospero. Caliban uses visual, auditory, and tactile imagery to describe this.

So how do we discuss this in our essay?

We use a T.E.E.L structure.

T.E.E.L stands for:

• Technique : The technique used in the example
• Example : The example
• Effect : Your explanation of the effect of this technique and how it develops meaning
• Link : An explanation of how this example supports your argument.

You can find a more detailed explanation of using T.E.E.L in our post on paragraph structure  (this post is part of our series on Essay Writing and shows you the methods Matrix English students learn to write Band 6 essays in the Matrix Holiday and Term courses). Let’s use this T.E.E.L structure to write about this example of imagery.

• The techniques  being used are visual imagery ,  auditory imagery , and  tactile imagery .
• “But they’ll…Fright me with urchin–shows”
• “sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me” “sometime am I / All wound with adders who with cloven tongues / Do hiss me into madness”
• “then like hedgehogs which / Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount / Their pricks at my footfall”
• The effect  of this technique is that Caliban represents how Prospero tortures him unless he does the magician’s bidding.
• The link to our argument about discovery is that Caliban’s representation of his struggles, changes the audience’s view of Prospero as a benevolent ruler, to one who is cruel. Caliban gives insight into the nature or colonial rule.

Let’s put this together into a complete piece of analysis about these examples of imagery:

Now we have an understanding of how to analyse imagery, let’s look at a few more examples.

Examples of imagery

Now we have looked at what imagery is, how it works, and how to analyse it in your texts, let’s have a look at some examples. For each of these examples we have explained what the technique is, how it works, and then provided a sample response.

Some students notice that ‘visual imagery’ is something of a tautology (that is, it seems to say the same thing twice), and they omit the adjective ‘visual’ when referring to this category. Do not do this! Always be specific when discussing imagery!

The opening of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ is filled with overwhelming visual imagery:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.

Effect: The accumulation of intense visual imagery sustains, for the reader, the sense of the sublime, which was so important in Romantic verse.

Imagery occurs in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell . Let’s have a look at an extract from Part One, Chapter 1:

[Winston] took down from the shelf a bottle of colourless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese rice-spirit. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine.

Instantly his face turned scarlet and the water ran out of his eyes. The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club. The next moment, however, the burning in his belly died down and the world began to look more cheerful.

In this example, Orwell has used various types of imagery. Let’s see what they are, and how you should describe the technique and effect and how it develops meaning.

Visual Imagery describes the liquid: “[Winston] took down from the shelf a bottle of colourless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN.”

Effect:  The gin is presented as an innocuous and bland liquid.

Olfactory Imagery describes the smell of the liquid: “It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese rice-spirit. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine.

Effect:  The gin is described as having an unpleasant smell. The audience perceives it as unappetising, but Winston drinks it anyway. This characterises Winston and the setting.

How to discuss imagery in an essay:

Written by Matrix English Team

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Year 11 English Advanced tutoring at Matrix will help your child improve their maths skills and confidence.

Learning methods available

Year 12 English Advanced tutoring at Matrix will help you gain strong reading and writing skills for the HSC.

Year 11 English tutoring at Matrix will help build a strong foundation for VCE English success.

Year 12 English tutoring at Matrix will help your child improve their reading and writing skills.

Related articles

UAC FAQs: Answers to 12 Questions You Should Be Asking

Do you have questions about UAC? Read this guide for the answers.

Megan’s Top 5 Tips to Manage the Increased Workload of Year 11

Read on to see Megan's best tips for staying on top of Year 11 without sacrificing your personal life!

HSC Maths Extension 1 Exam Paper Solutions

Studying Maths Extension 1? You've come to the right place. Here, you can find full solutions and in-depth explanations for the latest HSC Maths Extension 1 Exam Papers.