Caroline Spurgeon - Shakespeare's Imagery

Shakespeare's Imagery

In 1935, Spurgeon wrote the pioneer study on the use of images in William Shakespeare's Work, called Shakespeare's Imagery, and what it tells us. It has been reprinted several times. In it she analyses the different types of images and motifs that he uses in his plays. She also shows that there is a "cluster", or there are several "clusters", of images in each of the major plays, for instance, illness and injury images in "Hamlet", and light and darkness images in "Romeo and Juliet".

Some examples may here suffice.

• She finds sea images: e.g. "Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, the sighs ... will overset thy tempest-tossed body" (Romeo and Juliet)
• clothing images: e.g. "Why do you dress me in borrowed robes" (Macbeth)
• colour images: "this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red." (Macbeth)
• gardening images: "Hang here like a fruit, my soul, till the tree die." (Cymbeline)
• and many more.

The study of imagery can, apart from helping to understand the meaning of the play, give some insight into the poet's mind, because it shows what ideas come to his mind when in need of poetic expression, thus giving some clues as to his background, his upbringing, his social position, and so on.

It can also often help to distinguish his style from that of other authors, and thus is a vital instrument in disproving for example the theory that Francis Bacon may be the author of Shakespeare's plays, since a statistical comparison between the fields of imagery in both authors shows revealing differences.