Sensory imagery is a literary device where writers use descriptive language to evoke mental images. It explores the five human senses — sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell — in engaging readers and making creative elements in fiction appear real. In this article, we discuss the importance and notable examples of sensory imagery to enhance our understanding of the literary device.

Importance of sensory imagery in fiction writing

Narrative fiction makes use of a great degree of imagery. Fiction writers evoke mental images to afford the reader the satisfaction of reaching their own conclusions and making judgments based on perceptual clues. Writers are not required to use imagery for every description. But when details of a thing are crucial to your story, you may need to describe how things appear to evoke compelling mental images. Depicting how something looks, smells, sounds, tastes, or feels makes a passage or scene come alive. And combining different types of sensory imagery arms the writer with as much information to make a scene, a person, or an experience jump off the page and feel real to readers.

Examples of sensory imagery in narrative fiction

One of the most effective ways to learn how to use sensory imagery is to examine examples in literature that are remarkably evocative. And here are some examples:

The Awakening, Kate Chopin (1899). “There were strange, rare odors abroad—a tangle of the sea smell and of weeds and damp, new-plowed earth, mingled with the heavy perfume of a field of white blossoms somewhere near.” Throughout the story, Chopin connects the smell of the sea with that of the earth: soil, weeds, flowers. The connection adds a layer of complexity to her imagery, going beyond the usual fishy, salty smells associated with the ocean and placing the sea as part of the earth. The description also foreshadows this character's attraction to the sea.

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (1847). “I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire.” The descriptions of the weather and dampness in this passage appeal to readers' sense of touch. Here, the rainfall and Jane’s physical discomfort reflected her dark, depressed mood.

Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818). “I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if anyone performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled.” The description here allows readers to envision the creature, its wildness, and mildness, making it clear how the narrator could tell the vicious-looking creature was harmless.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle (1892). “A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined with flame-coloured silk.” Here, it is easy for readers to imagine the man that enters the room. His clothing choice quickly depicts his economic status and his style. It also reveals a lot about the narrator's outlook on the world around him.