Unity Through Resonance: A Study of the Function of Imagery in Browning's The Ring and the Book

Abstract

This paper will direct itself to answering the question, How does imagery unify The Ring and the Book? The answer lies in the repeated use of images having the same subject. . . . Anne Stevenson, in another context, applies the term "resonance" to this cumulative effect -- this accretion of meaning through reiteration -- and the word is nicely suggestive.[3] Thus the first task is to establish the fact that certain image subjects are significantly repeated in the poem -- that a pattern of image exists. While I do this in the next chapter, I shall demonstrate the modifications conferred on an image by its prior uses. This illustrative chapter will be followed by one in which some general conclusions will be drawn concerning the function of imagery -- wbat it does, its role -- in the poem. . . . The pages that follow will deal with visual imagery and the diction that evokes it. The investigation of Chapter Two will lead, in Chapter Three, to conclusions which will call into question received critical opinion -- specifically, the evaluations of James and Carlyle and, generally, the judgments concerning unity and objectivity. [From Chapter 1]