Examples of Visual Spatial pattern in Literary texts
Setting: Landscapes
Jane Eyre 1847:
‘I went to my window, opened it, and looked out. There were the two wings of the BUILDING; there was the GARDEN; there were the SKIRTS OF LOWOOD; there was the hilly HORIZON.’ (Brontë 2001 [1847], p.72)
Great Expectations 1861:
At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the CHURCHYARD…and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the MARSHES; and that the low leaden line beyond was the RIVER. And that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the SEA…(Dickens 1973 [1861], pp.1-2)
The Rainbow 1915:
Still the Marsh remained remote and original, on the old, quiet side of the canal embankment, in the sunny valley where slow water wound along in company of stiff alders, and the road went under ash-trees past the Brangwens’ garden gate. But, looking from the garden gate down the road to the right, there, through the dark archway of the canal’s square aquaduct, was a colliery spinning away in the near distance, and further, red, crude houses plastered on the valley in masses, and beyond all the dim smoking hill of the town’ (Lawrence 1995 [1915], p.7)
Anthills of the Savannah 2001:
The low hibiscus HEDGE outside the window and its many brilliant red bells stood still and unruffled. Beyond the hedge the COURTYARD with its concrete slabs and neatly manicured bahama grass at the interstices showed no flying leaves or dust. Beyond the courtyard another stretch of the green and red HEDGE stood against the one-storey east wing of the Presidential Palace. Over and beyond the ROOF the tops of PALM-TREES at the waterfront swayed with the same lazy ease they display to gentle ocean winds’ (Achebe 2001, p.8).
People: pattern 1: Outline/Head
Crime and Punishment:
Sonya was of small STATURE, about eighteen years old, a THIN but GOOD-LOOKING blonde, with wonderful EYES. (Dostoevsky 2003 [1866]. p.221)
And, in Pride and Prejudice:
Lydia was a STOUT, well grown-girl of fifteen, with a fine COMPLEXION and good humoured COUNTENANCE. (Austen 2003 [1813], p.40)
People: Pattern 2: Outline/Head/Body
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
They obviously were true Papuans, men of fine stock, athletic in BUILD, FOREHEAD high and broad, NOSE large but not flat, TEETH white. Their woolly, red–tinted HAIR was in sharp contrast to their BODIES, which were black and glistening like those of Nubians. (Verne [1870])
Places:
I stood and warmed my numbed fingers over the blaze then I looked round; there was no candle but the uncertain light from the hearth showed, by intervals, papered walls (EDGE), carpet (CENTRE), curtains (EDGE), shining mahogany furniture (CENTRE): it was a parlour, not so spacious or splendid as the drawing-room at Gateshead, but comfortable enough. (Bronte 2001 [1847], p.35)