Literary critics usually use the term "image" to describe a moment when the language of a poem appeals explicitly to our visual sense. Images become "key" images when literature makes them a crucial part of a larger structure visual experience, designs them to encapsulate a central idea or emotion, lavishes enormous verbal ornament upon them, or causes them to shock us with their beauty, violence, or incongruity. Find two images that connect the Pardoner's "Prologue" with "The Pardoner's Tale." Write a paragraph describing the way these images work in the texts. Then, in another paragraph, write about the role of imagery in Julian of Norwich's showings.

Chaucer certainly painted some vivid images in "The Pardoner's Tale" and when describing the Pardoner in the "Prologue." After reading about the Pardoner in the "Prologue," we have a strong visual image of his long, thin blond hair and his "glaring" hare-like eyes. Chaucer ends the description of his looks by describing his unshaven chin and emphasizing that the man never would be able to grow a beard; in fact, he seemed as effeminate as if "he were a gelding [castrated horse] or a mare."
This visual image recurs with a vengeance at the end of the Pardoner's tale, when the Host responds to the Pardoner's suggestion that he purchase the first pardon. The host angrily declares that he would gladly castrate the Pardoner himself.
The other image that clearly reflects between the Prologue and the tale is the description of the relics. The Pardoner carried the relics in a "wallet" (bag) on his lap. They included a glass of pigs' bones, a pillowcase that he claimed was the Virgin Mary's veil, and a piece of cloth that was supposedly part of Saint Peter's sail. In the tale, the Pardoner describes some of these items himself and explains how he uses them in his sermons. He mentions his "longe crystal stones / Y-crammed full of clothes and of bones"—that is, the glass containing bones. Although he has clearly told his listeners that his promises about the magic powers of these relics are simply a trick ("gaud"), he has the nerve to launch into a sales pitch at the end of his tale: "I have rlics and pardon in my mail / As fair as any man in Engeland, / Which were given me by the Pope's hand." He bids the Host come forward and "kiss the relics every one." The Host turns this image against the Pardoner by suggesting that by castrating the Pardoner, he'd have a relic that he'd help the Pardoner carry in a "hog's turd," a very potent image indeed.
The flavor of Julian of Norwich's images is quite different, of course. Rather than the irreverence toward Christian symbols shown by the Pardoner and the Host, Julian describes the images from her visions, or "shewings," with great respect and awe. Her first showing, for example, is of Christ wearing the crown of thorns. She describes the red blood trickling down from the garland that was pressed on his head. In the fifth chapter, she describes a little hazel nut in the palm of her hand as being "as round as a balle." The ironic beauty of this imagery is that the tiny nut represents all of God's creation. Many people recall the American spiritual, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Julian's image of the hazel nut imparts the same meaning in a more original and intriguing fashion. One could take most of Julian's showings and find vivid visual descriptions that she used to impart spiritual truths.
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/the-shewings-of-julian-of-norwich-part-1