Imagery of the Hill
Martin, a main character, tells the others about how he came across the goat after whom the play is named. He illustrates a bucolic scene that extends to his first observation of the goat. He does so in a reverie, so the hill is shown to a degree that most other things in the play are not.
Imagery of Broken Things
When Martin's wife Stevie gets over the initial shock of what she finds out about him, the couple begins to fight. She throws things, and Edward Albee depicts these in detail. In doing so, he shows how these emblems of their life together no longer mean what they did; Stevie's old life is gone, and she shows this to both herself and her husband.
Imagery of Staging
The play is full of stage directions, even more than usual for a play. Many of these pertain to Martin's relations with his wife and son. In providing small cues for their placement, Albee sets up a visual scene in which Billy, the couple's son, becomes angered about his father's sexuality and treatment of Billy's.
Billy and Martin Embracing
In one of the more shocking scenes of the play, disgraced father Martin embraces his son, Billy. This is described by family friend Ross who enters and is disgusted. Martin views it as perfectly normal, but Billy noticed that the encounter switched over to the sexual part of his brain. The short image of this scene further disrupts the atmosphere shown at the beginning of the play.
Stevie Killing the Goat
When Stevie returns at the end of the play, dragging the body of Sylvia, the description of the scene is vivid: Stevie is splattered with blood and Sylvia's throat has been cut. This imagery solidifies the antagonism of bestiality with societal norms, and represents society's tendency to reassert itself in overt and sometimes violent ways against taboos.
