Caged
The first time Spartacus meets Varinia is in his cell. He is meant to sleep with her. Kubrick shows Marcellus and Batiatus above the cell peering through an opening with bars. They want to see if the gladiator in training will sleep with the beauty. Kubrick composes a frame of Spartacus yelling that them through the bars of his cell. The imagery shows us that they believe him to be an animal and thus cage him like one. But also that he seeks to destroy the boundaries that separate slave from freedom.
Net
During his gladiator fight to-the-death we see Spartacus in frame with Draba's net being peered through from the camera. The image shows us that Spartacus is merely bait for the other warrior. It also creates a feeling of being trapped, even more so than the confines of the gladiator ring.
Inhumanity
Crassus purchases for human lives to compete in to-the-death gladiator matches for his and his companions pleasure. Kubrick designs a shot where Spartacus is fighting Draba in the background and Crassus speaks with Marcus Publius Glabrus in the comfort of their viewing box. The image evokes an inhuman cruelty that these men have. They purchase lives because they do not value the life of a slave, and this image communicates their lack of regard for these very lives even as they fight to kill each other before their eyes. They have become numb to the reality of this cruelty.
A Storm Approaches
Spartacus speaks with Tigranes in his tent and learns that there are six Roman garrisons approaching their camp. Spartacus steps to the entrance of his tent and looks out into the storm within the night. The rain is pouring down and lightning follows the rumble of thunder. The image becomes the circumstance that Spartacus is in. He and his men are in the midst of a storm and it is their choice whether to go out into it and fight or ignore it in order to seek the comfort and safety of their journey to the sea.
