In Act 1, Scene 1, Antonio and his friend Delio are introduced to Bosola, the recently released criminal who is trying to reenter society and who confides in them about his desire for security. Once Bosola leaves, Antonio uses a simile to describe his interpretation of Bosola’s predicament. Antonio and Delio are left alone onstage, so Antonio is able to express himself honestly in a way that he wouldn’t be able to with other important figures around. He says:
It then doth follow want of action
Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing,
Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing.
Antonio reflects on Bosola’s false imprisonment and hopes that he finds some way to move on soon. He uses a simile to remark on how difficult it can be to suffer from inaction. Because Bosola is searching for stability, Antonio hopes that he finds a way to be of service soon. A man without anything to do can create problems, he implies. He compares the brain without action to a piece of clothing that goes unworn. The "malcontents" that emerge are like moths that eat away at unworn fabric. Antonio’s assessment of Bosola’s situation is apt because he recognizes how vulnerable Bosola is. Lack of action, in Bosola’s case, will result in disappointment and dissatisfaction. Ultimately, Bosola ends up in the Cardinal’s employ,and brings fire down upon Antonio’s family. This initial judgment takes on more meaning, as Bosola’s time of inaction makes him desperate enough to initially compromise his morals for power and influence.
In Act 1, Scene 1, after an interaction with Ferdinand and the Cardinal, Bosola uses a simile to describe his impression of the brothers. He has recently been released from prison and finds that being in proximity to the brothers is intense because of how wealthy they are. The audience eventually comes to understand how drawn Bosola is to wealth and power because of his lower-class upbringing, he craves the stability that they could provide. Nonetheless, in this scene he criticizes their tawdry display of abundance. After the Cardinal exits, Bosola meets Delio and Antonio. At Delio’s prompting, he says:
He and his brother are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools; they are rich and o’erladen, stagnant with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them.
These lines come at the beginning of a longer speech in which Bosola criticizes the brothers further and vows not to engage with their riches because of his current sense of desperation. His simile allows him to preface his judgements with descriptive language that characterizes the brothers as keepers of wealth and corruption. The excess of their wealth causes men, like pests, to swarm to their company. The crows, magpies and caterpillars in Bosola’s simile are therefore those seeking wealth and an improvement in their material circumstances through proximity to the brothers. Though Bosola swears that he’d like to avoid the brothers, he is ultimately caught in the glamor of their influence, and becomes like those very men he criticizes in this speech.
In Act 1, Scene 1, during a conversation about horsemanship that takes place between Ferdinand and Antonio, the latter makes an allusion to the story of Troy. Antonio has been introduced as the court’s finest jouster and is now being questioned by Ferdinand. Their interaction is significant because of the conflict that will emerge between these two characters. Antonio’s marriage to Ferdinand’s sister will ultimately bring about much of the play’s violence. Therefore, their conversation here is significant beyond its subject matter. Antonio responds to a compliment of his horsemanship with the following simile:
Nobly, my lord. As out of the Grecian horse issued many famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise the first sparks of growing resolution that raise the mind to noble action.
Antonio’s simile references the story of Troy, specifically the story of the Trojan horse, when Greek soldiers presented a wooden horse as a gift and hid inside it in order to gain access to the city of Troy. After years of siege, it was through this deft trick that the Greeks were ultimately victorious. Antonio sees horsemanship as something that builds character, and he explains that virtues emerge from diligent activity like men emerged from the Trojan horse. Antonio’s simile is relevant because the men are discussing horsemanship, but also because he is invoking an important historical usurping through deceit. His simile suggests that his strength of character may come as a surprise to Ferdinand. He therefore implies that his talent at horsemanship is representative of his approach to life. His assertion of his own character is important because he is talking to Ferdinand, whose adamant protection of the Duchess’s virginity will lead to opposition between these two men later in the play.
In the opening of Act 4, Scene 1, Ferdinand questions Bosola about how the Duchess is faring, and Bosola uses a simile to describe her mood. The Duchess has been imprisoned by her brother and is separated from her husband. Her awareness of her own captivity has made her despondent, and Bosola communicates how she longs for the world beyond. However, Ferdinand is unsatisfied, as he believes that she still has an edge of disdain and is therefore resisting full captivity. His desire to completely alienate the Duchess from the world is exacerbated by this frustration. Bosola responds with a simile, saying:
'Tis so, and this restraint
Like English mastiffs grow fierce with tying,
Makes her too passionately apprehend
Those pleasures she’s kept from.
In this simile, Bosola compares the Duchess to a dog on a chain. Despite her limited ability to move around, he says, she has an awareness of what she’s missing out on in the world, and that keeps her disdainful. Her sense of her own imprisonment is like that of a dog who is restricted but still able to perceive the world around her. His comparison here is a significant one. Not only does it prompt Ferdinand to take further—and more torturous—action, it also showcases one of the underlying problems with how men treat the Duchess in the play. Even as he subtly advocates on her behalf, Bosola compares the Duchess to an animal. His dehumanization of her is ultimately reflected by Ferdinand’s actions. All of the men responsible for the Duchess’s fate engage in conversations that belittle and alienate her from her humanity.
In Act 4, Scene 2, after the Duchess has been killed, Bosola and Ferdinand are left facing off. Bosola realizes that he is in danger, and uses a simile to characterize Ferdinand and his brother and how dangerous their behavior is.
Bosola intends to drive Ferdinand away and save himself from the same grisly death he has just witnessed—as both the Duchess and her maid Cariola have just been strangled. He asks Ferdinand for his compensation, and when Ferdinand responds negatively, he says:
Your brother and yourself are worthy men;
You have a pair of hearts are hollow graves,
Rotten and rotting others; and your vengeance,
Like two chained bullets, still goes arm in arm.
Bosola’s simile is about the extent of the brothers’ power: Ferdinand and his brother the Cardinal wield immense influence in the world of the court, and Bosola is just one man chained to service in the hopes of material advancement. Now that he has seen the brothers commit serious atrocities, Bosola is ready to make his judgment, and it is a severe one. First, he uses a metaphor to call Ferdinand’s heart a rotten grave, implying that his heart is dead and that he cannot feel. Then, his simile expands the image and gives it greater gravity. He describes how the vengeance of the two brothers is felt twofold by its victims. He compares them to two cannonballs tied together, implying that they are doubly powerful because they act together. Bosola intends to berate Ferdinand and escape from feeling the lash of his vengeance, but the way he describes the brothers in this scene is scathing, and it thus follows that Ferdinand would wish, as he does in this scene, that he never had to lay eyes on Bosola again.
In Act 4, Scene 2, Bosola is in disguise as a tombmaker in the Duchess’s chamber, and he recites a simile to her in a conversation before she is killed. The darkness of the moment is reflected in Bosola’s assessment of the Duchess’s wealth and title. At the play’s beginning, he believed that those attributes would provide stability, but having to witness the Duchess’s downfall has convinced him otherwise. When she tries to pull rank on him and implies that neither Bosola nor the executioner should underestimate her power, Bosola says:
Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright
But looked to near have neither heat nor light.
Bosola’s statement compares wealth and title to a glow worm, whose light is "false" in that it doesn’t provide any heat or satisfaction when it is examined. His simile comes in response to the Duchess’s attempt to save herself using her title, and it therefore implies that her power is a false promise and that it will not save her. He wants to communicate to the Duchess how little her wealth has provided for her happiness and safety. Bosola’s pessimism at this moment is reflective of how his proximity to the Duchess has influenced his view of the world. He now understands how little title and rank actually provide. This is a revelation, especially compared to his philosophy earlier in the play, and he takes this moment to communicate it to the Duchess, although he cannot do so in his true form. Instead, disguised, he tries to tell her that she will not be saved by being the Duchess.
In Act 5, Scene 5, during the play’s final bloodbath, Ferdinand recites his last words after he is stabbed by Bosola. To those assembled, he extrapolates on the nature of the world and uses a simile to reflect on his destruction. He calls to his sister, trying to reckon with her violent death and his own culpability in her murder. Ferdinand’s ability to reflect on the circumstances of his death (and on the many misdeeds he committed in his lifetime) comes as a surprise to Bosola, who is still present and conscious. But Ferdinand’s final lines are the most precise and meaningful. Right before he dies, he says:
My sister, oh, my sister! There’s the cause on’t.
Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.
Ferdinand’s speech hinges on his simile about diamonds. He compares human beings to diamonds, and then he explains that, regardless of the cause of their death, they are ultimately responsible. They are the source of their own downfall. This moment of reflection is significant for Ferdinand, who has been unable to feel great remorse for his actions or reckon with their consequences. In this moment, he understands that it was his abuse of wealth and power that brought him to his death and that, therefore, human beings cannot escape the limits of their own power. When Ferdinand dies, he has passed with a moment of reflection and remorse on the nature of humanity as well as his particular life and circumstances.
