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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Godlike Marabar:
In Part 2, Chapter 14, the narrator compares the Marabar caves to gods with a metaphor that evokes not only their grand stature, but also their impenetrable mystery:
Astonishing even from the rise of the civil station, here the Marabar were gods to whom earth is a ghost. Kawa Dol was nearest. It shot up in a single slab, on whose summit one rock was poised—if a mass so great can be called one rock. Behind it, recumbent, were the hills that contained the other caves, isolated each from his neighbour by broad channels of the plain.
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Part 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Flame:
The narrative metaphorically presents the connection between Aziz and Mrs. Moore as a flame. In Part 1, Chapter 2, Mrs. Callendar and Mrs. Lesley steal Aziz's tonga (carriage). He later complains to Mrs. Moore, another Englishwoman, that he is "just a subordinate" to the English and that his "time is of no value" to them. She listens to his complaints with sympathy, and he is excited by the unlikely prospect of friendship with an old Englishwoman:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He was excited partly by his wrongs, but much more by the knowledge that someone sympathized with them. It was this that led him to repeat, exaggerate, contradict. She had proved her sympathy by criticizing her fellow-countrywoman to him, but even earlier he had known. The flame that not even beauty can nourish was springing up, and though his words were querulous his heart began to glow secretly. Presently it burst into speech.
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Part 1, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Traveling Light:
The concept of "traveling light" becomes a metaphor for personal freedom. In Part 1, Chapter 11, Fielding uses it to make a case against marriage and religion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I travel light.”
“Travel light! You are a most extraordinary race,” said Aziz, turning away as if he were going to sleep, and immediately turning back again. “Is it your climate, or what?”
“Plenty of Indians travel light too—saddhus and such. It’s one of the things I admire about your country. Any man can travel light until he has a wife or children. That’s part of my case against marriage. I’m a holy man minus the holiness. Hand that on to your three spies, and tell them to put it in their pipes.”
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