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Setting
Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Key Examples in A Study in Scarlet
Part 1, Chapter 2: The Science of Deduction
Explanation and Analysis—The Brain-Attic:
In Part 1, Chapter 2, Sherlock Holmes uses a simile to describe the way he views the mind, comparing it to an attic. Watson is shocked to learn that someone as brilliant as Holmes is supposedly ignorant of the Copernican model of the solar system (the idea that planets revolve around the sun). Holmes claims that he has simply never thought about the position of the sun in the solar system because it isn’t relevant to his goals:
“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across […] Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work […] It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.”
