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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 Bliss
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Rare Fiddles:
At the beginning of “Bliss,” as Bertha reflects on the social constraints individuals—and particularly women—face, she repeats the same simile twice, likening both a “body” and a “baby” to a “rare, rare fiddle” (that is, a violin) that is always stashed away in its case. "Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?" Bertha muses, wondering why it would be taboo for her to break into dance as she walks down the street. Later, when the Nurse takes her baby daughter away, she thinks to herself, "Why have a baby if it has to be kept—not in a case like a rare, rare fiddle—but in another woman's arms?” Crucially, Bertha is not reflecting on the limitations she personally faces in life, but on the constraints society generally places on people and mothers. Bertha refers to “a body,” not her body, as well as “a baby,” not her baby, demonstrating that she is unable to clearly see her life for what it is.
Related Themes:
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—The Pear Tree:
A major moment in the story arrives alongside—and is underscored by—a simile that forms the crux of this description of the pear tree, which Bertha and Pearl gaze at during a lull in the party:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And the two women stood side by side looking at the slender, flowering tree. Although it was so still it seemed, like the flame of a candle, to stretch up, to point, to quiver in the bright air, to grow taller and taller as they gazed—almost to touch the rim of the round, silver moon.
Related Themes:
