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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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Insects:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 1, the narrator utilizes apt language to describe Gwendolen's attitude towards Daniel Deronda. This description more reflects Gwendolen's opinion of herself than it does Daniel's opinion of Gwendolen:
There was a smile of irony in his eyes as their glances met; but it was at least better that he should have kept his attention fixed on her than that he disregarded her as one of an insect swarm who had no individual physiognomy.
Gwendolen delights in the fact that, even though Daniel's gaze upon her is disconcerting, he at least does not look at her like she is "one of an insect swarm," (i.e., indistinguishable from the masses she seeks to differentiate herself from). This simile speaks to Gwendolen's personal arrogance and sense of entitlement. She views herself as above most other people, superior in features and in intellect. Ironically, it ends up being Daniel who challenges this self-perception, forcing Gwendolen to contend with her personal assumptions. In reality, Gwendolen is not above the insect swarm, nor does Daniel think of her as such. The swarm does not exist, because there is simply no one group of human beings that can be categorically classed as lesser than others.
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Chapter 51
Explanation and Analysis—Freedom from Restraint:
The following excerpt from Chapter 51 includes an example of both metaphor ("thunder without meaning") and simile ("like a frame"):
"I was to love the long prayers in the ugly synagogue, and the howling, and the gabbling, and the dreadful fasts, and the tiresome feasts, and my father’s endless discoursing about our people, which was a thunder without meaning in my ears. [...] I hated living under the shadow of my father’s strictness. Teaching, teaching for everlasting—‘this you must be,’ ‘that you must not be’—pressed on me like a frame that got tighter and tighter as I grew.
Daniel's mother utilizes figurative language to illustrate her contentious relationship with Judaism. Ironically, the religion and community Daniel associates with freedom and purpose represents the very opposite for his mother. For Leonora, the thunder of Jewish discourse and duty drones on, a form of noise without seeming direction or purpose. In the same vein, Leonora likens the pressure to adhere to conservative Jewish values to that of a frame. She felt forced into a mold that did not suit her, and sought to escape it. While Daniel can understand his mother's reasoning, he cannot sympathize with it. He feels no such restriction from Judaism.
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Explanation and Analysis—Jewish Woman:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 51, Leonora likens her heart to "small, Chinese feet" and her happiness to a cake, made by "a fixed receipt." She does not view herself in this manner; rather, this is the way she was taught to view herself by her father:
"To have a pattern cut out—‘this is the Jewish woman; this is what you must be; this is what you are wanted for; a woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed receipt.’ That was what my father wanted. He wished I had been a son; he cared for me as a make-shift link."
Leonora describes the feeling of being controlled by her devout Jewish father, who had very strict ideas about what a good Jewish woman ought to look like. Leonora languished under the pressure of these ideals, cursed with a father who clearly wished for a son rather than a daughter. For Leonora, it is impossible to disassociate her Jewish identity from the trauma her father inflicted upon her. She was forced to cut her Jewishness out of her wholecloth, avoiding her community in its entirety in order to live the unrestricted life she desired.
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Chapter 70
Explanation and Analysis—Deronda's Love:
In the following passage from Chapter 70, the narrator describes Daniel's love for Mirah, utilizing both metaphor and simile to do so:
Deronda’s love for Mirah was strongly imbued with that blessed protectiveness. Even with infantine feet she had begun to tread among thorns; and the first time he had beheld her face it had seemed to him the girlish image of despair. But now she was glowing like a dark-tipped yet delicate ivory-tinted flower in the warm sunlight of content, thinking of any possible grief as part of that life with Deronda, which she could call by no other name than good.
The above examples of figurative language illustrate the nurturing, cultivating role that Daniel Deronda takes on in Mirah's life. Daniel also adopts this role in Gwendolen's life, leading by example in demonstrating to her what a thoughtful, caring person looks like.
It is worth noting that Daniel, while an admirable man, is situated as a paternalistic figure in both Mirah and Gwendolen's lives. It is assumed that both Gwendolen and Mirah require moral guidance from a man. Daniel provides this, to the slight infantilization of both women. Note, in the above passage, the protective paternal role assigned to Daniel, juxtaposed with Mirah's infantility.
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