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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 3: I Have a Change
Chapter 8: My Holidays, Especially One Happy Afternoon
Explanation and Analysis—Cold Blast of Air:
In Chapter 8, David goes home from Salem House for the holidays, and the Murdstones are absent for his first afternoon there. He uses imagery and a simile to describe how their return to the house shatters the nostalgic fantasy of life back with his mother and Peggotty:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It appeared to my childish fancy, as I ascended to the bedroom where I had been imprisoned, that they brought a cold blast of air into the house which blew away the old familiar feeling like a feather.
Related Themes:
Chapter 32: The Beginning of a Long Journey
Explanation and Analysis—Dead Friend:
In Chapter 32, David must grapple with the knowledge that his friend Steerforth has seduced Emily and betrayed the Peggotys. He uses a simile to describe how this news affects his relationship to Steerforth:
Unlock with LitCharts A+What his remembrances of me were, I have never known—they were light enough, perhaps, and easily dismissed—but mine of him were as the remembrances of a cherished friend, who was dead.
Related Themes:
Chapter 64: A Last Retrospect
Explanation and Analysis—Realities Like Shadows:
As a Bildungsroman, David Copperfield is about the growth and success of its main character within Victorian society. In Chapter 64, at the close of the novel, a simile leaves the reader with the sense that David's journey of personal development has also prepared him for spiritual success that transcends Victorian society:
Unlock with LitCharts A+O Agnes, O my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!
Related Themes:
