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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
Volume 1, Letter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Women as Parrots:
After attending the opera with the Mirvans, Evelina finds herself in a conversation with the Mirvans, Mr. Lovel, Sir Clement, and Lord Orville. At one point, Lord Orville asks Evelina and Maria how they felt about the opera, and Captain Mirvan speaks over them, metaphorically comparing women to parrots in the process:
We both, and with eagerness, declared that we had received as much, if not more pleasure, at the opera than any where: but we had better have been silent; for the Captain, quite displeased, said, “What signifies asking them girls? Do you think they know their own minds yet? Ask ’em after any thing that’s called diversion, and you’re sure they’ll say it’s vastly fine;—they are a set of parrots, and speak by rote, for they all say the same thing: but ask ’em how they like making puddings and pies, and I’ll warrant you’ll pose ’em.”
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Volume 1, Letter 24
Explanation and Analysis—The Thorny Paths:
When Evelina is starting to integrate more fully into her life in London, Mr. Villars warns her in a letter about how London is not the right place for her, using a metaphor and a hyperbole in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Alas, my child, the artlessness of your nature, and the simplicity of your education, alike unfit you for the thorny paths of the great and busy world. The supposed obscurity of your birth and situation, makes you liable to a thousand disagreeable adventures. Not only my views, but any hopes for your future life, have ever centered in the country.
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Volume 2, Letter 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Robbers:
In an example of dramatic irony, Evelina (and readers) know that Captain Mirvan and Sir Clement are pretending to be robbers when they attack Madame Duval and haul her out of her carriage, but Madame Duval does not. The irony comes across clearly when Madame Duval tells Evelina after-the-fact about the murderous intentions of the robbers, which she (and readers) knows is not true:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Why, child, all this misfortune comes of that puppy’s making us leave our money behind us; for as soon as the robber see I did not put nothing in his hands, he lugged me out of the chariot by main force, and I verily thought he’d have murdered me. He was as strong as a lion; I was no more in his hands than a child. But I believe never nobody was so abused before, for he dragged me down the road, pulling and hawling me all the way, as if I’d no more feeling than a horse.”
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Volume 2, Letter 10
Explanation and Analysis—London as a Desert:
While Evelina was taken with London during her first visit, when she goes back for a second time she starts to become disillusioned. This comes across in a letter that Evelina writes to Maria, in which she uses a metaphor and imagery to communicate her discontent with the city:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Indeed, to me, London now seems a desert; that gay and busy appearance it so lately wore, is now succeeded by a look of gloom, fatigue, and lassitude; the air seems stagnant, the heat is intense, the dust intolerable, and the inhabitants illiterate and under-bred. At least, such is the face of things in the part of the town where I at present reside.
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Volume 3, Letter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Mr. Villars's Joy:
After Evelina writes to Mr. Villars and tells him of her reunion with her estranged birth father Sir John Belmont—describing how he has welcomed her into his life and given her her rightful title and inheritance—Mr. Villars responds joyfully, using a metaphor and personification in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+My child, thy happiness is engraved, in golden characters, upon the tablets of my heart! and their impression is indelible; for, should the rude and deep-searching hand of Misfortune attempt to pluck them from their repository, the fleeting fabric of life would give way, and in tearing from my vitals the nourishment by which they are supported, she would but grasp at a shadow insensible to her touch.
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