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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
Similes Mind Map
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Key Examples in Hamlet
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—As Easy as Lying:
In Act 3, Scene 2, after the players’ performance causes Claudius to storm off, Hamlet has a conversation with his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They have been sent by Hamlet’s mother, who is concerned by his behavior. Hamlet seems immediately hostile to the envoy and doesn’t give his friends a straight answer. Then, when the players reenter with their instruments, he picks up a flute and asks them if they will play it. Guildenstern protests that he doesn’t know how, and the simile Hamlet sets forth in response ultimately hints at the source of his anger and the tension in the scene. He says:
It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages
with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with
your mouth and it will discourse most eloquent
music. Look you, these are the stops.
