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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 Heart of Darkness
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Congo River as a Snake:
Marlow uses a simile comparing the Congo River to a snake in order to explain why he decided to go there. He connects this comparison to his childhood interest in maps and exploration:
There was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked at the map of it in a shop-window, it fascinated me as a snake would a bird—a silly little bird.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Rotten Lies:
After describing his initial meeting with the dishonest Brickmaker, who repeatedly praises Kurtz but also clearly hates him, Marlow uses a vivid simile to sum up his own moral principles:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies—which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world—what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do.
Related Themes:
Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—Corruption as Death:
At the Inner Station, the General Manager is delighted to see that Kurtz—the Company’s best ivory trader and his main rival—is dying. But instead of revealing his true feelings, he feigns grief. This disgusts Marlow, who uses a simile to compare his disappointment about meeting Kurtz (and the General Manager’s utter corruption) to being buried alive:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Mr. Kurtz [...] was as good as buried. For a moment it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night…
Related Themes:
