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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
Key Examples in Jude the Obscure
Part 1, Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Gin Traps:
Hardy uses the nasty image of a "gin" (a cruel metal trap activated by pressure) as a metaphor for Jude's rushed and early marriage to Arabella Donn. This image also recurs as a motif. In Part 1, Chapter 9, Jude compares the situation he finds himself in to being caught in one of these devices:
There seemed to him, vaguely and dimly, something wrong in a social ritual which made necessary a cancelling of well-formed schemes [...] because of a momentary surprise by a new and transitory instinct which had nothing in it of the nature of vice, and could be only at the most called weakness. He was inclined to inquire what he had done, or she lost, for that matter, that he deserved to be caught in a gin which would cripple him, if not her also, for the rest of a lifetime?
Related Themes:
Part 4, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Hardy regularly associates the ethereal Sue Bridehead with the motif of birds in this novel. Jude often refers to her as a bird or speaks of her as birdlike when he is frustrated with their their horrible luck, as he does in this fragment from Part 4, Chapter 2:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘It is horrible how we are circumstanced, Sue – horrible!’ he said abruptly, with his eyes bent to the floor. [...] Your part is that you ought not to have married him. I saw it before you had done it, but I thought I mustn’t interfere. I was wrong. I ought to have!’
‘But what makes you assume all this, dear?’
‘Because – I can see you through your feathers, my poor little bird!’
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Gin Traps:
Hardy uses the nasty image of a "gin" (a cruel metal trap activated by pressure) as a metaphor for Jude's rushed and early marriage to Arabella Donn. This image also recurs as a motif. In Part 1, Chapter 9, Jude compares the situation he finds himself in to being caught in one of these devices:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There seemed to him, vaguely and dimly, something wrong in a social ritual which made necessary a cancelling of well-formed schemes [...] because of a momentary surprise by a new and transitory instinct which had nothing in it of the nature of vice, and could be only at the most called weakness. He was inclined to inquire what he had done, or she lost, for that matter, that he deserved to be caught in a gin which would cripple him, if not her also, for the rest of a lifetime?
Related Themes:
Part 6, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Hardy regularly associates the ethereal Sue Bridehead with the motif of birds in this novel. Jude often refers to her as a bird or speaks of her as birdlike when he is frustrated with their their horrible luck, as he does in this fragment from Part 4, Chapter 2:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘It is horrible how we are circumstanced, Sue – horrible!’ he said abruptly, with his eyes bent to the floor. [...] Your part is that you ought not to have married him. I saw it before you had done it, but I thought I mustn’t interfere. I was wrong. I ought to have!’
‘But what makes you assume all this, dear?’
‘Because – I can see you through your feathers, my poor little bird!’
Related Themes:
Part 6, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Thick in the Flitch:
In Chapter 7, Part 6, Tinker Taylor uses two unflattering metaphors to describe Arabella Fawley’s aging body:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Well, ’ said Tinker Taylor, re-lighting his pipe at the gas-jet. ‘Take her all together, limb by limb, she’s not such a bad-looking piece – particular by candlelight. To be sure, halfpence that have been in circulation can’t be expected to look like new ones from the Mint. But for a woman that’s been knocking about the four hemispheres for some time, she’s passable enough. A little bit thick in the flitch perhaps: but I like a woman that a puff o’ wind won’t blow down.’
Related Themes:
