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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
Book 12
Explanation and Analysis—Arrayed Like a Knight:
In Volume 2, Book 12, Chapter 4, Launcelot (banished by Guenever from Arthur's court) wanders bedraggled into the city of Corbin. The narrator uses a simile to highlight the dramatic irony of Launcelot's concealed identity:
And when Sir Castor was made knight, that same day he gave many gowns. And then Sir Castor sent for the fool – that was Sir Launcelot. And when he was come afore Sir Castor, he gave Sir Launcelot a robe of scarlet and all that longed unto him. And when Sir Launcelot was so arrayed like a knight, he was the seemliest man in all the court, and none so well made.
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Book 13
Explanation and Analysis—Hard, Bitter, Bare:
In Volume 2, Book 13, Chapter 19, Launcelot wakes up from a dream-vision that he saw the Sangreal but could not move towards it. He hears a voice that uses three similes to describe him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Right so heard he a voice that said, ‘Sir Launcelot, more harder than is the stone, and more bitter than is the wood, and more naked and barer than is the leaf of the fig tree; therefore go thou from hence, and withdraw thee from this holy place.’
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Book 14
Explanation and Analysis—Sangreal Prophecy:
In Volume 2, Book 14, Chapter 2, the Queen of the Waste Lands tells Percivale about how Merlin made the Round Table and informed the men about the future of the Grail quest. Merlin's prophecy reportedly involved a great deal of figurative language, including a metaphor and a pair of similes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And men asked him how men might know them that should best do and to achieve the Sangrail. Then he said there should be three white bulls that should achieve it, and the two should be maidens, and the third should be chaste. And that one of the three should pass his father as much as the lion passeth the leopard, both of strength and hardiness.
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