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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
Volume 1, Book 1: A Just Man
Explanation and Analysis—Never Fear Robbers:
The first page of the novel introduces the reader to Monsieur Myriel, the Bishop of D—. Before meeting Jean Valjean, the Bishop foreshadows the stolen silver and the grace that he shows such thievery with personification and situational irony:
That evening, before he went to bed, he said again, “Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters is what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which threatens our soul.”
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Volume 1, Book 2: The Fall
Explanation and Analysis—Two Abysses:
Jean Valjean contemplates using the cover of night to steal from the Bishop. When Jean Valjean sees the old man slumbering, the narrative uses a metaphor to depict the convict's moral quandary:
Unlock with LitCharts A+His eye never quitted the old man. The only thing that was clearly to be inferred from his attitude and his physiognomy was a strange indecision. One would have said that he was hesitating between the two abysses, the one in which one loses one’s self and that in which one saves one’s self. He seemed prepared to crush that skull or to kiss that hand.
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Volume 1, Book 8: A Counter-blow
Explanation and Analysis—Javert as a Demon:
When Javert returns to Montreuil-sur-mer to arrest Monsieur Madeleine—Jean Valjean—at Fantine's bedside, he feels intense satisfaction. His pride at having captured Jean Valjean paints him metaphorically as a demon:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was the visage of a demon who has just found his damned soul. The satisfaction of at last getting hold of Jean Valjean caused all that was in his soul to appear in his countenance. The depths having been stirred up, mounted to the surface. The humiliation of having, in some slight degree, lost the scent, and of having indulged, for a few moments, in an error with regard to Champmathieu, was effaced by pride at having so well and accurately divined in the first place, and of having for so long cherished a just instinct. Javert’s content shone forth in his sovereign attitude. The deformity of triumph overspread that narrow brow. All the demonstrations of horror that a satisfied face can afford were there.
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Volume 2, Book 2: The Ship Orion
Explanation and Analysis—Second Escape from Toulon:
At the port of Toulon, the topman on a ship (the topman works with rigging) nearly falls to his death before Jean Valjean jumps into action to save him. The story uses several hyperboles and a metaphor to explain the anticipation of the moment as well as the wonder of Jean Valjean:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In a twinkling he was on the yard; he paused for a few seconds and appeared to be measuring it with his eye; these seconds, during which the breeze swayed the topman at the extremity of a thread, seemed centuries to those who were looking on. […] One would have said it was a spider coming to seize a fly, only here the spider brought life, not death. Ten thousand glances were fastened on this group; not a cry, not a word; the same tremor contracted every brow; all mouths held their breath as though they feared to add the slightest puff to the wind which was swaying the two unfortunate men.
Volume 3, Book 8: The Wicked Poor Man
Explanation and Analysis—A Plague of Butterflies:
In Volume 3, Book 8, Chapter 15, Bossuet shares a metaphorical comment about the snowfall, all while foreshadowing the tragic events at the barricades:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrac chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air. Bossuet was just saying to Courfeyrac, “One would say, to see all these snowflakes fall, that there was a plague of white butterflies in heaven.” All at once, Bossuet caught sight of Marius coming up the street toward the barrier with a peculiar air.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Jondrette Lair:
Marius spies on the Jondrette family in the Gorbeau hovel after discovering that they intend to take revenge on Monsieur Leblanc. The narrative uses a metaphor to explain how the Gorbeau building is the perfect setting for such a vengeful crime:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The Jondrette lair was, if the reader recalls what we have said of the Gorbeau building, admirably chosen to serve as the theater of a violent and somber deed, and as the envelope for a crime. It was the most retired chamber in the most isolated house on the most deserted boulevard in Paris. If the system of ambush and traps had not already existed, they would have been invented there.
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Volume 4, Book 3: The House in the Rue Plumet
Explanation and Analysis—Sufficient Suffering:
When Cosette and Jean Valjean settle at the Rue Plumet, Jean Valjean finally feels at peace. The narrator underscores his joy and gratefulness with situational irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When Cosette went out with him, she leaned on his arm, proud and happy, in the plenitude of her heart. Jean Valjean felt his heart melt within him with delight, at all these sparks of a tenderness so exclusive, so wholly satisfied with himself alone. The poor man trembled, inundated with angelic joy; he declared to himself ecstatically that this would last all their lives; he told himself that he really had not suffered sufficiently to merit so radiant a bliss, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted him to be loved thus, he, a wretch, by that innocent being.
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Volume 4, Book 8: Enchantments and Desolations
Explanation and Analysis—Cosette as a Perfume:
Every evening in May, Marius visits Cosette in the garden at the Rue Plumet, and the two young dreamers quickly fall in love. The narrator illustrates Marius's devotion with a sensory metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The first kiss had also been the last. Marius, since that time, had not gone further than to touch Cosette’s hand, or her kerchief, or a lock of her hair, with his lips. For him, Cosette was a perfume and not a woman.He inhaled her. She refused nothing, and he asked nothing. Cosette was happy, and Marius was satisfied. They lived in this ecstatic state that can be described as the dazzling of one soul by another soul. It was the ineffable first embrace of two maiden souls in the ideal.
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Volume 4, Book 10: The 5th of June, 1832
Explanation and Analysis—The Ocean of Revolution:
To set up and frame the scenes of rebellion and barricades, the narrator discusses the subtle differences between an insurrection and a riot. In the narrator's eyes, both insurrections and riots begin as one and the same, illustrated with a metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+All armed protests, even the most legitimate, even that of the 10th of August, even that of July 14th, begin with the same troubles. Before the right gets set free, there is foam and tumult. In the beginning, the insurrection is a riot, just as a river is a torrent. Ordinarily it ends in that ocean: revolution. Sometimes, however, coming from those lofty mountains which dominate the moral horizon, justice, wisdom, reason, right, formed of the pure snow of the ideal, after a long fall from rock to rock, after having reflected the sky in its transparency and increased by a hundred affluents in the majestic mien of triumph, insurrection is suddenly lost in some quagmire, as the Rhine is in a swamp.
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Volume 4, Book 13: Marius Enters the Shadow
Explanation and Analysis—Peace of the Sepulcher:
Hopeless without Cosette, Marius wanders the streets of Paris amid the rebellion. The narrator's description of the Halles incorporates a metaphor which foreshadows the coming tragedy at the barricades:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Marius had reached the Halles. There everything was still calmer, more obscure and more motionless than in the neighboring streets. One would have said that the glacial peace of the sepulchre had sprung forth from the earth and had spread over the heavens.
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Volume 5, Book 1: The War Between Four Walls
Explanation and Analysis—A Plague of Butterflies:
In Volume 3, Book 8, Chapter 15, Bossuet shares a metaphorical comment about the snowfall, all while foreshadowing the tragic events at the barricades:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrac chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air. Bossuet was just saying to Courfeyrac, “One would say, to see all these snowflakes fall, that there was a plague of white butterflies in heaven.” All at once, Bossuet caught sight of Marius coming up the street toward the barrier with a peculiar air.
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Volume 5, Book 4: Javert Derailed
Explanation and Analysis—The Sepulchral Moment:
When Javert completes his final business at the police station, he wanders to the quay in the dead of night. The story uses imagery and a metaphor to paint the uncanny feeling of the night:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The darkness was complete. It was the sepulchral moment that follows midnight. A ceiling of clouds concealed the stars. Not a single light burned in the houses of the city; no one was passing; all of the streets and quays that could be seen were deserted; Notre-Dame and the towers of the courthouse seemed features of the night. A street lantern reddened the margin of the quay. The outlines of the bridges lay shapeless in the mist one behind the other. Recent rains had swollen the river.
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