Previous
Irony
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 Lolita
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Lolita, Light of My Life:
Humbert Humbert begins his narrative with a paragraph in which he uses both metaphor and alliteration to convey his obsession with Dolores “Lolita” Haze:
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Visual Memory:
When describing his mental images of Annabel Leigh and Dolores “Lolita” Haze from his prison cell, Humbert uses two different metaphors for understanding visual memory:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There are two kinds of visual memory: one when you skillfully recreate an image in the laboratory of your mind, with your eyes open (and then I see Annabel in such general terms as: “honey-colored skin,” “thin arms,” “brown bobbed hair,” “long lashes,” “big bright mouth”); and the other when you instantly evoke, with shut eyes, on the dark innerside of your eyelids, the objective, absolutely optical replica of a beloved face, a little ghost in natural colors (and this is how I see Lolita).
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Poison in the Wound:
Humbert uses a series of metaphors when describing the effects of Annabel Leigh’s death upon his life and psyche:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She was no nymphet to me; I was her equal, a faunlet in my own right, on that same enchanted island of time; but today [...] I think I can distinguish in her the initial fateful elf in my life. We loved each other with a premature love, marked by a fierceness that so often destroys adult lives. I was a strong lad and survived; but the poison was in the wound, and the wound remained ever open, and soon I found myself maturing amid a civilization which allows a man of twenty-five to court a girl of sixteen but not a girl of twelve.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Pale Spider:
Humbert uses a series of similes and metaphors that characterize him as a spider when describing his close observation of Lolita while living with her and her mother in the Haze household:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I am like one of those inflated pale spiders you see in old gardens. Sitting in the middle of a luminous web and giving little jerks to this or that strand. My web is spread all over the house as I listen from my chair where I sit like a wily wizard. Is Lo in her room? Gently I tug on the silk. She is not. Just heard the toilet paper cylinder make its staccato sound as it is turned[...] Is she still brushing her teeth [...] ? No. The bathroom door has just slammed, so one has to feel elsewhere about the house for the beautiful warm-colored prey.
Part 1, Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Illustrated Catalogue:
Humbert uses a series of metaphors when recounting Charlotte Haze’s interest in his own previous lovers:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She desired me to resuscitate all my loves so that she might make me insult them, and trample upon them, and revoke them apostately and totally, thus destroying my past. She made me tell her about my marriage to Valeria, who was of course a scream; but I also had to invent, or to pad atrociously, a long series of mistresses for Charlotte’s morbid delectation. To keep her happy, I had to present her with an illustrated catalogue of them, all nicely differentiated [...]
Related Themes:
