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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
Moll Marries the Linen-Draper
Explanation and Analysis—Amphibious Creature:
After Moll marries the Linen-Draper, she realizes that he is not the wealthy, aristocratic man she originally believed him to be, but a poor merchant. When reflecting bitterly on how he fooled her, she metaphorically compares him to an “amphibious creature”:
I was not averse to a Tradesman, but then I would have a Tradesman forsooth, that was something of a Gentleman too; that when my Husband had a mind to carry me to the Court, or to the Play, he might become a Sword, and look as like a Gentleman, as another Man.
[…]
Well, at last I found this amphibious Creature, this Land-water-thing call’d, a Gentleman-Tradesman.
Related Themes:
Moll and the Gentleman
Explanation and Analysis—The Doors of Vice:
After the Gentleman ends his years-long affair with Moll, leaving her alone with their young child and no consistent source of income, Moll reflects bitterly on how she must return to a life of crime, using a metaphor in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I was now a loose unguided Creature, and had no Help, no Assistance, no Guide for my Conduct: I knew what I aim’d at, and what I wanted, but knew nothing how to pursue the End by direct means; I wanted to be plac’d in a settled State of Living, and had I happen’d to meet with a sober good Husband, I should have been as faithful and true a Wife to him as Virtue it self could have form’d: If I had been otherwise, the Vice came in always at the Door of Necessity, not at the Door of Inclination.
Related Themes:
Moll Meets the Midwife and Marries the Banker
Explanation and Analysis—Moll’s Safe Harbor:
After Moll marries the Banker, she experiences a respite from the chaos of poverty and crime, and uses a metaphor to describe her experience of newfound peace:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Now I seem’d landed in a safe Harbour, after the Stormy Voyage of Life past was at an end; and I began to be thankful for my Deliverance; I sat many an Hour by my self, and wept over the Remembrance of past Follies, and the dreadful Extravagances of a wicked Life, and sometimesI flatter’d my self that I had sincerely repented.
Related Themes:
Moll and the Drunk Man
Explanation and Analysis—Proverbs 7:22-23:
After Moll meets a drunk man at a fair, sleeps with him, and steals from him, she reflects bitterly on his character, alluding to the Bible, specifically Proverbs 7:22-23:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There is nothing so absurd, so surfeiting, so ridiculous as a Man heated by Wine in his Head, and a wicked Gust in his Inclination together […] His Vice tramples upon all that was in him that had any good in it, if any such thing there was; nay, his very Sense is blinded by its own Rage, and he acts Absurdities even in his View; such as Drinking more, when he is Drunk already.
[…]
These are the Men of whom Solomon says, they go like an Ox to the slaughter, till a Dart strikes through their Liver.
Related Themes:
