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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
Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—War as Breadwinner:
In Scene 1, the Sergeant accosts Mother Courage with a strange slew of literary devices, including metaphor and personification:
The war should swallow the peach stone and spit out the peach, hm? Your brood should get fat off the war, but the poor war must ask nothing in return, it can look after itself, can it? Call yourself Mother Courage and then get scared of the war, your breadwinner? Your sons aren’t scared, I know that much.
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Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Lice:
In Scene 3, when the Catholics capture Mother Courage and her entourage, Mother Courage uses a curious metaphor to describe their condition, saying, “Maybe it’s all for the best. We’re prisoners. But so are lice in fur.” Mother Courage presents herself and the people who surround her (Swiss Cheese, the Chaplain, Kattrin, etc.) as lice. Lice trapped in fur cannot escape, but they can still feed on the blood of their host. Similarly, even though Mother Courage and the others can’t leave the confines of the Catholics, they don't really need to. Mother Courage can profit off the Catholics just as well as she could profit off the Protestants.
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