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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
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—LIke Billiards:
When Mr. Perkins first arrives at King's School to serve as headmaster, he is met with a chilly reception from the older teachers, who fear that he will attempt to modernize the old-fashioned school. Maugham uses a simile when describing Mr. Perkins’s relatively dismissive attitude toward classical scholarship.
Sighs grew more worried every month [...] and he hated the attitude the head adopted towards classical literature. There was no doubt that he was a fine scholar, and he was engaged on a work which was in the right tradition: he was writing a treatise on the trees in Latin literature, but he talked of it flippantly, as though it were a pastime of no great importance, like billiards, which engaged his leisure but was not to be considered with seriousness. And Squirts, the master of the middle-third, grew more ill-tempered every day.
Chapter 28
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Cloak:
When Philip realizes, to his own surprise, that he no longer has any religious faith, Maugham uses a simile that compares the religious beliefs of Philip’s childhood to a “cloak that he no longer needed”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Faith had been forced upon him from the outside. It was a matter of environment and example. A new environment and a new example gave him the opportunity to find himself. He put off the faith of his childhood quite simply, like a cloak that he no longer needed. At first life seemed strange and lonely without the belief which, though he never realized it, had been an unfailing support. He felt like a man who has leaned on a stick and finds himself forced suddenly to walk without assistance.
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Chapter 48
Explanation and Analysis—A King in Rags:
In Paris, Philip studies art by sketching nude live models in a classroom setting. One model, named Miguel Ajuria, catches Philip's attention because of the proud and defiant manner in which he holds himself. Maugham uses a simile that compares Miguel to a "king in rags" in order to depict his unusual attitude:
Unlock with LitCharts A+One day a young man was taken who was plainly not a model by profession. Philip’s attention was attracted by the manner in which he held himself: when he got on to the stand he stood firmly on both feet, square, with clenched hands, and with his head defiantly thrown forward [...] There was in his mien a mixture of shame and of determination. His air of passionate energy excited Philip’s romantic imagination, and when, the sitting ended, he saw him in his clothes, it seemed to him that he wore them as though he were a king in rags.
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Chapter 65
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Blunder:
Maugham employs a simile that compares Philip's failed relationship with Mildred to a "blunder that one had committed at a party." After Hayward visits Philip in London, cheering him up, Philip finds that he is able to look upon Mildred with a fresh perspective:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘It just shows how damned weak I am,’ he said to himself. The adventure was like a blunder that one had committed at a party so horrible that one felt nothing could be done to excuse it: the only remedy was to forget. His horror at the degradation he had suffered helped him. He was like a snake casting its skin and he looked upon the old covering with nausea. He exulted in the possession of himself once more; he realized how much of the delight of the world he had lost when he was absorbed in that madness which they called love [...]
Chapter 67
Explanation and Analysis—Pieces of China:
During one of Hayward's visits to London, Maugham uses a simile that compares Hayward's relationship to books to that of an antique-collector:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But Hayward could still talk delightfully about books; his taste was exquisite and his discrimination elegant; and he had a constant interest in ideas, which made him an entertaining companion. They meant nothing to him really, since they never had any effect on him; but he treated them as he might have pieces of china in an auction-room, handling them with pleasure in their shape and their glaze, pricing them in his mind; and then, putting them back into their case, thought of them no more.
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Chapter 81
Explanation and Analysis—Art and Medicine:
When Philip first begins working with patients during his medical training, the narration uses both metaphor and simile to underscore the surprising parallels between artistic production and the medical practice:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here was humanity there in the rough, the materials the artist worked on; and Philip felt a curious thrill when it occurred to him that he was in the position of the artist and the patients were like clay in his hands. He remembered with an amused shrug of the shoulders his life in Paris, absorbed in colour, tone, values, Heaven knows what, with the aim of producing beautiful things: the directness of contact with men and women gave a thrill of power which he had never known. He found an endless excitement in looking at their faces and hearing them speak[.]
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Chapter 88
Explanation and Analysis—Flashes of Lightning :
When Athelny shows Philip photographs of works by El Greco, a Spanish Renaissance painter of Greek origin, Philip is deeply moved by the images, as he is by Athelny's stories about Spanish mystical writers and philosophers. In a passage that employs multiple similes, Maugham describes Philip's turbulent attempts to make sense of his own reaction to El Greco's paintings, which contradict both his spiritual worldview and his understanding of art:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was like a message which it was very important for him to receive, but it was given him in an unknown tongue, and he could not understand [...] He was profoundly troubled. He saw what looked like the truth as by flashes of lightning on a dark, stormy night you might see a mountain range. He seemed to see that [...] the inward life might be as manifold, as varied, as rich with experience, as the life of one who conquered realms and explored unknown lands.
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Chapter 120
Explanation and Analysis—Milk and Honey:
When Philip leaves Dr. South's medical office and travels to the hop fields of Kent to work alongside the Athenly family, a romance develops between Philip and the eldest daughter of the family, Sally. Philip feels drawn to her good humor, modest lifestyle, and practicality. When they confess their love for each other, Philip uses a simile that compares her to "milk and honey":
Unlock with LitCharts A+He heard a step on the road, and a figure came out of the darkness. ‘Sally,’ he murmured. She stopped and came to the stile, and with her came sweet, clean odours of the countryside. She seemed to carry with her scents of the new-mown hay, and the savour of ripe hops, and the freshness of young grass. Her lips were soft and full against his, and her lovely, strong body was firm within his arms. ‘Milk and honey,’ he said. ‘You’re like milk and honey.’
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