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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
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Tess the Vessel:
In the following passage from Chapter 2, the narrator uses a metaphor to better depict Tess's childlike innocence, as well as to foreshadow that this innocence will be lost:
Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Durbeyfield Ship:
In Chapter 3, the narrator spends a long time describing the plight of the Durbeyfield children, metaphorically comparing them to compare "souls" riding as passengers in the familial "ship" that their parents have constructed:
Unlock with LitCharts A+All these young souls were passengers in the Durbeyfield ship—entirely dependent on the judgement of the two Durbeyfield adults for their pleasures, their necessities, their health, even their existence. If the heads of the Durbeyfield household chose to sail into difficulty, disaster, starvation, disease, degradation, death, thither were these half-dozen little captives under hatches compelled to sail with them—six helpless creatures, who had never been asked if they wished for life on any terms, much less if they wished for it on such hard conditions as were involved in being of the shiftless house of Durbeyfield.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Tess is Pricked by a Rose:
At the beginning of Chapter 6, Tess reflects on a thorny rose that, affixed to her breast, pricks her and draws blood. She views this as a bad omen, and the narrator takes this moment to foreshadow the tragic events that will soon befall her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Tess] fell to reflecting again, and in looking downwards a thorn of the rose remaining in her breast accidentally pricked her chin. Like all the cottagers of Blackmoor Vale, Tess was steeped in fancies and prefigurative superstitions; she thought this an ill-omen—the first she had noticed that day.
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Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Woman and Nature:
In Chapter 14, the narrator uses a metaphor to describe the appearance of field women, one of whom happens to be Tess:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But those of the other sex were the most interesting of this company of binders, by reason of the charm which is acquired by a woman when she becomes part and parcel of outdoor nature . . . a field-woman is a portion of the field; she has somehow lost her own margin, imbibed the essence of her surrounding and assimilated herself with it.
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Explanation and Analysis—Pagan Sun Dieties:
At the beginning of Chapter 14, the narrator utilizes personification to present the sun as both a male figure and a deity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The sun, on account of the mist, had a curious sentient, personal look, demanding the masculine pronoun for its adequate expression. His present aspect, coupled with the lack of all human forms in the scene, explained the time-old heliolatries in a moment. One could feel that a saner religion had never prevailed under the sky. The luminary was a golden-haired, beaming-faced, mild-eyed, God-like creature, gazing down in the vigour and intentness of youth upon an earth that was brimming with interest for him.
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Chapter 35
Explanation and Analysis—Angel and Social Class:
In Chapter 35, Angel reverses his position on Tess’s social status upon discovering her sexual history with Alec D’Urberville. Though Angel admits that Tess was more "sinned against" than "sinner," he cannot help but express the opinion that there is something inherently degenerate in her familial line, using a metaphor to equate Tess to an "exhausted seedling":
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Decrepit families postulate decrepit wills, decrepit conduct. Heaven, why did you give me a handle for despising you more by informing me of your descent! Here was I thinking you a new-sprung child of nature; there were you, the exhausted seedling of an effete aristocracy!"
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