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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
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Court of the Soul:
In one of the play’s many legal metaphors, the Duke imagines his soul—or his conscience—as a lawyer providing legal counsel for Aegeon. This metaphor presents the Duke's split feelings as a sort of legal trial:
Now, trust me, were it not against our laws,
Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,
Which princes, would they, may not disannul,
My soul should sue as advocate for thee.
Explanation and Analysis—A Warrant:
Aegeon metaphorically compares the threat posed by the deadly storm he and his family encountered to a “warrant” (that is, a legal document authorizing arrest or punishment). He says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A league from Epidamium had we sailed
Before the always-wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm;
But longer did we not retain much hope
For what obscurèd light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds
A doubtful warrant of immediate death
Explanation and Analysis:
Aegeon uses the metaphor of “divorce” to explain the effect that a storm at sea has had upon his family, physically separating husband from wife and brother from brother.
Unlock with LitCharts A+So that, in this unjust divorce of us,
Fortune had left to both of us alike
What to delight in, what to sorrow for.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Bridled Bride:
Luciana uses a bridle—the headgear used to control a horse—as a metaphor for marriage. Much as a horse obeys the commands of its rider as communicated through tugs to the bridle, so too must a wife, Luciana suggests, follow the dictates of her husband. Her metaphor is a layered instance of wordplay, as the word “bridle” also calls to mind its homonym, “bridal”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+LUCIANA
O, know he is the bridle of your will.
ADRIANA
There’s none but asses will be bridled so.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Adriana's Estate:
Convinced that her husband has strayed from her, Adriana metaphorically compares herself to a ruined estate whose proprietor is Antipholus, her husband.
Unlock with LitCharts A+ADRIANA:
That’s not my fault; he’s master of my state.
What ruins are in me that can be found
By him not ruined? Then is he the ground
Of my defeatures.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Gnats:
In a patronizing and scornful metaphor, Antipholus of Syracuse compares the various servants and attendants of a prominent man such as himself to “gnats” who fly about in the sun but must withdraw at night when it gets cold.
Unlock with LitCharts A+When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport,
But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Elm and Vine:
In an extended metaphor, Adriana reflects upon the nature of her marriage to Antipholus of Ephesus by comparing herself to a vine and her husband to the tree which holds the vine up:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine,
Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state,
Makes me with thy strength to communicate.
If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,
Usurping ivy, brier, or idle moss,
Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion
Infect thy sap and live on thy confusion.
Related Themes:
