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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
Key Examples in The Demon Lover
Metaphors
Explanation and Analysis—A Cracked Cup:
After convincing herself to read the letter that mysteriously made its way into her home, Mrs. Drover tries to be practical, attempting to go about her business without worrying too much. But as she attempts to gather the things she originally came to get, she can't help but feel daunted by the surrounding house, which feels so empty and eerie that she has to stop and take stock of her surroundings. As she does so, the narrative uses a metaphor to characterize the home itself:
The desuetude of her former bedroom, her married London home’s whole air of being a cracked cup from which memory, with its reassuring power, had either evaporated or leaked away, made a crisis—and at just this crisis the letter-writer had, knowledgeably, struck.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Smoking with Dark:
After spotting the mysterious letter on the hall table, Mrs. Drover pauses. She doesn't rush over and tear it open—she stands there thinking about how it got there, wondering if perhaps the caretaker returned to the house earlier than she thought. When she finally goes to pick up the letter, she still doesn't open it, instead taking it upstairs and not even looking at it until she goes to the window in her bedroom. As she continues to stall, the narrative uses a metaphor of sorts to describe the view beneath the window:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The room looked over the garden and other gardens: the sun had gone in; as the clouds sharpened and lowered, the trees and rank lawns seemed already to smoke with dark.
Related Themes:
