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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
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Abigail's Fate:
At the end of a long soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 1, Barabas compares himself and Abigail to King Agamemnon of Mycenae and his daughter, Iphigeneia (abbreviated as Iphigen by Marlowe in this passage):
I have no charge, nor many children,
But one sole daughter, whom I hold as dear
As Agamemnon did his Iphigen:
And all I have is hers.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Barabas's Trauma:
Barabas further exposes certain aspects of his psyche at the beginning of Act 2, using a simile while discussing the psychological, emotional, and physical effects that the loss of his wealth have had on him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Of my former riches rests no more
But bare remembrance, like a soldier's scar,
That has no further comfort for his maim.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Barabas the Fatal Presage:
At the beginning of Act 2, Scene 1, Barabas begins with a soliloquy, addressing his despair at the loss of his wealth. He starts the soliloquy with a simile, likening himself to a raven:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Thus, like the sad presaging raven, that tolls
The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,
And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings;
Vexed and tormented runs poor Barabas
With fatal curses towards these Christians.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Harmless Lamb:
Over the course of Act 2, Barabas's plot to enact revenge against Ferneze gradually develops, fueled by rage that Barabas views as righteous. Seemingly convinced that he will be underestimated, Barabas frequently takes it upon himself to contradict his imagined naysayers. Take, for example, the following passage, in which Barabas uses a simile to characterize Jewish people like himself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+We Jews can fawn like spaniels when we please:
And when we grin we bite, yet are our looks
As innocent and harmless as a lamb's.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Bitter Curse:
Upon learning of Abigail's choice to join the nunnery in Act III, Barabas curses her, using a combined simile and allusion to compare their situation to that of Cain and his father Adam:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ne'er shall she live to inherit aught of mine,
Be blest of me, nor come within my gates,
But perish underneath my bitter curse,
Like Cain by Adam for his brother's death.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Underworld:
At the end of Act III, Scene 4, Barabas makes the fateful decision to not only poison his daughter, but an entire nunnery. In an attempt to justify this monstrous action, Barabas compares his daughter to a fiend from hell, using allusion to conjure up an image of the Underworld:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In few, the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane:
The juice of hebon, and the Cocytus' breath,
And all the poisons of the Stygian pool
Break from the fiery kingdom; and in this
Vomit your venom and invenom her
That like a fiend hath left her father thus.
Related Themes:
