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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
Key Examples in The Left Hand of Darkness
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Family Quarrel:
In the following passage from Chapter 1, Estraven and Genly converse at the Karhider's home. Estraven discusses the nuances of his country with Genly, using metaphor to explain their political structure:
“I’m from Kerm Land myself,” he says when I admire his knowledge. “Anyhow it’s my business to know the Domains. They are Karhide. To govern this land is to govern its lords. Not that it’s ever been done. Do you know the saying, Karhide is not a nation but a family quarrel?” I haven’t, and suspect that Estraven made it up; it has his stamp.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Birds and Adaptation:
In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 3, Genly muses on the connection between Gethenian physiology and societal structure:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The mechanical industrial Age of Invention in Karhide is at least three thousand years old, and during those thirty centuries they have developed excellent and economical central-heating devices using steam, electricity, and other principles; but they do not install them in their houses. Perhaps if they did they would lose their physiological weatherproofing, like Arctic birds kept in warm tents, who being released get frostbitten feet. I, however, a tropical bird, was cold; cold one way outdoors and cold another way indoors, ceaselessly and more or less thoroughly cold.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Singer's Voice:
The following passage from Chapter 5 features an important metaphor, reflecting on the role of the "time-dividers" in the foretelling process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They were insane. Goss called them “time-dividers,” which may mean schizophrenics. Karhidish psychologists, though lacking mindspeech and thus like blind surgeons, were ingenious with drugs, hypnosis, spotshock, cryonic touch, and various mental therapies; I asked if these two psychopaths could not be cured. “Cured?” Goss said. “Would you cure a singer of his voice?”
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Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Love as a Bridge:
In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 18, Genly describes the complex sexual and romantic tension between him and Estraven, whom he has been sharing a daily routine with for months:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But it was from the difference between us, not from the affinities and likenesses, but from the difference, that that love came: and it was itself the bridge, the only bridge, across what divided us. For us to meet sexually would be for us to meet once more as aliens. We had touched, in the only way we could touch. We left it at that. I do not know if we were right.
Explanation and Analysis—Evolution:
In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 18, Genly explains the Ekumen's philosophy to Estraven, comparing the workings of the celestial organization to that of evolution:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"In a certain sense the Ekumen is not a body politic, but a body mystic. It considers beginnings to be extremely important. Beginnings, and means. Its doctrine is just the reverse of the doctrine that the end justifies the means. It proceeds, therefore, by subtle ways, and slow ones, and queer, risky ones; rather as evolution does, which is in certain senses its model. [...]"
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