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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
Key Examples in The Mayor of Casterbridge
Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—The Sea Within:
Hardy uses a simile comparing Michael Henchard’s nature to the sea, ultimately illustrating the many changes that people undergo throughout their lives and the strong pull that feelings have on their actions. In Chapter 33, Henchard describes how religious fervor moves him like the ocean both as a drunk and as a sober, successful man:
Hang Samuel Wakely’s tune, as improved by thee!” said Henchard. “Chuck across one of your psalters—old Wiltshire is the only tune worth singing—the psalm-tune that would make my blood ebb and flow like the sea when I was a steady chap. I’ll find some words to fit en.” He took one of the psalters and began turning over the leaves.
Related Themes:
Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—A Doubtful Painting:
Hardy uses a simile in Chapter 24 to illustrate Elizabeth-Jane's assessment of Lucetta's appearance, when the other young woman asks her if she looks visibly tired after a difficult and euphemistic conversation about second marriages:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Bring me a looking-glass. How do I appear to people?” she said languidly. “Well—a little worn,” answered Elizabeth, eyeing her as a critic eyes a doubtful painting; fetching the glass she enabled Lucetta to survey herself in it, which Lucetta anxiously did.
Related Themes:
Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Lucetta and the Moon:
Hardy uses simile to liken Lucetta to the moon when Henchard begins seriously courting her, as he realizes the emotional power she holds over him in Chapter 25. Previously, Lucetta's influence over him wasn't particularly strong, but when he turns his "sun"-like warmth and attention to her, he realizes that she is actually not an object of pity but "the very being to make him satisfied with life":
Unlock with LitCharts A+He crossed the room to her with a heavy tread of some awkwardness, his strong, warm gaze upon her—like the sun beside the moon in comparison with Farfrae’s modest look—and with something of a hail-fellow bearing, as, indeed, was not unnatural. But she seemed so transubstantiated by her change of position, and held out her hand to him in such cool friendship, that he became deferential, and sat down with a perceptible loss of power.
Related Themes:
Chapter 26
Explanation and Analysis—Bad Wheat:
In Chapter 26, Hardy uses simile to liken the prices of corn to the uneven roads of rural England in the Victorian period. The Mayor of Casterbridge pays a great deal of attention to the lived reality of agricultural workers and those whose livelihoods relied on the harvest, as the narrator here explains:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A bad harvest, or the prospect of one, would double the price of corn in a few weeks; and the promise of a good yield would lower it as rapidly. Prices were like the roads of the period, steep in gradient, reflecting in their phases the local conditions, without engineering, levellings, or averages.
Related Themes:
Chapter 33
Explanation and Analysis—The Sea Within:
Hardy uses a simile comparing Michael Henchard’s nature to the sea, ultimately illustrating the many changes that people undergo throughout their lives and the strong pull that feelings have on their actions. In Chapter 33, Henchard describes how religious fervor moves him like the ocean both as a drunk and as a sober, successful man:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Hang Samuel Wakely’s tune, as improved by thee!” said Henchard. “Chuck across one of your psalters—old Wiltshire is the only tune worth singing—the psalm-tune that would make my blood ebb and flow like the sea when I was a steady chap. I’ll find some words to fit en.” He took one of the psalters and began turning over the leaves.
Related Themes:
