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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 Scarlet Letter
The Custom House
Explanation and Analysis—Moral Stains:
Metaphorical stains appear as a motif throughout the novel, suggesting that immorality leaves traces that can't be erased. Although the scarlet letter itself is the primary example of such a mark, the narrator introduces the idea of moral stains in the "Custom House" chapter:
His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his old dry bones, in the Charter Street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust!
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Pedestal of Shame:
The scaffold is a metaphor at once for shame and truth-telling. In Chapter 3, when Dimmesdale tells Hester that she ought to reveal Pearl's father to the public, he uses a metaphor to call the scaffold a "pedestal of shame:"
Unlock with LitCharts A+["...B]elieve me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life.["]
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Heart as Household:
Throughout the novel, the heart serves as a metaphor for the household. For example, in Chapter 4, Chillingworth tells Hester why he wanted to marry her in the first place:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household fire."
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Flower of Sin:
In Chapter 6, the narrator uses a great deal of figurative language to describe Pearl and how strange she is. In one metaphor, the narrator compares Pearl to a "lovely and immortal flower" that has emerged from the "rank luxuriance of a guilty passion":
Unlock with LitCharts A+We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Moral Stains:
Metaphorical stains appear as a motif throughout the novel, suggesting that immorality leaves traces that can't be erased. Although the scarlet letter itself is the primary example of such a mark, the narrator introduces the idea of moral stains in the "Custom House" chapter:
Unlock with LitCharts A+His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his old dry bones, in the Charter Street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust!
Related Themes:
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—Heart as Household:
Throughout the novel, the heart serves as a metaphor for the household. For example, in Chapter 4, Chillingworth tells Hester why he wanted to marry her in the first place:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household fire."
Related Themes:
Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Pedestal of Shame:
The scaffold is a metaphor at once for shame and truth-telling. In Chapter 3, when Dimmesdale tells Hester that she ought to reveal Pearl's father to the public, he uses a metaphor to call the scaffold a "pedestal of shame:"
Unlock with LitCharts A+["...B]elieve me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life.["]
Related Themes:
