While ostensibly defending the widow Ochre (a character who never appears on stage), Sir Benjamin Backbite uses a simile to compare the effect of her “careless” makeup skills to that of a statue with a new, reattached head:
Nay now, Lady Sneerwell, you are severe upon the widow. Come, come, ’tis not that she paints so ill—but when she has finished her face, she joins it so badly to her neck, that she looks like a mended statue, in which the connoisseur sees at once that the head’s modern, though the trunk’s antique.
Although Sir Benjamin tells Lady Sneerwell that she is being “severe” in her criticisms of the widow, his own statement is far more cutting for its specificity. The image he creates of a shoddily crafted hack-job of a statue is poignant and cruel, even if delivered in a witty and playful tone. Sir Benjamin’s use of a simile in this passage demonstrates his desire to appear intelligent by means of flowery language, but the extent of his imagination only tears down another member of his community rather than contributing an original thought to the conversation. The fact that Mrs. Ochre is not present to hear Sir Benjamin’s insult is likely a contributing factor that emboldens him to make this joke in the first place. Of course, it is also her very absence that somewhat mutes the impact of his remark, allowing him to proceed without a guilty conscience.
In Act 2, Scene 3, Sir Oliver ruminates on the nature of youth as he discusses the potential merits and deficiencies of his two nephews with his friend Sir Peter. Responding to Sir Peter's overly-harsh criticism of Charles, Sir Oliver defends his nephew through the use of a simile:
And don’t, Sir Peter, be so severe against your old friend’s son. Odds my life! I am not sorry that he has run out of the course a little: for my part, I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth; ’tis like ivy round a sapling, and spoils the growth of the tree.
In the quote above, Sir Oliver figuratively refers to Charles as a sapling in order to craft the image of an innocent youth, thereby countering Sir Peter’s preconceived notions of the young man with a blank slate. Comparing prudence to an ivy that spoils the health and growth of a young tree, Sir Oliver questions his friend’s inclination to curb the youthful impulses of his nephew, who has done no harm and only seeks to enjoy the pleasures life has to offer. Furthermore, the view he expresses here reflects the economic and moral sensibilities of the time, which would have approved of a young man building his reputation through heavy spending and socializing.
