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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 Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Chapter 3. A Controversy
Explanation and Analysis—Little Arthur the Sapling:
In his first conversation with Helen, Gilbert criticizes her for sheltering her son Arthur too much from the world, using a metaphor in the process:
“I have not yet said that a boy should be ought to rush into the snares of life—or even willfully to seek temptation for the sake of exercising his virtue by overcoming it […] If you were to rear an oak sapling in a hothouse, tending it carefully night and day, and shielding it from every breath of wind, you could not expect it to become a hardy tree, like that which has grown up on the mountainside, exposed to all the action of the elements, and not even sheltered from the shock of the tempest.”
“Granted; – but would you use the same argument with regard to a girl?”
“Certainly not.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 19. An Incident
Explanation and Analysis—Rose Vs. Peony:
Before Helen and Arthur are officially engaged, Helen notices Arthur paying special attention to Annabella and hides from the pair to cry. When Arthur finds her, he assures her that he loves her and not Annabella, using a simile and a metaphor to communicate the difference in his feelings for the two women:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Annabella Wilmot, in comparison with you, is like a flaunting peony compared with a sweet, wild rosebud gemmed with dew – and I love you to distraction!”
Related Themes:
Chapter 26. The Guests
Explanation and Analysis—Helen's Sun and Moon:
About halfway through the novel, while Arthur and Helen are hosting Arthur’s friends, Hargrave shows special attention to Helen. In her diary, Helen notes that Arthur feels possessive in moments like this, using a metaphor to capture the extent of Arthur’s control over her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Arthur dislikes me to talk to [Hargrave], and is visibly annoyed by his commonest acts of politeness; not that my husband has any unworthy suspicions of me – or of his friend either, as I believe – but he dislikes me to have any pleasure but in himself, any shadow of homage or kindness but such as he chooses to vouchsafe: he knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness; he cannot bear that I should have a moon to mitigate the deprivation.
Related Themes:
Chapter 27. A Misdemeanor
Explanation and Analysis—Helen the Angel:
One of the metaphors that appears periodically throughout The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is that of Helen being an angel. For example, in Chapter 27, after Helen witnesses Arthur secretly kiss Annabella’s hand, Arthur says that Helen is an angel while Annabella is a mortal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“She is a daughter of earth; you are an angel of heaven; only be not too austere in your divinity, and remember that I am a poor, fallible mortal.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 39. A Scheme of Escape
Explanation and Analysis—Helen the Angel:
One of the metaphors that appears periodically throughout The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is that of Helen being an angel. For example, in Chapter 27, after Helen witnesses Arthur secretly kiss Annabella’s hand, Arthur says that Helen is an angel while Annabella is a mortal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“She is a daughter of earth; you are an angel of heaven; only be not too austere in your divinity, and remember that I am a poor, fallible mortal.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 53. Conclusion
Explanation and Analysis—The Rose:
At the end of the novel, Gilbert assumes that Helen is no longer interested in marrying him and, as such, thoughtlessly discards a rose that she hands him. Helen becomes upset by this, and explains to Gilbert that the rose was a metaphor for her heart, which she was giving to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“You did not understand my gift,” said she, – “or, what is worse, you despised it. I’m sorry I gave it you; but since I did make such a mistake, the only remedy I could think of, was to take it away.”
“You misunderstood me, cruelly,” I replied, and in a minute I had opened the window again, leaped out, picked up the flower, brought it in, and presented it to her, imploring her to give it me again, and I would keep it for ever for her sake, and prize it more highly than anything in the world I possessed.
[…]
“The rose I gave you was an emblem of my heart,” said she; “would you take it away and leave me here alone?”
Related Themes:
