Metaphors

The Testaments

by Margaret Atwood

The Testaments: Metaphors 2 key examples

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
Chapter 2: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A
Explanation and Analysis—Snares:

In the following excerpt from Chapter 2, Agnes muses over the so-called "enticements" women offer, utilizing metaphor to contextualize assumptions Gilead makes regarding female sexuality:

Whatever our shapes and features, we were snares and enticements despite ourselves, we were the innocent and blameless causes that through our very nature could make men drunk with lust, so that they’d stagger and lurch and topple over the verge.

Explanation and Analysis—Flowers:

In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 2, Agnes muses over the subjects of girlhood, development, and what it means to be a young female child in Gileadean society. 

We were custodians of an invaluable treasure that existed, unseen, inside us; we were precious flowers that had to be kept safely inside glass houses, or else we would be ambushed and our petals would be torn off and our treasure would be stolen and we would be ripped apart and trampled by the ravenous men who might lurk around any corner, out there in the wide sharp-edged sin-ridden world.

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