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Setting
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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Daunting Circumstances:
Soon after arriving at Bly, the governess takes stock of her situation, using both a metaphor and a simile to express her feelings about the somewhat ambiguous and daunting circumstances of her employment. First, she metaphorically compares her "circumstances" to something huge, imposing, and intimidating:
They had, as it were, an extent and mass for which I had not been prepared and in the presence of which I found myself, freshly, a little scared as well as a little proud.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Crouching Beast:
As she tells her story, the governess considers the period just before everything started to go wrong at Bly—that is, the period right before she started seeing the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. She sees this stretch of time as rather idyllic, but she also retrospectively sees it as the calm before the storm, and she uses a metaphor to highlight this feeling:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It may be, of course, above all, that what suddenly broke into this gives the previous time a charm of stillness—that hush in which something gathers or crouches.
Related Themes:
