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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
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Jealousy:
Attempting to convince Camillo to lay aside his suspicions that his wife is conducting an affair, Flamineo metaphorically compares a jealous husband to a man who sees the world through glass:
FLAMINIO
Now should
you wear a pair of these spectacles and see your wife tying her shoe, you would imagine twenty hands were taking up of your wife’s
clothes, and this would put you into a horrible, causeless fury.CAMILLO
The fault there, sir, is not in the eyesight.FLAMINIO
True, but they that have the yellow jaundice think all objects they look on to be yellow. Jealousy is worser: her fits present to a man, like so many bubbles in a basin of water, twenty several crabbed faces; many times makes his own shadow his cuckold-maker.
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Undigestible Words:
The lawyer who leads the case against Vittoria in court for the murder of her husband uses highly technical language that is difficult to understand. Vittoria, hoping to gain favor from the jury and onlookers, uses an extended metaphor to describe and satirize the jargon of the legal profession:
Unlock with LitCharts A+LAWYER
Hold your peace!
Exorbitant sins must have exulceration.VITTORIA
Surely, my lords, this lawyer here hath swallowed Some ’pothecary’s bills or proclamations,
And now the hard and undigestable words
Come up like stones we use give hawks for physic. Why, this is Welsh to Latin.
Act 4, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Patient as the Tortoise:
After Brachiano and Vittoria carry out their plot to murder Isabella by poison, Isabella’s brother, Francisco, is enraged and desires to avenge her swiftly. Monticelso uses a series of metaphors and similes, primarily drawing from the animal kingdom, in order to persuade Francisco to carry out his revenge slowly and carefully:
Unlock with LitCharts A+That’s not the course I’d wish you. Pray, observe me:
We see that undermining more prevails
Than doth the cannon. Bear your wrongs concealed,
And, patient as the tortoise, let this camel
Stalk o’er your back unbruised. Sleep with the lion,
And let this brood of secure, foolish mice
Play with your nostrils, till the time be ripe
For th’bloody audit and the fatal gripe.
Aim like a cunning fowler: close one eye,
That you the better may your game espy.
