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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
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Noise Like a Knife:
The first time Walter meets Mr. Fairlie is the first time the reader encounters him as well. This first meeting reveals the character to be an excessively neurotic, pretentious, and self-centered man. As he bids Walter farewell, he uses a simile that exaggerates his sensitive nature:
Would you mind taking great pains not to let the doors bang, and not to drop the portfolio? Thank you. Gently with the curtains, please—the slightest noise from them goes through me like a knife. Yes. Good morning!
Related Themes:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Life Like Smooth Stream:
Walter's months in Cumberland with Laura and Marian go by cheerfully and quickly. He uses a simile to compare this period of time to a smooth stream, but he also indicates that danger looms ahead:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The days passed, the weeks passed; it was approaching the third month of my stay in Cumberland. The delicious monotony of life in our calm seclusion, flowed on with me like a smooth stream with a swimmer who glides down the current. All memory of the past, all thought of the future, all sense of the falseness and hopelessness of my own position, lay hushed within me into deceitful rest. Lulled by the Syren-song that my own heart sung to me, with eyes shut to all sight, and ears closed to all sound of danger, I drifted nearer and nearer to the fatal rocks.
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—News Like a Bullet:
When Marian tells Walter that Laura is engaged and that it would therefore be best for him to leave Limmeridge, Walter uses a simile to compare the news to a bullet. The pain he feels at learning that Laura will soon be married feels like being shot in the heart.
Unlock with LitCharts A+The last word went like a bullet to my heart. My arm lost all sensation of the hand that grasped it. I never moved and never spoke. The sharp autumn breeze that scattered the dead leaves at our feet, came as cold to me, on a sudden, as if my own mad hopes were dead leaves, too, whirled away by the wind like the rest. Hopes! [...]
The pang passed; and nothing but the dull numbing pain of it remained.
Related Themes:
The Third Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Laura as Child:
Throughout the novel, Laura is described as a beautiful, innocent, and virtuous young woman. Walter and Marian emphasize her innocence to the point of characterizing her as a child. At a certain point, Walter even uses a simile where he directly compares her to one:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She spoke as a child might have spoken; she showed me her thoughts as a child might have shown them. I waited a few minutes longer—waited to tell her that she was dearer to me now than she had ever been in the past times.
The Third Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Hatred as Lurking Reptile:
When Walter pays Mrs. Catherick a visit, he suggests that they should work together to crush Sir Percival. She responds that Walter should crush Sir Percival himself and come back when he has done so. As she speaks this line, Walter notices a deep-seated hatred in her voice and on her face, which he compares to a lurking reptile by way of a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She spoke those words, as she had not spoken yet—quickly, fiercely, vindictively. I had stirred in its lair the serpent-hatred of years—but only for a moment. Like a lurking reptile, it leapt up at me—as she eagerly bent forward towards the place in which I was sitting. Like a lurking reptile, it dropped out of sight again—as she instantly resumed her former position in the chair.
The Third Epoch: Part 3, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Shadow:
After Walter deduces that Anne Catherick's father was Mr. Philip Fairlie—Laura's father—he contemplates the destructive effect that the two women's parentage has had on their lives. Now that the mystery surrounding the character has been dismantled, he bids Anne farewell from the narrative and employs a simile in which he compares her to a shadow:
Unlock with LitCharts A+So the ghostly figure which has haunted these pages as it haunted my life, goes down into the impenetrable Gloom. Like a Shadow she first came to me, in the loneliness of the night. Like a Shadow she passes away, in the loneliness of the dead.
The Third Epoch: Part 3, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Waves Like Thunder:
As Laura grows healthier and increasingly returns to her old self, Walter decides to take them on a trip to the seaside. Speaking in private with Marian, Walter expresses his desire to marry Laura. As he waits for Laura's answer, he compares the sound of the waves outside to thunder in a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I sat down alone at the window, to wait through the crisis of my life. My mind, in that breathless interval, felt like a total blank. I was conscious of nothing but a painful intensity of all familiar perceptions. The sun grew blinding bright; the white sea birds chasing each other far beyond me, seemed to be flitting before my face; the mellow murmur of the waves on the beach was like thunder in my ears.
Related Themes:
