When introducing the character Corley, the narrator uses two different similes, as seen in the following passage:
His head was large, globular and oily; it sweated in all weathers; and his large round hat, set upon it sideways, looked like a bulb which had grown out of another. He always stared straight before him as if he were on parade and, when he wished to gaze after someone in the street, it was necessary for him to move his body from the hips.
The first simile here—“his large round hat, set upon [his head] sideways, looked like a bulb which had grown out of another”—captures the narrator’s slightly mocking tone when it comes to the two men at the center of the story. While Corley is attempting to present as fashionable and suave, the narrator compares his hat to a mutated plant bulb. This mirrors how, despite the fact that Corley sees himself as a gentleman (or “gallant”), he is actually just an immature young man.
The second simile here—“He always stared straight before him as if he were on parade”—captures Corley’s incorrect belief that people (specifically women) are constantly watching and desiring him. The description of Corley’s sweaty head as “globular and oily” also implies that he is both literally and figuratively “slippery”—this is seen in his manipulative actions toward the maid with whom he has a sexual relationship.
