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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
Key Examples in Wide Sargasso Sea
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Octopus's Garden:
Early in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette acquaints the reader with Coulibri Estate as it looked and felt in her childhood. In a rich passage, Rhys uses allusion, simile, and imagery to make the garden come alive. As in many of Antoinette's memories, uneasiness and hostility lurk beneath the lush and fragrant beauty.
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Part 2
Explanation and Analysis—Menacing Trees:
As the second part wraps up, the husband encounters and communicates with his surroundings as though they were human. The alienation he has felt over the course of the honeymoon culminates in these final scenes, as he feels threatened by inanimate objects, trees, and topographical features. He describes this through personification and simile.
After Antoinette lashes out at him, the husband feels shunned and terrorized by all of the objects and nature around him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] but it seemed to me that everything round me was hostile. The telescope drew away and said don't touch me. The trees were threatening and the shadows of the trees moving slowly over the floor menaced me. The green menace. I had felt it ever since I saw this place.
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Explanation and Analysis—Like A Doll:
At the end of the second part, the husband repeatedly uses similes and metaphors to liken Antoinette to a doll. These comparisons show the reader how he views his wife and her wellbeing. Already tormented by Antoinette's soundness of mind, the husband is increasingly certain that she's mentally unstable. This conviction inspires revulsion rather than compassion in him.
The first time the husband uses a doll comparison, he watches Christophine comfort Antoinette after she's had an emotional outburst.
Unlock with LitCharts A+I could see Antoinette stretched on the bed quite still. Like a doll. Even when she threatened me with the bottle she had a marionette quality.
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Explanation and Analysis—Old Cosway:
When the husband pays Daniel Cosway a visit in the second part, he gets new insight into Antoinette and her family. Although Antoinette has told him a few things about her background, he doesn't know much about her father. As he talks about Old Cosway, Daniel uses a range of similes which underscore his spite towards his supposed father.
Almost right away, Daniel calls Old Cosway a "damn devil," asserting that he "never know such lies" as the words on his headstone.
Unlock with LitCharts A+I hope that stone tie round his neck and drag him down to Hell in the end. "Pious", they write up. "Beloved by all." Not a word about the people he buy and sell like cattle. "Merciful to the weak", they write up. Mercy! The man have a heart like stone.
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Explanation and Analysis—I Have Been Poisoned:
One evening, after the husband and Antoinette have an intense conversation about her family and childhood, the husband believes that Antoinette poisons him. When he wakes up the following morning, he uses similes to describe his sensations and convictions.
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