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Get every literary device explanation for The Son’s VetoPlus so much more...
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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—Black as a Cloud:
The final lines of the story—which describe Sophy’s funeral procession—contain a simile:
From the railway-station a funeral procession was seen approaching: it passed his door and went out of the town towards the village of Gaymead. The man, whose eyes were wet, held his hat in his hand as the vehicles moved by; while from the mourning coach a young smooth-shaven priest in a high waistcoat looked black as a cloud at the shop-keeper standing there.
The narrator uses a simile here when describing how Sophy’s son Randolph (the “young smooth-shaven priest”) “looked black as a cloud at the shop-keeper” (Sam) standing outside of his shop. This simile communicates how much anger Randolph feels toward Sam, likely because he views Sam as being responsible for his mother’s death. Though Hardy does not make it clear how Sophy died, the story hints that she may have died of a broken heart (because Randolph would not let her marry Sam) and subsequent disinterest in life.
While Randolph may blame Sam here—thinking that his mother would have been fine if Sam hadn’t re-entered her life—readers know that Randolph is, in fact, the one at fault. If he had allowed his mother to marry the working-class Sam, and let go of his need to follow the rules of the class-obsessed London elite, she would have had the opportunity to live a happy and fulfilling life.
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