Figurative Language

Figurative Language Simile and Metaphor

Figures of Thought (Tropes) • Tropes (Greek word meaning “a turn”) • Words or phrases used in ways to effect a change (or turn) in standard meaning. • Changes the way you think about something

Tropes • What types of figurative language depend upon a comparison between two very different objects, or a transference of qualities associated with an object, experience, or concept to another not literally connected to it?

Simile Metaphor Personification Pathetic Fallacy Synecdoche Metonymy Great!

Tropes • What figurative language depends upon a contrast between two levels of meaning, or a shift from one level of meaning to another?

Irony Paradox Oxymoron Understatement Hyperbole Litotes Periphrasis Wunderbar!

Simile(Latin root means “similar” or “like”) • One kind of thing is compared to a markedly different object, concept, or experience; the comparison is made explicit by the word “Like” or “As”. • Jen’s room is like a pig sty. • Effect is that the subject and the analogy are pictured side by side.

Simile • Appears in poetry and prose and may be simple or extended. • Indicates the author’s tone, or implied attitude toward a subject. • The purpose is to reflect some KEY quality of the literal subject.

Simile and Tone • This is a simple simile: • “O, my luve’s like a red, red rose.” from Robert Burns • What is being compared? • Why is the tone considered exalted?

Simile and Tone “Death lies on her like an untimely frost/Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.” from Romeo and Juliet • What is being compared? • What would you say the tone is?

Metaphor • A word or phrase that in literal use designates one kind of thing is applied to a very different object, concept or experience, without an explicit comparison. • Jen’s room is a pig sty.

Metaphor v. Simile • In a simile the two objects being compared are shown side by side. • In a metaphor they are superimposed on one another.

Metaphor • The effect is to transfer qualities closely associated with the literal object. • “But soft, what light from yonder window breaks?/It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” • What is being compared?

Metaphor • May be short or long • May be a verb: • I “wilted” • May be an adjective: • “leaden” thoughts • May be a noun: • Calling someone an “angel” or “dragon”

Metaphor • Sometimes a speaker elaborates on a metaphor to explain its relevance. • As in Hamlet when Horatio describes the effect of the ghost’s appearance on his nerves: “It harrows me with fear and wonder.” • Harrow means to break up soil with a sharp heavy instrument

Extended Metaphor • Sustained through many lines. • Such as in Hamlet when Polonius warns his daughter Ophelia not to trust the seductive lies of young men who are “burning” with passion:

Example • “I do know,/When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul/ Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both/Even in their promise, as it is a-making,/ You must not take for fire.”

Extended Metaphor • Sometimes it is that the extended metaphor every part is needed to create the whole. • Sometimes it is that the extended metaphor every part is a whole in itself.

Example • When the tyrant Macbeth, in total despair, compares life to • “a walking shadow” • “a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage” • “a tale told by an idiot”

Extended Metaphor • May recur throughout the entire work, and alter or support the characterization or plot: • Stars, sun, and moon in Romeo and Juliet

Try These! • Joe is a real snake when it comes to women. • What is being compared? • What is the comment or impression?

Try These! • I wouldn’t squeal to the cops. • What is being compared? • What is the comment or impression?

This one is harder… • My Life had stood---a Loaded Gun.- Dickinson • What is being compared? • What is the comment or impression?

This one is harder… • True ease in writing comes from art, not chance. As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance. Pope • What is being compared? • What is the comment or impression?

One more… • Trust Thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.-Emerson • What is being compared? • What is the comment or impression?

Dead Metaphors • These are cliché • A heart of stone Stone cold • Apple of my eye • Boiling mad • Bear fruit • Hatch a plan • Difficult to swallow

Take them literally • Take the cliché and take it literally. • I felt stone cold • My arms were rock • And my legs were granite

Create Your Own • Generate a simile • The stars are like diamonds Omit the word “like” -the stars are diamonds Move the noun in front of the image -the diamond stars (Dylan Thomas did this)

Create Your own extended one • Write a simile • My teacher is like an eagle.

Create your own extended metaphor • Turn the simile into a metaphor by removing the word “like” and now extend it by thinking about what eagles do • My teacher is an eagle swooping around the class, hovering over the students, diving down the innocent and skewering them with the terrible grip of her talons.

Any Questions?

Figurative Language