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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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Insects:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 1, the narrator utilizes apt language to describe Gwendolen's attitude towards Daniel Deronda. This description more reflects Gwendolen's opinion of herself than it does Daniel's opinion of Gwendolen:
There was a smile of irony in his eyes as their glances met; but it was at least better that he should have kept his attention fixed on her than that he disregarded her as one of an insect swarm who had no individual physiognomy.
Related Themes:
Chapter 51
Explanation and Analysis—Freedom from Restraint:
The following excerpt from Chapter 51 includes an example of both metaphor ("thunder without meaning") and simile ("like a frame"):
Unlock with LitCharts A+"I was to love the long prayers in the ugly synagogue, and the howling, and the gabbling, and the dreadful fasts, and the tiresome feasts, and my father’s endless discoursing about our people, which was a thunder without meaning in my ears. [...] I hated living under the shadow of my father’s strictness. Teaching, teaching for everlasting—‘this you must be,’ ‘that you must not be’—pressed on me like a frame that got tighter and tighter as I grew.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Jewish Woman:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 51, Leonora likens her heart to "small, Chinese feet" and her happiness to a cake, made by "a fixed receipt." She does not view herself in this manner; rather, this is the way she was taught to view herself by her father:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"To have a pattern cut out—‘this is the Jewish woman; this is what you must be; this is what you are wanted for; a woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed receipt.’ That was what my father wanted. He wished I had been a son; he cared for me as a make-shift link."
Related Themes:
Chapter 70
Explanation and Analysis—Deronda's Love:
In the following passage from Chapter 70, the narrator describes Daniel's love for Mirah, utilizing both metaphor and simile to do so:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Deronda’s love for Mirah was strongly imbued with that blessed protectiveness. Even with infantine feet she had begun to tread among thorns; and the first time he had beheld her face it had seemed to him the girlish image of despair. But now she was glowing like a dark-tipped yet delicate ivory-tinted flower in the warm sunlight of content, thinking of any possible grief as part of that life with Deronda, which she could call by no other name than good.
Related Themes:
