Figurative Language

Figurative LanguageFigurative LanguageSimile and MetaphorSimile 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?

Great!• Simile• Metaphor• Personification

• Pathetic Fallacy• Synecdoche• Metonymy

Tropes• What figurative language depends

upon a contrast between two levels of meaning, or a shift from one level of meaning to another?

Wunderbar!• Irony• Paradox• Oxymoron• Understatement• Hyperbole

• Litotes• Periphrasis

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 diamondsOmit the word “like”

-the stars are diamondsMove 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?