Figures of speech say one thing in terms of something else, such as when an overeager funeral director is described as a vulture. Meyer says that although “figures of speech are indirect, they are designed to clarify, not obscure, our understanding of what they describe”. For example:
Literal: “The dinner strongly expressed anger at the waiter”.
Figurative: “The dinner leaped from his table and roared at the waiter.”
The figurative statement is more vivid because it creates a picture of ferocious anger by comparing the dinner to a wild animal. Another example of figurative language is in the passage from Macbeth. In this passage, Macbeth’s wife is dead, and he laments her loss and his own life. Shakespeare compares life to a “brief candle” in order to emphasize the darkness and death that surround human beings. Also, life for Macbeth is a “walking shadow”. Thus, figurative language in the passage provides the emotional force of Macbeth’s assertion.
The two most common figures of speech are simile and metaphor. Both compare things that are considered unlike each other. A simile makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, and seems. The effectiveness of this simile is created by the differences between the two things compared. There would be no simile if the comparison were with something alike. Similarly, a metaphor makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using the word "like" or "as." Metaphors assert the identity of dissimilar things, as when Macbeth tells us that life is a "brief candle," life is “a walking shadow,” life is a “poor player.” Meyer says, “metaphors can be subtle and powerful, and can transform people, places, objects, and ideas into whatever the wr...
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...seem as if the house has feelings and suffers. The house represents the couple and their life. They locked each other in different rooms, fought; dishes were slammed onto the table and left unwashed; boarders were created to keep distance between them. As the conflict arises, the house also slowly crumbled physically due to the neglect and lack of attention. Thus, throughout the poem, the house is personified multiple times when it is described as dividing against itself. The author gives the house extremely human traits as if it fights with itself, eventually becoming torn in two and developing different lifestyles, much like a schizophrenic. The couple became violent with a lot of anger, which it is reflected by the condition of the house. When their relationship fell apart, so did the house. The personification of the house is what is talking in the entire poem.
The first literary device is a simile and it paints a picture in the readers head.
Metaphors can be defined as those concepts where a term is used to portray a different meaning in a phrase than what it literary means. Additionally, metaphors are also used to make rhetorical statements where one is speaking of something else but by the use of words that do not have the same meaning. Moreover, metaphors can be used when one is trying to compare two different items with different meanings to portray the same meaning in describing something (Arduini 83). The book “Their eyes were watching God” has several metaphors, which have different analyses.
Throughout many literary works, authors use animals or their behaviour to mimic or represent ideas in order to signify certain aspects of the characters and setting. In the tragic play of Macbeth, William Shakespeare successfully uses animal imagery as a prominent symbol to foresee upcoming events as well to portray Macbeth's growing guilty conscience. Thus, Shakespeare effectively employs animal imagery as a symbol in order to reinforce and highlight Macbeth’s mental deterioration in this tragic play.
Similies are a reacurring element in "Life of Pi". Similes are figures of speech comparing two unlike things, that are often introduced by like or as. Similie...
In “Schizophrenia” by Jim Stevens, The personification of the house adds an eerie feeling to the poem. It grabs you in from an unexpected angle and forces you to think about the poem more in depth. The repetition of “It was the house that suffered the most” at the beginning and end of the poem emphasizes on the damage done to the house; it makes you think about why the house suffered the most. The people within the house are characterized to be angry people, from the first line, “begun with slamming doors”, you can tell that the people within aren't happy. The way the speaker expresses how “the house divided against itself” tells the reader that the people didn’t get along and grew separate. When the speaker illustrates the condition of the
Connected to the somber image of the town, The house is described with harsh diction such as “streaked with rust”, depicting the years of neglect. Affected by abuse, Petry describes the house as stained with “blood” in the form of rust. Despite the harsh outer layer, Lutie is drawn to it as her figurative and literal “sign”of refuge. A town that had been nothing but cold to her is finally seen as warm from the words on the sign; describing the house as “Reasonable” and open to “respectable tenants”.
The personification of her home lets the author express old memories the house held and will never have again, she speaks of no one ever sitting under its roof, or ever eating at its table and how in silence will it lie. By personificating the house she reveals the emotional attachment people tend
Both Edward and Henry use metaphors to help develop there arguments. Both speakers uses a stronger force than they are in each speech to emphasize how if the listeners act now they could possible avoid the fate that would await them if they continue to act as they have. Edward uses metaphors to show the natural men how they seem to God. When Edward talks about the stream of water being held back only to grow over time and when eventually let loose would engulf a person in a torrent of wat...
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) spend much of their book talking about where metaphors come from, how they function in conversation, what their tie to underlying social structures might be. However, I read the book hungrily looking for some information about why metaphors serve a purpose that nothing else seems to for me. Finally, near the end I found this statement:
At the beginning of the story there is a very negative feeling being attached to the appearance of the house. He uses a couple of things to try and make you feel negatively about this place. He used words and phrases such as: “insufferable gloom,” “vacant,” “black and lurid,” and the “rank sedges” were mentioned too. These are obviously there to give a sort of a bad connotation, or bad karma, to the house. He speaks of how the house has a “wild inconsistency” and how each individual stone is starting to decay and fall apart. Suggesting that the house has many problems, all problems that could possibly lead to the destruction of a house.
The poem is about Stark and his family dismantling their house. The poem starts off with the selling of common household items: lumbar, toilets, nails, kindling and French doors. It then proceeds to the demolition of the house first tearing off the roof and then they rest of the house. The theme of this poem is angry. Stark is angry that his house is being dismantled. Stark is also confused as to what will remain when his house is gone, “And when we are finished, - what will there be at Ninth and Van Buren? - A square bare of earth- where a house was. - Sidewalk. Foundation. Concrete stoop. - Two steps up- and you’re there.” This poem like many other poems by Stark is a snip-bit of Stark’s life that is relatable to many
In the book Metaphors We Live By, authors George Lakoff and Mark Johnson address the traditional philosophic view denouncing metaphor's influence on our world and our selves (ix). Using linguistic and sociological evidence, Lakoff and Johnson claim that figurative language performs essential functions beyond those found in poetry, cliché, and elaborate turns of phrase. Metaphor permeates our daily experiences - not only through systems of language, but also in terms of the way we think and act. The key to understanding a metaphor's effect on behavior, relationships, and how we make sense of our environment, can be found in the way humans use metaphorical language. To appreciate the affects of figurative language over even the most mundane details of our daily activity, it is necessary to define the term, "metaphor" and explain its role in defining the thoughts and actions that structure our conceptual system.
Our literal understandings of a word are twins in constant opposition with one another, twins in constant competition to receive the most love from their mother and father. Let us pretend the parents are the literary community that demonstrates love frequently by showing a preference for one of their twins. Donald Davidson's theory expressed in What Metaphors Mean is a tragic, intellectual miscarriage; it is a theory of language that brings forth a stillborn child, a dead metaphor.
In “Habitation”, Atwood uses simple images such as the “forest,” “desert,” “unpainted stairs,” and “fire” to refer to the reality of marriage, but yet, she delivers an optimistic message about the unstable relationship or problems between the newlyweds by showing hopeful interpretations. Therefore, the poem implies the marriage is like building a house because it starts with very simple things, but as times goes by, couple can learn how to deal with all problems and maintains a happy marriage.
Similarly, the furniture in the house is as sullen as the house itself. What little furniture is in the house is beaten-up; this is a symbol of the dark setting. The oak bed is the most important p...