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Setting
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
Act 1
Explanation and Analysis—Avalanche:
In the following passage from the beginning of Act 1, Catherine Petkoff relives the glory of a Bulgarian victory through a rather romanticized conversation with her daughter, Raina. As is to be expected with a romantic retelling, Catherine uses a fair bit of figurative language—including simile—to heighten her description of the scenario:
CATHERINE: Can’t you see it, Raina; our gallant splendid Bulgarians with their swords and eyes flashing, thundering down like an avalanche and scattering the wretched Servian dandies like chaff.
There are two important similes in this excerpt, both of which reinforce traditional (and rather Romantic) ideals of masculinity. The Bulgarians, who are the "manlier" and more traditional men in this characterization, "[thunder] down like an avalanche" as they engage their foes on the battlefield. This simile associates a powerful force of nature with the Bulgarian soldiers—they are stronger, more forceful, more "legitimately" masculine. The Servians, on the other hand, are associated with an unfavorable natural phenomenon—chaff, or the worthless debris that gathers in the process of threshing grain, which is scattered unceremoniously in the wind. It is not powerful, and it is not emblematic of a socially acceptable masculinity. This is further evidenced by the use of the term "dandy," a derogatory name often assigned to men presenting homosexual or "feeble" masculinities.
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Explanation and Analysis—Sergius's Portrait:
In the following passage, Shaw utilizes the stage directions to describe Raina's pre-bedtime viewing of Sergius's portrait. This description provides an important bit of characterization, using simile to make clear the lens through which Raina views her lover:
Raina, left alone, goes to the chest of drawers, and adores the portrait there with feelings that are beyond all expression. She does not kiss it or press it to her breast, or shew it any mark of bodily affection; but she takes it in her hands and elevates it like a priestess.
This simile reveals the beginnings of Raina's Romantic tendencies: she views her lover, Sergius, as the epitome of traditional heroic masculinity, and elevates his image according to Romantic tradition. She is a priestess, implying that he is a kind of god in her eyes. This association is reinforced by the fact that Raina has a miniature portrait of Sergius—traditional for the time, surely, but nonetheless associated with religious iconography of the saints. Raina worships at the shrine of her godly ideal every night before bed, engaging in these periodic reveries as one might say a prayer before sleeping. Sergius is more ideal than man to Raina—he exists in her imagination as a specter brought forth from one of her novels.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Man's Physique:
In the following passage from Act 1, Shaw uses the stage directions to provide a description of Captain Bluntschli's appearance. This description provides a certain amount of insight not only into Bluntschli's objective physical appearance, but also into how Raina perceives him. Bluntschli's aesthetic attributes thus come under criticism, in particular through the use of simile:
He is a man of middling stature and undistinguished appearance, with strong neck and shoulders, a roundish, obstinate looking head covered with short crisp bronze curls, clear quick blue eyes and good brows and mouth, [and] a hopelessly prosaic nose like that of a strong-minded baby.
This instance of figurative language, in which the captain is likened to a "strong-minded baby," juxtaposes the rather romantic depiction of Sergius as a beautiful, traditionally heroic epitome of masculinity. The "baby" comparison quite literally infantilizes Bluntschli, a tactic not uncommonly used to demean and diminish women.
Further aspects of Bluntschli's physical description place him in opposition to Sergius. Shaw describes Bluntschli's nose as prosaic, or having the matter-of-fact, straightforward nature of traditional prose writing. His nose is not magnificent; it is shockingly normal. Sergius, as the more Romantic figure, is also the more poetic of the two men. Heightened descriptions of Sergius emphasize his role as a Byronic hero, playing foil to Bluntschli's banality.
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Explanation and Analysis—Nervous Masculinity:
In the following passage, Raina reacts with astonishment to Captain Bluntschli's statement that it was "mean" of her to "revenge herself" on him simply because he had given her a fright. In the ensuing conversation, Bluntschli uses simile to describe his current traumatized, reactionary state:
RAINA: (superbly). Frighten me! Do you know, sir, that though I am only a woman, I think I am at heart as brave as you.
MAN: I should think so. You haven’t been under fire for three days as I have. I can stand two days without shewing it much; but no man can stand three days: I’m as nervous as a mouse. (He sits down on the ottoman, and takes his head in his hands.) Would you like to see me cry?
In the above simile (as well as the surrounding dialogue), Bluntschli and Raina both comment on his seemingly insufficient masculinity. He is "nervous as a mouse," which implies that he is meek and non-assertive—qualities not valued in traditional constructs of manhood. He also cries; this, according to Raina, is something that feminizes him (the worst thing that can happen, socially, to a man in this patriarchal society). Even she is stronger than him, something that it seems he should not be proud of; yet, seemingly, he is relatively self-aware and unbothered by this.
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Explanation and Analysis—Peas on the Window:
In Act 1, Bluntschli attempts to describe a cavalry charge to Raina who, despite having great Romantic images in her head of battlefield heroism, has never seen military action in person. To aid in his description of the soldiers, Bluntschli utilizes simile:
MAN: You never saw a cavalry charge, did you?
RAINA: How could I?
MAN: Ah, perhaps not—of course. Well, it’s a funny sight. It’s like slinging a handful of peas against a window pane: first one comes; then two or three close behind him; and then all the rest in a lump.
In this rather absurd bit of figurative language, Bluntschli compares a cavalry charge to "slinging [...] peas" against a windowpane. The absurdity of this simile only emphasizes the absurdity and inhumanity of warfare. The first few men to engage in battle are effectively useless, only objects to be thrown at the other side until they become overwhelmed. The men that follow are a mere "lump," only able to be effective on account of the sheer magnitude of their number. Notably in this metaphor, the peas are being slung against a window pane—something quite sturdy and unlikely to be broken by a few small vegetables, or even a clump of them. Likewise, the plight of these soldiers appears futile against the enemy's onslaught.
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Explanation and Analysis—Don Quixote:
In the following passage from Act 1, Bluntschli reveals to Raina that her betrothed behaved in a naive and silly manner on the battlefield; Sergius, it turns out, is not the brave hero Raina envisioned. In his description of Sergius's actions during the battle, Bluntschli alludes to Miguel de Cervantes's epic novel Don Quixote (published 1605/1615):
MAN: He did it like an operatic tenor—a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills. We nearly burst with laughter at him; but when the sergeant ran up as white as a sheet, and told us they’d sent us the wrong cartridges, and that we couldn’t fire a shot for the next ten minutes, we laughed at the other side of our mouths.
The protagonist of Don Quixote is a man obsessed with the concept of chivalric romance. At the beginning of the novel, Don Quixote sets out on a mission to serve his nation by reinstating the chivalric principles of knighthood, lost to an earlier time. Cervantes's protagonist provides an important locus of comparison for Sergius, who remains invested in the Romantic masculinity and notions of chivalry belonging to a bygone era.
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