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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—A Scarecrow:
Dickens uses the metaphor of a scarecrow to describe the enormous and haggard old legal case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which drags on endlessly and fruitlessly for most of the novel's recorded past. In Chapter 1, he writes that:
This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means.
This case is so complicated that it serves both as an advertisement that there's profit to be protected in the "field," as a scarecrow protects corn, and as a deterrent to interlopers. The word "suit" here is a play on both "lawsuit" and "suit" of clothing; the case itself is ancient and damaged, like the clothes one might put on a scarecrow that lives outside. The purpose of a scarecrow is to deter crows from eating grain. The metaphor also acknowledges the fact that lawyers, in their long black robes and with their tendency to pick over "carcasses," or victims, were often referred to as "crows" in the Victorian period. In Bleak House, Dickens often describes the Chancery lawyers' clothing as being dark, matte, and disheveled, like crows' feathers. To get to the "world of Fashion"—the places the aristocracy inhabit, as Dickens describes it in Chapter 2—one also goes straight there from Chancery "as the crow flies."
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—The World of Fashion:
In Chapter 2, Dickens makes a distinction between the two "worlds" of London: the dirty, messy world of Holborn, and the "world of Fashion," or the social circles of the upper class. He employs a series of images which depict "Fashion" as a place only accessible by the rich, describing it in terms of soft, indulgent sensory language:
Both the world of fashion and the Court of Chancery are things of precedent and usage; [...] It is not a large world. Relatively even to this world of ours, which has its limits too, [...] it is a very little speck. There is much good in it; there are many good and true people in it; it has its appointed place. But the evil of it is, that it is a world wrapped up in too much jeweller’s cotton and fine wool, and cannot hear the rushing of the larger worlds, and cannot see them as they circle round the sun. It is a deadened world, and its growth is sometimes unhealthy for want of air.
Both of these places are areas of "precedent and usage," meaning that they place a lot of importance on things having a basis in past action. This phrase also means that both are materialistic "worlds," and are concerned with real, tangible things. The "world of Fashion" is a "little speck" compared to the real world of Dickens's characters; the comparatively tiny upper classes are a "little speck" in comparison to the enormous working and impoverished population. This visual image helps the reader to understand the comparatively miniature size of the aristocrat class when compared to the ordinary people of Britain.
Dickens suggests that the aristocracy is out of touch with the realities of life, using textural, touchable images of "jewelers cotton" and "fine wool" to invoke the physical sensation of being wrapped in layers of softness and protection. These layers of "wrapping" also provide auditory imagery, as the "fashionable" cannot "hear" the larger world outside. It is too muffled by the "fine wool" they are ensconced in. As they aren't affected by it, they also don't get to experience its positive aspects.
The language Dickens uses to give the reader a vivid picture of the "world of Fashion" makes it seem very glamorous. He also says that not everyone there is bad, as there are "many good and true people" within it. However, as a whole, it is not a nourishing place to live. It is quite stale and dead, as it doesn't get the energy or vivacity of change and natural growth that the "real" world of people and politics provides. As it is only a place of "precedent," nothing new happens. The people who live there are stifling and small, "unhealthy for want of air" and disconnected from real life.
Related Themes:
