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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
Part 1, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Pale Spider:
Humbert uses a series of similes and metaphors that characterize him as a spider when describing his close observation of Lolita while living with her and her mother in the Haze household:
I am like one of those inflated pale spiders you see in old gardens. Sitting in the middle of a luminous web and giving little jerks to this or that strand. My web is spread all over the house as I listen from my chair where I sit like a wily wizard. Is Lo in her room? Gently I tug on the silk. She is not. Just heard the toilet paper cylinder make its staccato sound as it is turned[...] Is she still brushing her teeth [...] ? No. The bathroom door has just slammed, so one has to feel elsewhere about the house for the beautiful warm-colored prey.
Throughout the novel, Humbert alternates between defending his own actions to the reader and bitterly criticizing himself. In this passage, he presents himself unflatteringly as being “like one of those inflated spiders you see in old gardens.” His choice of simile here registers his predatory attitude towards Lolita. Further developing this simile, he notes that his “web is spread all over the house,” allowing him to sense her whereabouts. Metaphorically, he claims that he can “tug on the silk” threads of his web to determine where she is, in fact listening closely for signs of her movements about the house. Here, his choice in simile and metaphor suggests that he thinks of Lolita as “prey” he intends to hunt.
Part 1, Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Musician:
Humbert uses a simile that imagines his second wife Charlotte as a sensitive musician when describing his own difficulty in deceiving her:
Oh, you cannot imagine (as I had never imagined) what these women of principle are! Charlotte, who did not notice the falsity of all the everyday conventions and rules of behavior, and foods, and books, and people she doted upon, would distinguish at once a false intonation in anything I might say with a view to keeping Lo near. She was like a musician who may be an odious vulgarian in ordinary life, devoid of tact and taste; but who will hear a false note in music with diabolical accuracy of judgment. To break Charlotte’s will, I would have to break her heart.
Humbert’s plan to marry Charlotte in order to get closer to Lolita backfires when Charlotte decides to send her daughter to a boarding school. Though Humbert plots to prevent her from carrying out this plan, he is anxious that Charlotte will be able to discern his true motives, as she could “distinguish at once a false intonation in anything I might say with a view to keeping Lo near.” Though he does not consider Charlotte very intelligent or discerning in general, he argues that she is “like a musician who [...] will hear a false note in music with diabolical accuracy of judgment.” Through this simile, he suggests that Charlotte is particularly attuned to his lies, just as a musician can easily identify a “false note” in music.
Related Themes:
