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Irony
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
Book 3, Chapter 31
Explanation and Analysis—Faint Tail:
Near the end of the long series of quests for the Holy Grail in The Ill-Made Knight, things began to seem dire for the institution of knighthood in Camelot as a whole. None had succeeded in finding the Grail, and many died in the attempt:
The faint tail of knighthood straggled in by twos and threes, then one at a time, then with intervals of days between the solitary riders. The list of dead and missing, kept by Sir Bedivere, began to settle down in to a list of dead, as the missing either returned exhausted or were confirmed dead by reliable report.
"The faint tail of knighthood" is perhaps the most striking metaphor in the novel. "Knighthood" is immediately and evocatively characterized as an old, weak, plodding animal, dragging a small and dusty tail behind it. These last few knights, "straggling in by twos and threes," make up the "tail" of the entire history and custom of knighthood. Part of the power in this metaphor is that it implicitly claims that "knighthood" at large is one coherent concept. That assumption makes these last knights, as the tail of that long tradition of chivalry and valor, even more desolate and pitiful. This figurative description of these last woeful knights in the "faint tail" sets the stage for Lancelot's return at last with the Grail, which takes place not long after this passage.
Related Themes:
Book 3, Chapter 39
Explanation and Analysis—Firm Hand:
During the Winchester tournament in Chapter 39 of The Ill-Made Knight, Elaine shows her "sensitive nature" over the sad fact that Lancelot must leave. She shows deep emotion along with shrewd restraint, which White expresses with deft metaphor:
She had been sensitive enough not to overwhelm him with welcomes when he came home from his long absence: not to reproach him—she had never felt that she had reason to reproach him: and above all, not to suffocate him with pity for herself. She had held her heart with a firm hand while they waited at Corbin for the tournament, carefully hiding the long years during which she had hoped for her lord [...]
White summarizes Elaine's emotion in a metpahor: "She had held her heart with a firm hand." This makes the problems of Elaine's emotions a very physical thing: it argues that the body itself, and particularly the heart, is the physical store of emotions. And, if one held that heart with a firm enough hand, one's emotions could be held in check forever. This is a sort of anti-personification, where the body is made into the store of abstract thought and emotion. Note, too, how this compares with the jousting matches happening around Elaine at this moment. In such battles one's honor and vitality, similarly, is manifested physically.
