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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
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Cupid:
In the second scene of Act 1, Blunt and Frederick make fun of Belvile for being in love with Florinda—and in particular for letting a woman have so much control over his life and wellbeing. Alluding to the Roman god Cupid, Blunt compares his and Frederick's feelings for women to Belvile's feelings for Florinda:
[...] our Cupids are like the cooks of the camp, they can roast or boil a woman, but they have none of the fine tricks to set ’em off, no hogoes to make the sauce pleasant and the stomach sharp.
In Roman religion and mythology, Cupid is the god of desire and erotic love. He is usually portrayed as a winged boy carrying a bow and arrow, which he uses to fill people with irrational and uncontrollable desire. When Blunt mentions his and Frederick's Cupids, he is using metonymy to invoke their romantic attachments.
In this passage, Blunt uses a simile to compare his and Frederick's Cupids to camp cooks. Rather than creating decadent and delicious meals, camp cooks make simple meals whose main purpose is to fill soldiers up. Blunt says that, by contrast, Belvile's cooks treat him to exciting meals full of garnish and flavor. His Cupids are far less utilitarian and have plenty of "fine tricks" up their sleeves to make his love life passionate and pleasant. Nevertheless, Blunt does not suggest that he wishes his Cupids were like those of Belvile—he is more than content with his noncommittal sexual relationships and thinks Belvile's situation is inferior to his own.
It is telling that Blunt chooses to compare love and sex to eating—and women to a meal. He suggests that Cupid's purpose is to provide men with women to have sex with, just as camp cooks are supposed to feed soldiers. He claims not to know why he and Frederick, in their relationships to women, fail to experience the romance and passion that Belvile does, but it evidently results from their varying views of women and sex.
Blunt again alludes to Cupid in the first scene of Act 2, when he has fallen for Lucetta and her tricks:
What a dog was I to stay in dull England so long – how have I laughed at the colonel when he sighed for love! but now the little archer has revenged him! and by this one dart, I can guess at all his joys, which then I took for fancies, mere dreams and fables.
Blunt refers back to when he made fun of Belvile for pining over Florinda. Now, after Lucetta has convinced him that she's in love with him, he claims to understand how Belvile felt. When Blunt says "the little archer has revenged him," he means that Cupid has shot him with an arrow of love. By "this one dart," Blunt comprehends the authenticity and intensity of the feelings that Belvile holds for Florinda. Ironically, Lucetta is merely subjecting Blunt to a clever scheme and is not in love with him at all. This experience leaves him more jaded—and less interested in fulfilling romantic attachments—than ever.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Cupid:
In the second scene of Act 1, Blunt and Frederick make fun of Belvile for being in love with Florinda—and in particular for letting a woman have so much control over his life and wellbeing. Alluding to the Roman god Cupid, Blunt compares his and Frederick's feelings for women to Belvile's feelings for Florinda:
[...] our Cupids are like the cooks of the camp, they can roast or boil a woman, but they have none of the fine tricks to set ’em off, no hogoes to make the sauce pleasant and the stomach sharp.
In Roman religion and mythology, Cupid is the god of desire and erotic love. He is usually portrayed as a winged boy carrying a bow and arrow, which he uses to fill people with irrational and uncontrollable desire. When Blunt mentions his and Frederick's Cupids, he is using metonymy to invoke their romantic attachments.
In this passage, Blunt uses a simile to compare his and Frederick's Cupids to camp cooks. Rather than creating decadent and delicious meals, camp cooks make simple meals whose main purpose is to fill soldiers up. Blunt says that, by contrast, Belvile's cooks treat him to exciting meals full of garnish and flavor. His Cupids are far less utilitarian and have plenty of "fine tricks" up their sleeves to make his love life passionate and pleasant. Nevertheless, Blunt does not suggest that he wishes his Cupids were like those of Belvile—he is more than content with his noncommittal sexual relationships and thinks Belvile's situation is inferior to his own.
It is telling that Blunt chooses to compare love and sex to eating—and women to a meal. He suggests that Cupid's purpose is to provide men with women to have sex with, just as camp cooks are supposed to feed soldiers. He claims not to know why he and Frederick, in their relationships to women, fail to experience the romance and passion that Belvile does, but it evidently results from their varying views of women and sex.
Blunt again alludes to Cupid in the first scene of Act 2, when he has fallen for Lucetta and her tricks:
What a dog was I to stay in dull England so long – how have I laughed at the colonel when he sighed for love! but now the little archer has revenged him! and by this one dart, I can guess at all his joys, which then I took for fancies, mere dreams and fables.
Blunt refers back to when he made fun of Belvile for pining over Florinda. Now, after Lucetta has convinced him that she's in love with him, he claims to understand how Belvile felt. When Blunt says "the little archer has revenged him," he means that Cupid has shot him with an arrow of love. By "this one dart," Blunt comprehends the authenticity and intensity of the feelings that Belvile holds for Florinda. Ironically, Lucetta is merely subjecting Blunt to a clever scheme and is not in love with him at all. This experience leaves him more jaded—and less interested in fulfilling romantic attachments—than ever.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis:
The fourth scene of Act 4 opens to Blunt sitting alone in a room in nothing but "his shirt and drawers." In a rancorous soliloquy, he expresses bitterness over Lucetta's successful scheme and preemptive humiliation over the other cavaliers making fun of him when they discover how his love affair turned out. He uses a simile to sum up what Lucetta has done to him:
[...] she has made me as faithless as a physician, as uncharitable as a churchman, and as ill-natured as a poet.
Blunt's series of similes here is rather unique. Whereas similes often involve a certain ambiguity as to the quality shared by the two things being compared—leaving it to the reader to infer what is meant—he explicitly states what it is he relates to in a physician, a churchman, and a poet. In other words, Blunt doesn't simply say he feels like a physician, but says he feels as faithless as a physician. Unlike similes that contain a lone "as," these similes consist of an "as [...] as" correlative structure that spells out the point of comparison.
However, the quality he pairs with each of the comparanda is contrary to what the audience would expect. Normally, one would call a physician faithful, a churchman charitable, and a poet good-natured. This figure of speech—when the reader finds the latter part of a sentence or text unexpected—is called paraprosdokian. In his soliloquy, Blunt pairs similes with paraprosdokian to prove his profound disillusionment with the world.
When the audience first meets Blunt, he is a debauched man who neither seems interested nor capable of intense romantic attachment. When he falls for Lucetta and her scheme, he believes—with pitiful delight—that he has forever been changed. Now, after realizing that Lucetta was only after his money, he is more cynical than ever. As evidenced by Blunt's use of paraprosdokian, these experiences have turned the world on its head for him. His views of physicians as faithless, churchmen as uncharitable, and poets as ill-natured emphasize his vitriolic distrust of the world.
Related Themes:
