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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 3
Explanation and Analysis—Like the Elements:
In the first act of the play, Emilia, sister of Hippolyta and sister-in-law of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, uses a simile when describing her close friendship with a deceased childhood companion. Describing her preference for female companions to male suitors, Emilia states to Hippolyta:
But I,
And she I sigh and spoke of, were things innocent,
Loved for we did, and like the elements
That know not what nor why, yet do effect
Rare issues by their operance, our souls
Did so to one another. What she liked
Was then of me approved, what not, condemned,
No more arraignment.
Emilia lovingly describes a childhood friend who passed away at an early age due to illness. The two childhood friends, Emilia states, were “like the elements” insofar as they did not know why they were such close friends, but nevertheless, their “souls” matched each other perfectly. In this simile, in which she compares herself and her late friend to chemical elements, Emilia suggests that the chemical elements operate in accordance with physical laws that they do not necessarily comprehend. Through this comparison, then, she implies that she was drawn to her friend by natural law, emphasizing their close bond. At this early point in the play, Emilia is not yet interested in accepting any male suitors, preferring close female companions.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Like Compelled Bears:
Palamon is outraged when Arcite proclaims his love for Emilia, having been the first to spot her from their window. Attempting to quell his cousin’s anger, Arcite uses a simile that compares Palamon to a captive bear:
Sir,
I have seen you move in such a place which well
Might justify your manhood; you were called
A good knight and a bold. But the whole week’s not fair
If any day it rain; their valiant temper
Men lose when they incline to treachery,
And then they fight like compelled bears—would fly
Were they not tied.
Arcite criticizes his cousin harshly, stating that he is not living up to his reputation as a “good knight” by giving in to his bad temper. Further, he argues that “treachery” makes men lose their sense of reason and honor, leaving them no better than “compelled bears” who fight when not tied down. In this simile, Arcite alludes to a common form of entertainment in early modern London: bear-baiting, a violent sport in which captive bears were forced to fight each other, as well as other animals. In fact, The Globe theater, in which Shakespeare’s plays were performed, was located next to a bear-baiting pit in the south bank of London. Arcite’s simile suggests that Palamon has lost his self-control as a result of his excessive anger and jealousy.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Diana:
After Arcite has prayed to the god of war, Mars, and Palamon has prayed to the goddess of love, Venus, Emilia makes a final prayer to Diana, a patron goddess of maidens. In her prayer, she uses a series of similes and metaphors that touch upon the topic of chastity, or virginity:
O sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant queen,
Abandoner of revels, mute contemplative,
Sweet, solitary, white as chaste, and pure
As wind-fanned snow, who to thy female knights
Allow’st no more blood than will make a blush,
Which is their order’s robe, I here, thy priest,
Am humbled ’fore thine altar. O, vouchsafe
With that thy rare green eye, which never yet
Beheld thing maculate, look on thy virgin,
And, sacred silver mistress, lend thine ear—
Which ne’er heard scurrile term, into whose port
Ne’er entered wanton sound—to my petition,
Seasoned with holy fear.
In a simile, she states that Diana is as pure “as wind-fanned snow,” or in other words, white snow that has not yet been sullied or stood upon, a common poetic metaphor for virginity. Next, she notes that Diana “Allow’st no more blood than will make a blush, / Which is their order’s robe.” In describing a “blush” metaphorically as the “robe” or uniform of Diana’s followers, she suggests that the virginal young women who seek Diana’s protection are not permitted to submit to bodily passion, but instead, blush at the thought of male attention. Last, she implores Diana, in another metaphor, to allow her prayer to enter the “port” of her ear, which does not admit anything Diana does not want to hear. Emilia’s similes and metaphors suggest that she is, at this moment in the play, preoccupied with the question of virginity as she prepares to wed the winner of the fight.
Related Themes:
