The Vicar of Wakefield: Similes 6 key examples

This simile allows Dr. Primrose to indirectly express that his wife is plain-looking. Perhaps more important than revealing Dr. Primrose's modesty, it demonstrates that he finds it important for others to see him as simple and pragmatic. While there is something unpleasant in how Dr. Primrose talks about his wife in the simile, it simultaneously communicates some level of respect. He shows that he didn't marry Deborah for her looks, but for her character and abilities. Although the simile suggests that Deborah is somewhat boring, Dr. Primrose knew at the time of their marriage that they would be good partners in the long run.

The simile also sheds light on his aversion to aesthetics, which he makes known at multiple points throughout the novel. Dr. Primrose charges Deborah and their daughters with vanity, attempting to teach them moral lessons about the downsides of valuing wealth and appearance over humility and good character. In relation to his disinclination for his female family members' aesthetic taste, it is worth noting the two choices being compared in the simile. Whereas the man in the simile is choosing a woman, the woman in the simile is choosing a dress. This is less a reflection of the narrator's or author's worldview and more a reflection of the general understanding of gender roles in the 18th century. At the time, women did not have as much agency as men over who they would marry.

That being said, Goldsmith affords women in the novel agency in the planning of their futures. In fact, he paints a unique picture of Dr. Primrose as head of the family. While some of his values can be classified as traditional, Dr. Primrose is no traditional patriarch. He may have "chosen" Deborah as his wife, but the vibrant discussions between the two characters shows that she has a voice in their marriage. In line with his value for equality and justice, Dr. Primrose feels no need to dominate his wife or children. Although some men at the time would have married their daughters off without any consideration of their own wishes, Dr. Primrose involves his daughters in their choice of husband.

After explaining why he often receives guests and who these guests tend to be, Dr. Primrose compares his admiration for content faces with other people's admiration for detailed aspects of nature. In the exposition, it is important for this narrator-protagonist to introduce his own character to the reader, aiming to win sympathy and interest.

Within the first few pages, he shows that his attitudes and priorities as a vicar directly inform his priorities as a husband, father, and host. Rather than scrutinizing nature for beauty to admire, he finds the greatest beauty around his own fireplace, when spending time with his happy family members and happy guests. He expresses throughout the novel that he has little interest in physical beauty. The simile underpins this idea, as he suggests that the concrete objects other people find beautiful interests him far less than something intangible like emotion.

Furthermore, the simile goes hand in hand with the claim he makes just before: that poorer guests have more to be grateful for and therefore exhibit a greater level of happiness. By pairing this claim with the simile, Dr. Primrose suggests that he prefers the company of poor people to rich people. Guests with less wealth are more prepared to feel grateful and content over simple pleasures—the pleasures that Dr. Primrose himself prefers.

A smock is an undergarment that women used to wear. In England during the 17th and 18th centuries, events were held in which women would race each other for a fancy smock. Smock races were seen as indecent, because participants would wear less clothing than what was considered decent for women. When she expresses that she doesn't want her daughters to look like they have just won a smock race, Mrs. Primrose is saying that she doesn't want them to look vulgar and unladylike.

She goes on to propose that Olivia and Sophia each ride one of the family's two horses to church that Sunday. Mr. Primrose is firmly against the idea, not least because their horses are inelegant farm animals, but he concludes that his wife and daughters will learn their lesson better if he lets them go through with it. Throughout the novel, he uses examples to teach his family about the value of humility and modesty. However, he prefers benevolent instruction over top-down domineering. This chapter provides an insightful example into his unique approach to teaching and fathering.

In the fable, Aesop and a number of other servants go on a journey and have to choose a sack to carry. When Aesop voluntarily carries the sack of bread, by far the heaviest, the other servants make fun of him for choosing the worst sack. At lunch, they stop and Aesop is requested to distribute bread to everyone from his sack. The same happens at dinner, at which point his sack is empty. On the rest of the journey, the other servants continue to carry heavy loads while Aesop is free from carrying anything.

George's allusion to this fable is somewhat ironic, because the lightening of Aesop's load is positive for Aesop whereas it is negative for George. In the fable, a lighter load means less to carry and therefore greater comfort and freedom. In George's situation, a lighter load indicates that his savings and possessions are dwindling. Over the course of his journey, he pays for his room and board with the little money and items he has with him. While it might in some way be nice to have less to carry, it is disconcerting to day by day give up more of one's personal items in exchange for shelter and food.

Comparing himself to a porcupine and his quill to a porcupine's spikes, George explains that he approached writing with a hostile and self-important attitude. Rather than representing his own beliefs, he aimed to fill the first book he wrote during his Grub Street tenure with completely original ideas. Taking himself and his project very seriously, he expresses both that he expected that people would challenge his propositions and that he was prepared to challenge them back. He wrote with his future adversaries in mind, fueled by preemptive antagonism.

In the end, he reveals that his writing project received neither a negative nor a positive response: "the learned world said nothing to my paradoxes." He discovers that the learned world is too busy defending their friends or criticizing their enemies to care what an unknown writer like himself has to say. He reaches a similar conclusion across his various experiences, as he learns time and again that doors tend to be opened for those who already possess wealth and influence, and closed in the face of those who do not. Through the porcupine simile, George comments on the energy he wasted on believing anyone in London would care about his written work.

In this passage, Dr. Primrose dwells on his excitement to be home. He initially went away in the 18th chapter to retrieve Olivia, but a number of events kept him from returning home to his family. Now that he has found Olivia and is on the cusp of a reunion with his family, he bases his exuberant joy on the assumption that everything will be just as he left it. The exuberance of this joy builds suspense, as it signals to the reader that something might get in the way of his "wife's tender embrace" or the opportunity to smile "at the joy of [his] little ones."

Just after he writes that his "heart dilated with unutterable happiness," the unlucky Dr. Primrose discovers that his house is on fire. All of his family members survive, but their house and possessions suffer significant damage. Additionally, Dr. Primrose seriously injures his arm when saving his youngest children from the burning house. After longing to be back by the fireplace with his family, his life is altered by a fire.

The passage contains a simile in which Dr. Primrose compares himself to a little bird that was "frighted from its nest." He suggests that a bird that falls from it nest thinks more about being back in its nest than about how to make its return happen. Similarly, as he fantasizes about being home in the same old routine with his family, he doesn't consider how attainable this might be. It is notable that Dr. Primrose likens himself to a bird, as this comparison makes him appear small and vulnerable, which he increasingly becomes as a result of his struggles.