Figures based on Similarity

 Figures based on Similarity 

Simile :  Simile is a figure of Speech in which two apparently dissimilar things are compared in an explicit way by using words ----like, as, such as, likewise, similarly etc. The word simile is derived from the Latin word similis denoting "similar, like" etc. 

Examples :  

i) “O my luve's like a red, red rose, that's newly sprung in June (Scottish poet Robert Burns’s song “A Red, Red Rose” features simile in comparing his ladylove to a rose).

ii) “I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills”( in his 1807 poem “Daffodils”, William Wordsworth used simile to compare his loneliness with a cloud).

iii) "My heart is like a singing bird/ Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;"(In Christina Rossetti's 'A Birthday', she uses simile to compare her heart with a singing bird).

Metaphor: Metaphor is a figure of speech that may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas in an implicit way.Metaphors are usually meant to create a likeness or an analogy for rhetorical effect by directly referring to one thing by mentioning another.   

Examples:

i) "All the world's a stage,/And all the men and women merely players;"

(William Shakespeare in his comedy As You Like It has made an implicit comparison between life and stage and men and women with actors as both imply the transitoriness.)

ii) "I will drink life to the lees" (Tennyson in his Ulysses has metaphorized life as a glass of wine and the "lees" refers to the residue at the bottom which Ulysses doesn't want to leave, implying that he will utilize the life to the full.)

iii) "All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”—Albert Einstein in his speech has metaphorized life with a tree and the different disciplines of studies as its branches.

Allegory:  Allegory is a figure of Speech in which some detailed comparison is instituted between two unallied subjects to impart a moral lesson or to create social awareness. An allegory, therefore, is an elaborately worked out similitude in which abstract principles and ideas are described in terms of characters, figures and events. 

Examples:

i) Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the life of a Christian is represented as a perilous journey with a happy termination. 

ii) In Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, through the Biblical allegory of King David , Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden addressed the contemporary issue of ascension during the regime of Charles II and the context of Monmouth rebellion.

Parable: A parable is an allegorical story intended to enforce some high moral or religious lesson. 

Examples

The parables of New Testament, Jesus Christ and Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. 

Fable : A fable is a short fictitious story in which animals are personified with human actions and speech to impart a moral lesson.

Examples: 

Aesop's Fables and Buddha Jataka are the renown fables in world literature. 

 Exercise 

1. Variety is the spice of life.

Ans. Metaphor 

2. Lie as a sin engulfs morality.

Ans. Simile

3. He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame

Ans. Simile

4.Life is like a box of chocolates.

Ans. Simile

5. She has the life of an autumn leaf.

Ans. Metaphor 

6.The lake is as clear as crystal.

Ans. Simile

7. She sings like an angel.

Ans. Simile

8.The tree of life grows with effort and dedication. 

Ans. Metaphor 

9. His words cut like a knife.

Ans. Simile

10. The sun of his life sets off too early.

Ans. Metaphor