ANALYSING A WRITER’S METHODS
How to analyse metaphors and similes
Metaphors and similes are two of the best methods you can choose if you want to get high marks for detailed analysis of language, form and structure. They’re highly meaningful while being pretty straightforward to analyse, as this guide will hopefully show.
This guide is part of the Analysing a writer’s methods series:
How to structure the analysis
In your analysis of a metaphor or simile you need to do two things:
A. State what the simile or metaphor is, as well as what it is being used to describe
B. Analyse the metaphor by explaining the similarities between the two things being compared
Example analysis of a simile
[A] The writer uses the simile “like crumpled newspaper” to describe the old lady’s hands. [B] This implies that her skin is greying or appears faded, like old newspaper; it could also suggest her hands are mottled, as if they have things printed on them, which is something that can happen to older people’s skin. The simile also gives a sense of the feeling of her skin, which is probably dry, fragile and rough, like crumpled paper.
Let’s look in detail at how to go about doing this one step at a time, using several examples as we go along. The process essentially has three steps:
Identify the two things being compared in the simile or metaphor
Determine what the literal thing and the figurative thing have in common
Explain this similarity in your analysis
1. Identify the two things being compared in the simile or metaphor
When writers use similes or metaphors, they compare two things – one literal thing and one figurative thing.
Consider this simple metaphor: my teacher is a dragon. There is something that actually exists in the story (the teacher), which is the literal thing, and something which the literal thing resembles (a dragon), which is the figurative thing.
This is true of all similes and metaphors.
Consider this more complicated simile: You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him, but it's like sporting with a tamed lion. Here, the literal thing (the thing that actually exists in the story) is the act of joking around with the king, and the figurative thing (the thing that the literal thing resembles) is the act of sporting (e.g. playing) with a tamed lion. The simile tells us that joking around with the king resembles sporting with a tamed lion. Explaining this resemblance will form the core of your analysis.
A worked example for this guide
In this guide we will focus on the following simile: The skin on the old lady’s hands was like crumpled newspaper. In this simile the two things being compared are:
The literal thing (the thing that actually exists in the story): the skin on the old lady’s hands
The figurative thing (the thing the literal thing resembles): crumpled newspaper
2. Determine what the literal thing and the figurative thing have in common
This is the key step in your planning. Once you have identified the two things being compared, you need to determine which of the qualities possessed by the figurative thing might also be possessed by the literal thing. Consider the following examples for the metaphor and simile we looked at in the previous section:
Literal thing: a teacher
Figurative thing: a dragon
Resemblance: Both scary and angry; both things to be feared; teacher’s words might be hurtful, like a dragon’s fire. The character in the story might need to defeat or overcome the teacher, in the same way a hero might need to defeat a dragon.
Literal thing: joking with the king
Figurative thing: sporting with a tamed lion
Resemblance: Both the king and the lion could kill you; your life is in their hands. You think you’re safe – the lion is tamed, the king is friendly – but you can never be totally sure, and the whole time you’re playing, you’re thinking about those claws.
The more similarities you can identify between the literal thing and the figurative thing, the more detailed and perceptive your analysis will be.
You need to be a little bit careful here, though. The similarities have to be legitimate in the context. It wouldn’t be right, for instance, to say that the simile “like sporting with a tamed lion” suggests that the king has big hair, like a lion’s mane; this is not what the simile is saying in this context. It is about the action of playing with the king; it is not just comparing the king to a lion.
This illustrates another important point too: the things being compared will not always be things, as such. They might be actions, like joking with the king or playing with a lion, or they might be abstract concepts like memory (e.g. her memory was like a well-ordered cupboard), or feelings (e.g. a blind rage like a fire swept through her), or even processes, like falling in love. These can be trickier to analyse, but they often provide more interesting and perceptive analysis in the end.
Let’s look at our old lady example now:
Literal thing: the skin on the old lady’s hands
Figurative thing: crumpled newspaper
Resemblance: Her skin could be greying, or appear faded; it could also be mottled, like newspaper print. Her skin could also be dry, thin and fragile, and perhaps rough, rather than smooth (hence the ‘crumpled’ part).
3. Explain this similarity in your analysis
Begin by stating the metaphor or simile and saying what it is being used to describe. In other words, state the figurative thing and the literal thing.
For example, you might say the writer uses the metaphor of a “dragon” to describe the teacher, or that the writer uses the simile “like sporting with a tamed lion” to describe joking around with the king. The phrase ‘to describe’ is very useful for this step.
Example opening sentence for some analysis
The writer uses the simile “like crumpled newspaper” to describe the old lady’s hands.
Then, you just need to explain all the similarities you have identified between the literal thing and the figurative thing. This is the effect of the metaphor or simile – it is what the metaphor or simile adds to the meaning of the text.
The metaphor “my teacher is a dragon” means that the teacher resembles a dragon, and so the effect of the metaphor is that it suggests that the teacher is scary, angry, someone to be feared, etc, just like a dragon.
Likewise for the simile about joking with the king and sporting with a tamed lion: it suggests that it’s exciting but also scary, because the king, like the lion, may seem tame, but he is dangerous by nature, and the whole time you’re joking with him you’re aware of the fact he could turn on you if you make one wrong move, in the same way that a tamed lion could turn on you.
Make sure you make reference to both the literal and the figurative thing throughout your analysis to ensure it’s clear.
Example analysis of a simile
This implies that her skin is greying or appears faded, like old newspaper; it could also suggest that her hands are mottled, as if they have things printed on them, which is something that can happen to older people’s skin. The simile also gives a sense of the feeling of her skin, which is probably dry, fragile and rough, like crumpled newspaper.
Summing up – key things to remember when analysing a metaphor or a simile
Similes and metaphors are comparisons - understanding this is key to your analysis
Identify the literal thing and figurative thing first
Then find the similarity between them
Explain the similarity in your analysis
Make sure you reference both the figurative thing and the literal thing in your analysis