Identifying examples of figurative language is a good first step, but it is far more important to consider how the figurative language contributes to the overall meaning of the work. In other words, you need to understand its effect.

Often the goal of using figurative language is to create strong images in the mind of the reader, usually by comparing one thing to another. Comparisons help convey images because they give the reader a frame of reference to understand what the writer is trying to communicate. A sportswriter trying to convey the sheer size of a boxer, for instance, might call him “Herculean,” making an allusion to the familiar Greek hero.

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A famous example of figurative language can be found near the end of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the Central Text in this chapter, when Macbeth learns of his wife’s suicide (5.5.24–26):

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more.

This metaphor, which compares life to a minor actor, is more than just imagery. The audience learns about Macbeth’s perspective—at this point in the play—about the value and importance he is putting on ambition: perhaps it just doesn’t matter since it’s all just a show anyway. Or perhaps he is lamenting how he was manipulated by fate and the Weird Sisters, until his life no longer feels like it is under his control. He is just an actor playing a role in a play he didn’t write. Metaphors, and all figurative language, often allow for multiple readings. Embrace that ambiguity. It’s what gives depth to literature.

Look at this excerpt from “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams and notice the personification:

the whole pageantry

of the year was

awake tingling

near

the edge of the sea

concerned

with itself

sweating in the sun

While the personification of the “pageantry” being “awake” and “tingling” and the sea being “concerned” and “sweating” certainly adds to the imagery of the poem, it also relates to the central meaning, showing how the fall of Icarus, a man-made disaster, was insignificant to nature, which continued along, unaware of the boy’s fall.