Analyzing Figurative Language

396

It is important that when you are reading a text closely for figurative language you remember that each instance is the result of a specific choice that a writer has made. In other words, if he or she had made a different choice, the effect would have been different. For example, when at the very beginning of his speech “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King Jr. imagines being asked what time period in all of human history he would like to see, he chooses to respond with an allusion:

I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land.

The biblical allusion to ancient Egypt is not random: it is a direct comparison between the slaves escaping the pharaoh and the fight for civil rights that King has been championing. If he had, for instance, begun with a more recent allusion, say, to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, he would have lost the chance to tap into a quest for freedom with roots deep in the Judeo-Christian tradition, a tradition shared by both his audience and his oppressors. The fight for freedom, he suggests with his allusion, is a righteous cause, and those who oppose it are going against their own Christian values. It’s a clever two-pronged approach.

Look at this chart of examples of figurative language from Macbeth and notice how the specific choices Shakespeare makes not only create images through comparison but also reveal something significant about Macbeth’s character or the theme of the play.

Example Analysis of Effect
Metaphor As Macbeth is surrounded by the invading troops, he says:

They have tied me to a stake. (5.7.1)
Macbeth is not literally tied to a stake awaiting execution, but the implied comparison allows him to communicate how powerless he feels.
Simile Preparing to kill Duncan, but having second thoughts, Macbeth says:

And Pity, like a naked newborn babe [. . .]

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind. (1.721–25)
Everyone will know the pity of this murder, but he compares pity to a naked, newborn babe, which is ultimately weak and powerless in the face of his ambition. Bad things happen to good people all throughout this play; weakness and innocence will not keep anyone from being hurt.
Personification When the invading troops are approaching his stronghold, Macbeth says:

Our castle’s strength

Will laugh a siege to scorn. (5.5.2–3)

By giving his castle a human quality—the ability to laugh at the invaders—he demonstrates not only his confidence, but also how much he and his castle are connected. He will survive only as it does.
Allusion As the invading forces are overwhelming his own, Macbeth asks:

Why should I play the Roman fool and die

On mine own sword? (5.8.1–2)
The Roman fool is a reference to historical characters featured in another Shakespearean play, Julius Caesar, in which Brutus and Cassius kill themselves instead of being captured or dying in battle. Macbeth sees no honor in this and vows to fight to the very end.
Hyperbole Just after Macbeth has killed Duncan, he looks at the blood on his hands and says:

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red. (2.2.64–67)
The blood on his hands certainly can be washed off, but Macbeth claims that there is so much blood that it would actually turn the ocean red, which demonstrates just how deep his sense of guilt is.

397

ACTIVITY

Read or reread this excerpt from Henry VIII by William Shakespeare, in which Cardinal Wolsey considers his sudden downfall from his position as advisor to the king. Spokesmen for the king have just left Wolsey alone on stage to think about “the state of man.” Make a chart similar to the one above by analyzing the figurative language used in Cardinal Wolsey’s speech. Note that not every figure of speech listed above may be present in the selection. After analyzing the individual examples of figurative language and their effects, discuss any patterns that emerge, and explain how Shakespeare’s use of figurative language supports the message of a once-proud man losing everything.

CARDINAL WOLSEY So farewell — to the little good you bear me.

Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!

This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth

The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,

And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;

398

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,

And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely

His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,

And then he falls, as I do. I have ventur’d,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,

This many summers in a sea of glory,

But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride

At length broke under me, and now has left me,

Weary and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me. [. . .]

And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,

Never to hope again.

ACTIVITY

Read the following selection from “The Rules of the Game,” by Amy Tan, in which the narrator, a young Chinese American girl, is competing in her first chess tournament, which her very competitive mother encourages her to win. Identify and explain how the use of figurative language contributes to the meaning of the passage.

from The Rules of the Game / Amy Tan

During my first tournament, my mother sat with me in the front row as I waited for my turn. I frequently bounced my legs to unstick them from the cold metal seat of the folding chair. When my name was called, I leapt up. My mother unwrapped something in her lap. It was her chang, a small tablet of red jade which held the sun’s fire. “Is luck,” she whispered, and tucked it into my dress pocket. I turned to my opponent, a fifteen-year-old boy from Oakland. He looked at me, wrinkling his nose.

As I began to play, the boy disappeared, the color ran out of the room, and I saw only my white pieces and his black ones waiting on the other side. A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear.

“Blow from the South,” it murmured. “The wind leaves no trail.” I saw a clear path, the traps to avoid. The crowd rustled. “Shhh! Shhh!” said the corners of the room. The wind blew stronger. “Throw sand from the East to distract him.” The knight came forward ready for the sacrifice. The wind hissed, louder and louder. “Blow, blow, blow. He cannot see. He is blind now. Make him lean away from the wind so he is easier to knock down.”

“Check,” I said, as the wind roared with laughter. The wind died down to little puffs, my own breath.