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Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Children in Jail:
In Chapter 8, Nicholas first encounters the boys from Dotheboys Hall. His initial reaction is shock, having never seen such derelict, neglected young children in his life. In the following description of the boys, the narrator employs simile as a device to emphasize Nicholas's surprise and upset:
There were vicious-faced boys brooding, with leaden eyes, like malefactors in a jail; and there were young creatures on whom the sins of their frail parents had descended, weeping even for the mercenary nurses they had known, and lonesome even in their loneliness.
In this passage, the narrator compares the young Dotheboys boys to "malefactors in a jail," using figurative language both to characterize the scene and to form a connection between poverty conditions and unjust imprisonment. These boys are "like malefactors in a jail" because the Squeerses treat them like prisoners; they are also likened to convicts because of socially-ingrained prejudices that equate poverty with criminality. Many poor people are imprisoned simply for the condition of their poverty (i.e., needing to steal to eat; not being able to recoup debts or financial losses).
Also of note in this passage is the narrator's statement: "there were young creatures on whom the sins of their frail parents had descended." This fixation on "nature" vs. "nurture" within Dickens's work hints at a broader social-scientific discourse on heritability and Social Darwinism. Dickens seems to imply in this passage that parents can pass their behavioral "defects" on to children the same way one might give one's offspring blue eyes. Yet Dickens contradicts this sentiment himself in Nicholas Nickleby, using Smike's character as evidence that children do not inherit "immorality" from their parents.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Lacing Stays:
In Chapter 13, Dickens includes several scenes intended to characterize Mr. and Mrs. Squeers for readers. The following passage includes one such instance of characterization, achieved through a combination of auditory imagery and simile:
‘Now then,’ cried that gentleman, ‘are you going to sleep all day, up there – ’
‘You lazy hounds?’ added Mrs Squeers, finishing the sentence, and producing at the same time a sharp sound like that which is occasioned by the lacing of stays.
Mrs. Squeers, after directing her insult towards the Dotheboys children, makes a sound like the "lacing of stays." This example of both auditory imagery and simile is distinct, providing a portrait of Mrs. Squeers's character through her actions.
At the time Dickens wrote Nicholas Nickleby, it was common for women to wear restrictive undergarments that had to be tightened and laced. In the above passage, the "stays" serve as a form of sensory imagery, conjuring up the feeling of restriction and entrapment as Mr. and Mrs. Squeers viciously exert their control over the Dotheboys children. Mrs. Squeers is quick to insult the young boys, quick to activate her sharp tongue; and so, the sharp sound "like [...] the lacing of stays" accurately mirrors her character and actions.
Related Themes:
Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Fowls and Children:
Dickens begins Chapter 14 with a description of the "Golden Square" in London—a quarter resplendent in its Victorian squalor. The following passage is one of many Dickens includes in Nicholas Nickleby to illustrate impoverished living conditions. Note the use of simile, which Dickens employs to characterize the young, low-income children:
The fowls who peck about the kennels, jerking their bodies hither and thither with a gait which none but town fowls are ever seen to adopt, and which any country cock or hen would be puzzled
to understand, are perfectly in keeping with the crazy habitations of their owners. Dingy, ill-plumed, drowsy flutterers, sent, like many of the neighbouring children, to get a livelihood in the streets, they hop from stone to stone in forlorn search of some hidden eatable in the mud, and can scarcely raise a crow among them.
In this passage, Dickens compares the poor children in Golden Square to "dingy, ill-plumed, drowsy" town chickens, sickly and unnatural. Unlike their rural counterparts, raised far away from dingy city life, these "town fowls" cannot behave normally, forced to scrape and beg for sustenance. While Dickens no doubt intends this description to garner pity, it sadly also dehumanizes the children in question.
Related Themes:
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Kate's Hope:
In Chapter 19, Kate has a discussion with Mrs. Nickleby about her future prospects. Kate wishes for an advantageous marriage to a wealthy man. Mrs. Nickleby, in large part, is responsible for these extravagant wishes, planting the seeds of hope in her daughter. The narrator remains wary about fostering Kate's hope, taking the time to warn both Kate and the reader about the perils of delusion. Dickens uses simile to achieve this:
Such is hope, Heaven’s own gift to struggling mortals; pervading, like some subtle essence, from the skies, all things, both good and bad; as universal as death, and more infectious than disease.
In the above excerpt, the narrator uses simile to contemplate the nature of hope, comparing it unexpectedly to death or disease. Indeed, according to the narrator, hope is even "more infectious than disease." Hope is dangerous, capable of subsuming the mind if one remains too fixed on a goal too far out of reach. In Dickens's characteristic didactic tone, a short conversation between mother and daughter becomes a teachable moment—not only for Kate, but for readers as well, whom Dickens takes care to include in his moral lessons writ large. Kate's circumstances become a "universal" point of instruction for all people.
Related Themes:
Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Nature, Aging, and Color:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 22, the narrator meditates on nature as Nicholas and Smike undertake an expedition out of the city, looking for work. The excerpt includes strong figurative language: most notably, a simile comparing the bright colors of daytime to youthful hopes and features.
The day wore on, and all these bright colours subsided, and assumed a quieter tint, like young hopes softened down by time, or youthful features by degrees resolving into the calm and serenity of age. But they were scarcely less beautiful in their slow decline than they had been in their prime; for nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own, and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy, that we can scarcely mark their progress.
The narrator observes that "bright colours" slowly dim into "quieter tint[s]" as the day progresses; similarly, youthful hopes and features are often dulled by the progression of time. The narrator does not view this decline as negative, taking somewhat of an anti-materialistic standpoint. One does not always have to be the best or possess the most, in other words: as the narrator states, "nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own."
Related Themes:
