Simile - denten-courses/metaphor-media GitHub Wiki

Synthesis:

The overwhelming consensus regarding simile, from Aristotle to the twentieth century, is that it is merely a variation on metaphor, with no meaningful differences between the two. Its place in the history of rhetoric is mostly relegated to a side-note in more comprehensive discussions on metaphor, following Aristotle who stated that “the simile also is a metaphor; for there is very little difference.”

That “very little difference” is usually configured in two ways. Some critics, like Aristotle and Quintilian, focus on the semantic difference, suggesting that what separates the simile from the metaphor is the comparative preposition “as” or “like.” Others, following Erasmus, place the difference in the manner of conveying the metaphorical meaning, stating that the simile makes explicit the similarity which the metaphor only implies.

However, the assumption that simile is not meaningfully distinguished from metaphor, dominating the rhetorical approach to this trope, is sporadically challenged by more recent critics—specifically in the field of cognitive studies of metaphor. Gertrude Buck’s 1899 essay (cited below) prefigures this cognitive approach by focusing on the psychology of the rhetorical trope of metaphor. It suggests that the simile is a distinct stage in the development of language, which moves from metaphorical conception of objects (that is, calling one thing by the name of another because of an inability to recognize the two objects as distinct) to what we understand as plain (i.e. literal) statements. Simile, in this model, is an intermediary stage, where the distinctness of objects begins to emerge.

Buck’s model of language development, and the role metaphor and simile play in it, may be unfounded, but more recent work in the field of cognitive studies of metaphor suggest that she was right in claiming that mentally processing metaphor and simile are in fact two distinct cognitive functions. Several studies—some examples of which are cited here under “further reading”—have demonstrated that for readers, metaphors and similes express different types of relationships and similarities between the two parts of the comparison (the tenor and vehicle, or the source and target domains). For example, Sam Glucksberg and Catrinel Haught’s 2006 essay, “On the Relation Between Metaphor and Simile,” shows that readers’ interpretation of similes relies on specific attributes of the objects used to construct the comparison, while metaphors are interpreted based on their more abstract or relational qualities.

Therefore, while throughout most of its history metaphor theory has minimized the importance of the distinction between metaphor and simile, it seems that the presence or absence of the comparative preposition actually has significant influence on the way we mentally process these tropes.

Quotes:

the simile also is a metaphor; for there is very little difference. When the poet says of Achilles ‘he rushed on like a lion,’ it is a simile; if he says, ‘a lion, he rushed on,’ it is a metaphor; for because both are courageous, he transfers the sense and calls Achilles a lion. The simile is also useful in prose, but should be less frequently used, for there is something poetical about it. Similes must be used like metaphors, which only differ in the manner stated.

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. Translated by John Henry Freese. London: William Heinemann, 1996, 367.

The similes of the poets also have the same effect [as metaphors]; wherefore, if they are well constructed, an impression of smartness is produced. For the simile, as we have said, is a metaphor differing only by the addition of a word, wherefore it is less pleasant because it is longer; it does not say that this is that, so that the mind does not even examine this.

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. Translated by John Henry Freese. London: William Heinemann, 1996, 397.

[The simile is] the metaphor grown entirely conscious of itself, conscious of the gap between reality and figure; divided into (a) Implied simile: 'he is a lion' and (b) Stated simile: 'he is like a lion.’

Buck, Gertrude. The Metaphor: A Study in the Psychology of Rhetoric. Ann Arbor: The Inland Press, 1899, 37.

The simile is not the earlier figure, transformed into metaphor by the simple device of cutting out the connective ‘as’ or ‘like': but it is a stage later than metaphor in the process of developing a vague sensuous impression into the clear-cut judgment upon a given situation. The relation between these figures is more than merely verbal. It is a fundamental relationship of thought. Simile is a half-way house for the metaphor-process on its way to plain statement.

Buck, Gertrude. The Metaphor: A Study in the Psychology of Rhetoric. Ann Arbor: The Inland Press, 1899, 40.

A simile is a metaphor that is made explicit and specifically related to the subject.

Erasmus, Desiderius. Collected Works of Erasmus. Edited by Craig R. Thompson. Vol. 23. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978, 337.

The simile affirms that one object or act is like another; the metaphor calls one by the name of the other: that is to say, the simile expresses distinctly what the metaphor implies. Every simile can, accordingly, be condensed into a metaphor, and every metaphor can be expanded into a simile.

Hill, Adams Sherman. The Principles of Rhetoric. New York: American Book Company, 1895, 118.

The invention of similes has also provided an admirable means of illuminating our descriptions. Some of these are designed for insertion among our arguments to help our proof, while others are devised to make our picture yet more vivid.

Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Translated by H. E. Butler. Vol. III. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922, 251.

On the whole metaphor is a shorter form of simile, while there is this further difference, that in the latter we compare some object to the thing which we wish to describe, whereas in the former this object is actually substituted for the thing. It is a comparison when I say that a man did something like a lion, it is a metaphor when I say of him, He is a lion.

Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Translated by H. E. Butler. Vol. III. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922, 305.

The Simile or Comparison may be considered as differing in form only from a Metaphor; the resemblance being in that case stated, which in the Metaphor is implied.

Whately, Richard. Elements of Rhetoric. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880, 196.

Examples:

The following are examples of similes. Androtion said of Idrieus that he was like curs just unchained; for as they attack and bit, so he when loosed from his bonds was dangerous. Again, Theodamas likened Archidamus to a Euxenus ignorant of geometry, by proportion; for Euxenus ‘will be Archidamus acquainted with geometry.’ Again, Plato in the Republic compares those who strip the dead to curs, which bite stones, but do not touch those who throw them; he also says that the people is like a ship’s captain who is vigorous but quite deaf; that poets’ verses resemble those who are in the bloom of youth but lack beauty; for neither the one after they have lost their bloom, nor the others after they have been broken up, appear the same as before. Pericles said that the Samians were like children who cry while they accept the scraps. He also compared the Boeotians to holm-oaks; for just as these are beaten down by knocking against each other, so are the Boeotians by their civil strife. Demosthenes compared the people to passengers who are seasick. Democrates said that orators resembled nurses who gulp down the morsel and rub the babies lips with the spittle. Antitheses likened the skinny Cephisodotus to incense, for he also gives pleasure by wasting away.

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. Translated by John Henry Freese. London: William Heinemann, 1996, 367-8.

There may be two species [of simile]: (a) That simile in which the connection between the two objects is recognized by the writer only as a resemblance, the particular point of resemblance not being specified. ‘That face, like a silver wedge 'Mid the yellow wealth,’ [Robert Browning, ‘Gold Hair’] is an illustration. (b) That simile in which the resemblance between the two objects is limited to a particular quality or characteristic com- mon to both. This species may be illustrated by Keats's 'jellies soother than the creamy curd’ and ‘upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone’ [John Keats, ‘Eve of St. Agnes,’].

Buck, Gertrude. The Metaphor: A Study in the Psychology of Rhetoric. Ann Arbor: The Inland Press, 1899, 40.

'His whole face was suffused with rage just as iron glows in the fire' is a simile. It is a simile when Cicero compares the tides of a narrow sea-strait with the uncertainty of elections.

Erasmus, Desiderius. Collected Works of Erasmus. Edited by Craig R. Thompson. Vol. 23. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978, 337.

Some similes can be invented, like comparing the mind of the inconstant man, thinking first of one thing then another, to a reflecting globe hung up in a busy market place, and mirroring a constant succession of different figures as the crowd moves to and fro, or to a glass which appears to take on any colour you put beneath it, or to an iron pendulum oscillating to and fro without stopping under the influence of a positive and a negative magnet, or to a ball rolling about on a flat surface.

Erasmus, Desiderius. Collected Works of Erasmus. Edited by Craig R. Thompson. Vol. 23. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978, 644.

The following are good examples [of similes used for vividness]: ‘thence like fierce wolves beneath the clouds of night,’ or ‘Like the bird that flies / Around the shore and the fish-haunted reef, / Skimming the deep.’

Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Translated by H. E. Butler. Vol. III. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922, 251.

The following type may be regarded as commonplace and useful only as helping to create an impression of sincerity: ‘as the soil is improved and rendered more fertile by culture, so is the mind by education,’ or ‘as physicians amputate mortified limbs, so must we lop away foul and dangerous criminals, even though they be bound to us by ties of blood.’ Far finer is the following from Cicero’s defense of Archias: ‘rocks and deserts reply to the voice of man, savage beasts are oft-times tamed by the power of music and stay their onslaught.’

Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Translated by H. E. Butler. Vol. III. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922, 253.

Works Cited:

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. Translated by John Henry Freese, William Heinemann, 1996.

Buck, Gertrude. The Metaphor: A Study in the Psychology of Rhetoric. The Inland Press, 1899.

Erasmus, Desiderius. Collected Works of Erasmus. Edited by Craig R. Thompson, vol. 23, University of Toronto Press, 1978.

Hill, Adams Sherman. The Principles of Rhetoric. American Book Company, 1895.

Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Translated by H. E. Butler, Vol. III, Harvard University Press, 1922.