What are Metaphors
Metaphor is a figure of speech that describes the object by stating one object as another thing. The purpose is to compare the features between two so to clear or explain the idea. In literal meaning, it does not make sense, rather amusing and funny.
Example:
- He is a lion.
- She is a firework.
Metaphors help to explain the idea in a vibrant and vivacious way.
Take these famous metaphor examples:
- “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances.” William Shakespeare
- “All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.” Khalil Gibran
- “If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” Mother Teresa
- “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso
Metaphor vs. Simile
Although both simile and metaphor are used to compare between two objects and make writing vivid, interesting and lively, yet these are different in a way that metaphor states something is something else, whereas, simile explains something is like or similar to something else in a specific quality.
Different Types of Metaphor
Often, metaphor is used loosely to mean any kind of symbolism. In literature, there are many other types of metaphors too: implied, sustained, and dead metaphors.
1. Implied Metaphor
Implied metaphor is a type of metaphor where one object is not directly stated as other object, rather comparison is extracted from the characteristics denoted to the object.
Example:
- “Elise finally lured Adam into her web.” In this line, we know what Elise is being compared to a spider, but it is not expressly stated.
- Samuel brayed his refusal to leave the party peacefully. (Compares Samuel to a donkey)
- Jennifer purred over the lavish present. (Compares Jennifer to a cat)
2. Extended Metaphor
(See in Literary device)
Extended metaphor is also called sustained metaphor. The term “extended metaphor” refers to a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem. It is often comprised of more than one sentence, and sometimes consists of a full paragraph. This literary device is helpful in creating vivid imagery in the reader’s mind.
Example:
“Bobby Holloway says my imagination is a three-hundred-ring circus. Currently, I was in ring two hundred and ninety-nine, with elephants dancing and clowns cart wheeling and tigers leaping through rings of fire. The time had come to step back, leave the main tent, go buy some popcorn and a Coke, bliss out, cool down.” (Dean Koontz, Seize the Night. Bantam, 1999) Here extended metaphor is comparing writer’s imagination with the circus.
3. Dead Metaphor
Metaphors are a useful descriptive tool, but when the metaphorical meaning of a phrase has overcome the original image, it is said to have become a dead metaphor.
Dead metaphors are also known as frozen metaphors and historical metaphors.
Examples:
Groundbreaking
- While a shovel digging into the earth is literally breaking the ground, the dead metaphor is also used in a figurative sense, even if the imagery of digging into soil is no longer pictured.
Deadline
- While everyone understands this to mean when something is due, a deadline originally referred to the line around the perimeter of a prison wherein a prisoner would be shot if they went beyond it.
Time is running out
- When you say that time is running out, it means that you almost don’t have enough time to do the thing you need to do. The original metaphor referred to the sand in an hourglass, so time (as measured by the sand) would literally run out of the top bulb into the bottom.
4. Mixed Metaphor
A mixed metaphor occurs when two or more metaphors, which are inconsistent or contradictory, are combined in a way that can create confusion, humor, or unintended meaning. This typically happens when different imagery or ideas are improperly fused.
Examples:
Merges two unrelated metaphors: sharks smelling blood and taking control of a bull.
- The CEO smelled blood in the water and grabbed the bull by the horns.
A humorous blend of "It's not rocket science" and "It's not brain surgery.
- It's not rocket surgery.