What is a Metaphor?
Find out what a metaphor is, how writers use metaphors and how you can analyse them in any English exam, whether you’re studying AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1, or preparing for Edexcel A Level English Language. We also include some of literature’s finest examples of metaphors, with our own expert analysis.
Contents
What is a metaphor?
A metaphor is a figure of speech that directly compares one thing to another unrelated thing. It is an example of figurative language, which can help a writer attribute additional or non-literal meaning to the person or thing being described. Unlike a simile — which compares things together using the words “like” or “as” — metaphors make a direct comparison, which can add immediacy to the description. Consider the following example:
"Anita worked so fast; sometimes, she really was a machine."
Anita is being described as a machine, but she isn’t really a non-human mechanical apparatus that is used to perform a task (the literal meaning of machine)! Instead, by using a metaphor, the writer has conveyed the figurative meaning that Anita shares some of the qualities of a machine: that she is dedicated, not easily distracted and is able to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently.
Etymology of the word metaphor
The word “metaphor” originates from the Ancient Greek words μετά (metá, "across") and φέρω (phérō, "I carry, bring"). So, the word “metaphor” means “to carry across or beyond”, and so is a metaphor itself!
Why do writers use metaphors?
A metaphor is a type of language device that is used to describe someone or something. Writers use metaphors to enrich their description or to create a particular effect. They are frequently used in poetry or other fiction to enable a writer to add meaning to their description, or to help create vivid imagery in a piece of writing. This can help a reader get a better sense of the thematic or emotional quality of whatever is being described: its essence. Consider the following example:
“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” — Act 2, Scene 2, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
In these lines, Shakespeare employs a metaphor and has Romeo directly describe Juliet as the “sun”. This allows Shakespeare to describe more than just Juliet’s outward human characteristics (the colour of her hair, for example, or other physical descriptions of her). The metaphor gives us a much clearer understanding of how Romeo views Juliet: to him, she is not just brilliant, but someone who has given him warmth and light when he was previously in a dark emotional state. But there are further connotations too: getting too close to the “sun” — here, a girl from a rival family — could be dangerous, even fatal, foreshadowing the play’s tragic ending.
The joy in analysing metaphors is that they can communicate many meanings, and be interpreted in many ways: an ostensibly simple metaphor can convey some very complex ideas!
Extended metaphor
The extended metaphor can be brilliant to analyse or use in your own creative writing.
An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is developed across a whole section of text: perhaps a whole paragraph or even a whole play or novel.
In Romeo’s Act 2, Scene 2 speech, he describes Juliet as the “sun”. However, Shakespeare extends this metaphor throughout the rest of Romeo’s speech, imploring Juliet to “arise” so that he can see her, and imploring the sun to “kill the envious moon”, suggesting that Juliet’s beauty surpasses all other women, even celestial bodies.
The extended metaphor allows Shakespeare to emphasise and repeatedly highlight Romeo’s instant devotion and love for Juliet.
Types of metaphor
Other types of metaphor include:
Type of metaphor | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
Implied metaphor | A type of metaphor that compares two things without explicitly identifying one of them | “The captain barked out his commands.” (the captain is indirectly being compared to a dog) |
Visual metaphors | Using a visual image to represent a person or thing symbolically | When an image in art, film, or advertising represents something (like a lightbulb representing a new idea) |
Mixed metaphors | Using two metaphors at once and muddling them up | “To be, or not to be, that is the question:// Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer// The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,// Or to take arms against a sea of troubles// And by opposing end them.” — Hamlet, William Shakespeare (mixes metaphors of war and the sea) |
Dead metaphors | A figure of speech that has lost its original meaning | “Hold your horses.” |
While it is interesting to know what each of these terms means, you won’t need to know them when sitting your exams.
Examples of metaphors and how to analyse them
Like analysis of other language techniques, it is always important to comment on the effects of the metaphors you find in your texts, not simply to spot them. Comment on the additional meaning a writer is trying to convey when they use the metaphor: can you interpret those deeper layers of meaning and their connotations?
Metaphor | Analysis |
|---|---|
“Macbeth does murder sleep!” — Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth, William Shakespeare | This quotation from Macbeth comes immediately after Macbeth has killed King Duncan. Shakespeare has Macbeth suggest that he has “murdered sleep”: that his conscience will stop him from sleeping after committing the murder. This is the surface meaning. However, this metaphor has further connotations:
|
“Friend of fatherless! Fountain of happiness!” Chapter 8, Animal Farm, George Orwell | In a poem called ‘Comrade Napoleon’ by a fawning pig called Minimus, the ruthless leader Napoleon is described as a “fountain of happiness”. Throughout the novel, Orwell uses examples of euphemism in his characters’ propaganda: here, the metaphor disguises Napoleon’s true nature and presents him as an eternal source of joy, when in fact he is a violent autocrat ruling by fear. |
Further reading
For study guides on how to analyse metaphors in literary texts, and how best to include metaphors in your own creative writing, check out our comprehensive revision notes below. All our notes are course-specific, so everything you’ll need to ace your exams is in one neat place!
GCSE English Literature revision notes
GCSE English Language revision notes
IGCSE English Literature revision notes
IGCSE English Language revision notes
A Level English Literature revision notes
For a comprehensive glossary covering all the best literary techniques you could ever need (including alliteration, assonance, hyperbole, juxtaposition, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, pathetic fallacy, personification and more than a hundred more), check out our list of Top literary devices, complete with student-friendly definitions and examples.
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Written by Nick Redgrove
English Senior Content Creator 14 articlesNick is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. He started his career in journalism and publishing, working as an editor on a political magazine and a number of books, before training as an English teacher. After nearly 10 years working in London schools, where he held leadership positions in English departments and within a Sixth Form, he moved on to become an examiner and education consultant. With more than a decade of experience as a tutor, Nick specialises in English, but has also taught Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
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