The child – obsession (Metaphor)
Mr. Massy became obsessed with the idea of his child: “The world was all baby for him”. It was something new for him, something beautiful and terrific at the same time. He has never played with it or kissed, or tended, but he was aware of his baby, it dominated him, “it filled and at the same time emptied his mind”.
Not a mother, but a fragmentary, ignoble thing (Metaphor)
Mary was a terrible mother, she has never loved her children, because she hated their father: “She wanted to trample her flesh down, down, extinct, to live in the mind. And now there was this child”. It was like a weight on top of her, she knew that she has to love it but she couldn’t. She cared just how miserable she was and this pity for herself made her cruel, arrogant mother, who doesn’t care of her children.
The eternal presence like an iron weight on brain (Simile)
Mary hated her husband. His presence was unbearable for her, the author compares it with the “iron weight”, which “lies on her brain” – she feels it heaviness, it pushes her down, but still she can’t put it off, because it was her own choice. The iron weight will remain with her forever.
Spiritual impotency: not actual impotency, but intrinsically so (Metaphor)
For Alfred intimacy with women was nothing. Although he was a handsome man, in good shape, intelligent and self-secure, he has never thought of a woman as of the partner of his life. And the author accents that he felt “…not physically, but spiritually impotent: not actually impotent, but intrinsically so”.
Man in sorrow (Simile)
This simile represents, the greatness of Alfred’s lost – he has never loved anyone in his life, but his mother. She was the whole world for him and now she was gone. Alfred couldn’t pull himself together: “he was shocked out of activities, like a swimmer who forgets to swim”. And, like a swimmer, who has forgotten how to swim, he has forgotten how to live without his mother.
