Allusion
A strong metaphor is sometimes an allusion. An allusion is only a strong metaphor if the reference is understood. Here the allusion is to dominance of multiple meanings in works by Shakespeare and his peers:
“You argue like an Elizabethan wit—two meanings under one word.”
Metaphor in Action
Similes are effective means of conveying character through a direct comparison of traits, but even more effective sometimes is metaphorical description of action that provides an outline to the person shade within:
“Miss Chilperic flitted off into the darkness like a pale moth.”
The Devil You Say
An extension of a metaphorical musing over possibilities and the devil makes for a fine connection between Satanic references. Here is an example where multiple synonyms for the same entity comes in hand in avoiding repetition.
“She would readily have contracted obligations towards the devil himself, if she could have been sure that the prince of darkness was a gentleman of Peter’s kidney. But Peter was as far beyond reach as Lucifer.”
Class Division
The potential extent of the dehumanizing aspect of the British class system is put on display in the novel and the entire concept is placed under a metaphorical microscope by one particular progressive character when she admits:
“I have never understood why the unfortunate servants should be locked up at night as though they were dangerous wild beasts, when everybody else is free to come and go at pleasure.”
Don-yun
In another ponderous moment of introspection, a unique metaphor is woven together from the idiosyncratic quotes of two different British literary giants, John Donne and John Bunyan:
“`The University is a Paradise’”—true, but—`then saw I that there was a way to hell even from the gates of Heaven.’”
