“the world in which money is virtue and poverty is crime”
This metaphorical world may well be considered the central driving theme of the novel. The protagonist—Gordon Comstock—put himself at odds with such a world, yet is inevitably controlled by it. His determination of a world that operate on principles economics defines character ultimately becomes a sort of self-defeating adoption of a predetermined fate.
“Most copywriters, they say, are novelists manqués”
A rough and rather cruel metaphor here reveals perhaps the frustrations of an author even a world-renowned today as the author of 1984. It helps, of course, to know exactly what a “Manqué” is in order to fully grasp the meaning of the metaphorical language. The narrator is suggesting that most copywriters are only writing copy as a result of being a failure at writing—or selling—novels.
“Gordon, you are a miserable creature.”
Gordon’s perspective toward money and virtue and poverty and crime that self-determines his fate is very much an act of willful masochism. Witness the assertive metaphorical description made to his face by none other than Rosemary, the girl with whom one might say he is in love. Though others might more accurately term it a love/hate relationship. Rosemary is not being hateful with this description; however. There is an element of the literal in her figurative account of a man she has just assessed as pale, down at the heels and in neglect of his physical appearance. The true meaning of miserable creature goes much deeper than appearance, of course.
“A dejected, round-shouldered, lower-class woman, looking like a draggled duck nosing among garbage”
Gordon gets off relatively unscathed compared to this robustly assembled simile describing a certain lending-library customer named Mrs. Weaver. Draggled, by the way, is a word that describes someone who look as though they have just been caught in a terrible rainstorm. Which, not coincidentally, Mrs. Weaver was shortly before entering the library and getting this metaphorical treatment by the narrator. Leaving, it seems, the appearance of a duck as the real centerpiece of this comparison.
“The aspidistra is the tree of life, he thought suddenly.”
It may certainly be fair to say the entire novel leads to this metaphorical epiphany. And why not? It is almost—very close, indeed—to being the last line of the story. As for what the metaphor is implying, however, one really must read everything that comes before and leads to it. To give it away without context would severely reduce its significance.
