Thackeray's Selected Shorter Writings Metaphors and Similes

Thackeray's Selected Shorter Writings Metaphors and Similes

Hawk - “Our Street”

Thackeray affirms: “in a word, I know that you, you hawk-beaked, keen-eyed, sleepless, indefatigable old Mrs. Cammysole, have read all my papers for these fifteen years.” The metaphoric ‘hawk-beak’ exemplifies Mrs. Cammysole’s inborn intrusive instinct that cannot be smoothly forfended. Her resolve is as hard-hitting as a hawk mincing its hapless prey unremittingly until it is dilapidated.

Braggadocio - “On Being Found Out”

According to Thackeray: “That certainty of being found out must haunt and depress many a bold braggadocio spirit. Let us say it is a clergyman, who can pump copious floods of tears out of his own eyes and those of his audience. He thinks to himself, "I am but a poor swindling, chattering rogue. My bills are unpaid. I have jilted several women whom I have promised to marry. I don't know whether I believe what I preach, and I know I have stolen the very sermon over which I have been sniveling. Have they found me out?" says he, as his head drops down on the cushion.” The allegorical ‘braggadocio spirit’ personifies the egotism which inevitably perishes when a two-faced party is alert that his/ her mendacities have been unknotted. “Being found out” noticeably outdoes seeming effects by distressing an individual’s accustomed pose.

Update this section!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.

Update this section

After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.

Cite this page