Metaphors are figures of speech that compare things without using “like” or “as”. They can be extended, like in Hamlet, where the protagonist compares himself to a recorder. Extended metaphors can also include definitions, like in Norman Cousins’ example of a library.
A metaphor is a figure of speech or a trope. Figures of speech are divided into tropes, which use language in a way that goes beyond the literal sense, and patterns, which use language literally, but employ particular devices that have proven effective.
Although metaphors are similar to similes in that they are both figures of comparison, a simile is a comparison that is explicitly stated using a word such as like or as, a metaphor is a comparison that literally states that a thing is a other and requires the reader or listener to perceive that this is not a statement of fact, but is to be interpreted figuratively. So while a simile might say “O, my love is like a red, red rose,” a metaphor would say “O, my love is a red, red rose” – to misquote Robert Burns – and let that be the reader to train.
A second difference between metaphor and simile is that the former can be played out in more detail, in which case it is called an extended metaphor. A famous example is the scene in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet (Act III, scene 2) which is discussed in terms of music, specifically, recorder playing technique, with Hamlet saying:
“You would play with me; it would seem to know my stops; would you tear out the heart of my mystery; would you play me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there’s a lot of music, excellent voice, in this barrel organ, yet you can’t make it talk. ‘Sblood, do you think I’m easier to play than a pipe? Call me which instrument you want, even if you can make me nervous, you can’t play on me”.
Here, Hamlet accuses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of trying to get information about him, deceive and manipulate him, and ends up assuring them that this is not the case. In doing so, he continually talks about himself as if he were a recorder and they were musicians, but he still suggests something to both his listeners and the audience.
Sometimes an extended metaphor is less mysterious and includes a definition of all matches to help the audience understand what is meant, as in this example from Norman Cousins:
“The library is not a sanctuary for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where one’s devotion to the bound book is expressed in rituals. A library, to modify Socrates’ famous metaphor, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life».
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