In Stave 1, the narrator employs a simile when he says that "Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail." This is a common expression that the narrator sort of plays with on the first page, suggesting that perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that someone is as dead as a "coffin-nail," but of course that's not how the saying goes. He uses another simile when he says that Scrooge is "Hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire [...]." He means to suggest, of course, that Scrooge is, figuratively, cold and hardened. Another simile suggests that Scrooge is "solitary as an oyster." The narrator employs a metaphor when he says that Scrooge had a "frosty rime [...] on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin." He implies that Scrooge is so cold that even his white hair makes him seem covered in a frost. The narrator uses personification when he says,
The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there.
He gives the bell human awareness and expressions as well as the attributes of teeth and a head. Later, when Scrooge's door knocker turns into his old partner, Marley's, face, the narrator describes it has having a "dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar"—another simile. Another simile describes the loud sound of the door banging shut as "resound[ing] through the house like thunder."
There are so very many examples of figurative language in this text! These are all only in the first chapter.
Keep in mind that figurative language, or figures of speech, include all similes and metaphors within the text. Dickens is known (along with Shakespeare of course) as one of the great masters of figurative language in English literature. Though A Christmas Carol is a shorter story than his others, figurative language abounds in every chapter.
In the very opening paragraph, for example, there is the simile:
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Ironically, the very next paragraph goes into the literal explanation of this figurative phrase, which emphasizes its humor and allows Dickens to get away with using a cliche, even with a modern audience.
The 6th paragraph of the first chapter is full of similes and metaphors used to describe Scrooge. Notice the ice and cold imagery. Though the sayings tend to sound old-fashioned now, all of them paint a picture of a cold-hearted and cold-natured man, whose coldness is only made chillier because the weather is physically cold during Christmas time. Here are a few examples:
he was a tight-fisted hand
Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;
solitary as an...
See This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
oyster.
The cold within him froze his old features...made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.
A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.
he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.
I see that you are a teacher. If you are studying this novel with a class, a fun activity might be to have students keep a list of similes and metaphors as they read. You could then use the list for future classes and create other activities out of it. Just an idea from one teacher to another.
Figurative language is defined as language based on some sort of comparison that is not literally true. Such figures of speech allows one thing to be compared with another thing that is entirely different and forcing us to see how the two unlike states or objects are actually similar. The most common figures of speech are similes and metaphors.
In this great Dickensian seasonal classic, therefore, much figurative language is used by the author to help describe the setting and the action. One of the first examples in the novel is a simile, because it compares two objects to each other using the word "like" or "as":
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
This figure of speech compares Old Marley to a door-nail, choosing the "deadness" of both of these objects as the point of comparison. Interestingly, Dickens himself goes on to mock this somewhat clichéd simile, asking what is dead about a doornail, but leaves us with it to describe Marley.
There are a series of similes that are used to describe Scrooge very shortly after this first simile:
Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
Note how these similes establish his secretive, hard and unyielding character through the comparison to flint and an oyster.
Hopefully this will help you to identify some more examples of figurative language in this great novel. Good luck!
What is an example of a simile in A Christmas Carol?
A simile is used in literature to compare two things using "like" or "as." These things can be quite different, but they can also be similar (a sound appearing like thunder).
In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, similes are frequently used. When Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, he visits the scene of a party he once attended as a young man. His old boss, Mr. Fezziwig, is dancing in the scene. His calves are described as appearing to emit light, so that "they shone in every part of the dance like moons." Dickens compared the light of the moon to the light that seemed to come from Mr. Fezziwig's legs.
Later in the story, Scrooge observes a scene from Bob Cratchit's house. Mrs. Cratchit asks her husband how Tiny Tim behaved in church. Bob Cratchit tells her that he was "as good as gold." Dickens compares Tiny Tim's behavior to a valuable metal to describe it as excellent.
What is an example of a simile in A Christmas Carol?
A simile is a literary device used to compare or contrast two things. When irony is also being used a simile could completely change semantic context and this is why it can be used to compare or to contrast depending on what is being said.
The simile usually uses the prepositions "like" or "as". An example of a simile would be "Your eyes are blue like the ocean.", or "You are cold as ice."
In A Christmas Carol there are several instances of smile that are also great opportunities for the characters to express their emotions, particularly in a story where the main character will undergo dynamic changes. Phrases such as:
I am as giddy as a drunken man
I am as merry as a school boy
I am as happy as an angel
Are good examples of simile where the character gets to explain the extent to which an event has made a mark in his or her life.
The use of "like" is mainly geared toward a physical comparison. In the case of the ghost of Old Marley, the chain that was attached to the ghost reminds the narrator of a tail, sort of insinuating that this apparition in front of him may or may not demon-like. To add depth to the narrative, and to add mystery and horror to the tone, the chain is described just as such
It was long and wound around him like a tail
Certainly to a reader of Dickens's time, this description would have been powerful, as it was during the Victorian period that Gothic literature flourished with the publications of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the likes. Therefore, Dickens used simile to add that "dash" of Gothic imagery that works so well to create the mood of this particular moment in the story.
What is an example of a simile in A Christmas Carol?
A simile is a comparison of two UNLIKE objects using the words "like" or "as". An example would be...... The girl is as pretty as a picture. the girl is being compared to a picture. Two unlike objects --- girl and picture are being compared.
In A Christmas Carol, the very first paragraph gives you a famous simile. It says
"Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail" (pg 5)
The narrator goes on to explain that he doesn't really know how dead a door-nail can be -- that a coffin nail might be more appropriate, but he uses for turn of phrase "dead as a door-nail"
Another simile is when Scrooge enters his home. He has seen Marley's face and is denying that fact. He slams the door shut.
"The sound resounded through the house like thunder" (pg 15)
Here you are comparing the sound of a slamming door to thunder.
When he sees Marley's ghost, he notices the chain coiled around him
"It was long and wound around him like a tail..." (pg 17)
This compares the chain to a tail.
What are some examples of a hyperbole in A Christmas Carol?
Dickens makes wonderful use of hyperbole in A Christmas Carol, at times even using very different hyperbolic statements involving similar focuses. Take for example Scrooge's hyperbole in Stave One, when Fred has come to invite his uncle to come to Christmas dinner. Scrooge has turned down the offer, and is in the process of arguing with his nephew when he says "If I could work my will . . . every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!” Here Scrooge makes his feelings on the holiday clear to his nephew by taking two of the most well-known symbols of the holiday, the Christmas pudding and holly and, via hyperbole, turning them into instruments of death and destruction.In direct contrast to Scrooge's scary Christmas is the hyperbole associated with the pudding that Mrs. Cratchit makes in Stave Three. Mrs. Cratchit is clearly very nervous about the state of the pudding, and when the time comes to bring it to the table she "left the room alone—too nervous to bear witnesses." For Mrs. Cratchit, there is a lot riding on this particular pudding. Bob, being the intuitive, wonderful husband that he is, understands this, and responds accordingly. The rest of the family follows suit:
Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.
Bob's initial hyperbole is accentuated by that of the narrator itself. One can also guess that the specific remarks made by the other members of the family were also very hyperbolic, given their love for their mother and their desire for her happiness. These two examples show Dickens using hyperbole for both accent and illumination. Through something as simple as a Christmas pudding, the author helps the reader to understand the extremes of the human condition.
What are some examples of a hyperbole in A Christmas Carol?
Dickens uses hyperbole in many of the descriptive passages in A Christmas Carol to enrich and enlarge the mental picture he is creating in the mind of his reader. Consider his initial introduction of Ebenezer Scrooge:
A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scarping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
Scrooge's first encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Present, which takes place in his own bedchamber, uses hyperbole to contrast the usual dark, dismal, dirty and aged appearance of the room with the vision that awaited Scrooge.
The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there;
The Cratchit's goose was not a large bird in comparison with many geese being consumed on that day. But the Cratchits react as if it was "the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course." The Christmas pudding, the final jewel in their Christmas dinner, is unveiled by Mrs. Cratchit as the others wait and take in the progression of aromas.
A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that! That was the pudding!