Metaphor
is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by
mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden
similarities between two ideas. Antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are
all types of metaphor. One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor
in English literature is the "All the world's a stage" monologue from
As You Like It:
All the
world's a stage,
And all
the men and women merely players;
They have
their exits and their entrances[...]
—William
Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7
This
quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage. By
asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison
between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of
the world and the behavior of the people within it.
The
Philosophy of Rhetoric (1937) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a
metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the
subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose
attributes are borrowed. In the previous example, "the world" is
compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the
stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the
vehicle; "men and women" is the secondary tenor, and
"players" is the secondary vehicle.
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