| Metaphor | comparison of two unlike things not using “like” or “as” |
| Simile | comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as” |
| Hyperbole | an exaggeration |
| Personification | giving human qualities to non-human things |
| “Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slowThis old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,” | Theseus is communicating how he can’t wait to marry Hyppolyta, but it’s taking so long for it to be their wedding day. |
| “What say you, Hermia? Be advised fair maid:To you your father should be as a god;” | Theseus is communicating how Hermia should view her father and why she needs to obey him. |
| “One that composed your beauties, yea, and oneTo whom you are but as a form in waxBy him imprinted and within his powerTo leave the figure or disfigure it.” | Theseus is communicating how much control Egeus should have over Hermia. |
| “How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?How chance the roses there do fade so fast?” | Lysander is communicating that he can see that Hermia is upset. |
| “Who will not change a raven for a dove?” | Lysander is using a metaphor to explain that Hermia now disgusts him and he now finds Helena much prettier. |
| “You see an ass-head of your own, do you?” | This is a pun! Bottom is calling Snout an idiot, but what he does not realize is that he’s the one who literally has changed into a donkey. |
| “Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful” | This is an example of how dramatic irony can create humor. This line is funny because while it’s true, it’s not true in the same way that Titania means it. |
| “Tie up my love’s tongue” | Titania wants Bottom to be quiet because he sounds like a donkey. |
| “Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty” | Demetrius is communicating that Hermia is hurting him because she does not love him. |
| “O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell.” | Hermia is communicating that she used to really love living in Athens, but now that she’s being forced to marry Demetrius, she hates it. |
| Who is going to win the NCAA Championship? | Carolina, of course! |
Figurative Language in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
July 2, 2019