Simile and Personification in Fiction: Study Guide (English Literature 7.6)

What figurative comparison does

Writers use comparison to make a reader see something new. A plain statement says that a voice is loud. A comparison can say that it is “like a cart on a gravel drive”, and in that picture are repetition, grinding and a lack of arrival. The comparison chooses what to emphasise and what to leave out.

The course puts it carefully: the function of a simile relies on the selection of the objects being compared as well as the traits of the objects. In other words, the effect is not in “like” but in the pair and in the particular trait that links them.

Analysing a simile

A simile compares two unlike things, usually with “like” or “as”. Analyse it in five steps.

Step	Question	Example: “the red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer”
1. Parts	What is described, and what is it compared to?	The sun, compared to a wafer
2. Trait	Which quality links them?	Thinness, flatness, redness, being stuck on
3. Connotations	What else does the comparison bring in?	A small, mass-produced, bland object; something pressed or stuck
4. Attitude	What tone or feeling results?	A diminished, unimpressive sun; a detached, ironic view
5. Function	What does it do in this passage?	Presents the world as if emptied of grandeur, so that the scene is chilling and strange

Pay attention to what the comparison leaves out. A “wafer” is not hot or bright, and that absence is part of the effect.

Personification: two directions

Personification works across the boundary between the human and the non-human. Two directions are worth knowing.

Direction	What happens	Typical effect
Things or ideas given human qualities	“The house sulked”, “the fog crept”	Gives the thing a mood or will; shapes atmosphere and the character’s relation to it
People described with the qualities of non-human things	A man “loaded to the muzzle with facts”; children as “little vessels”	Communicates an attitude about that person: dehumanising, mocking, admiring, pitying

The course’s own wording for this skill stresses the second kind: assigning the qualities of a nonhuman object, entity or idea to a person or character lets the narrator, character or speaker communicate an attitude about that person or character. Both directions rest on the same question: what attitude does the writer reveal by crossing the line?

Public-domain examples to learn from

The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane, 1895). “The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer.” The simile reduces the sun to a flat, mass-produced object. In a battle scene the diminished sun suggests a world stripped of grandeur and glory, and the detached tone shapes how the reader sees the war.

Hard Times (Charles Dickens, 1854). In the description of Coketown, the steam-engine’s piston “worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness”. The simile gives a machine the sadness of an animal, and the surprising pairing of “melancholy” with “madness” suggests a human cost in the industrial town. In the schoolroom scene, Mr Gradgrind is described as “a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts”, and the children as “little vessels” ready to be filled. These comparisons give a person the qualities of a weapon and children the qualities of containers, which communicates the narrator’s attitude to a system that treats minds as things.

Worked example 1: analysing similes

Original passage written by Marlbridge for practice.

Mr Fenn’s voice, when he began his sermon, was like a cart on a gravel drive: steady, loud, and always about to arrive. The congregation sat as stones sit in a field, each aware of the others only as a weight.

Task. Explain how the similes work and what attitude they convey.

First simile: the voice and the cart on a gravel drive.

• Parts: the voice compared to a cart.
• Trait: steady, noisy, repetitive, grinding, moving forwards.
• Connotations: gravel suggests crunching monotony; a cart is slow and heavy.
• Twist: “always about to arrive” shows that the cart never reaches its destination, which implies that the sermon never reaches its point.
• Attitude: gently satirical and weary.

Second simile: the congregation as stones in a field.

• Parts: the people compared to stones.
• Trait: inert, heavy, passive, scattered.
• Connotations: stones do not respond; they are present “only as a weight”.
• Attitude: the narrator regards the congregation as unreceptive and isolated from one another.

Function. Together, the similes show a service that is loud and lifeless: a speaker who makes noise without progress, and listeners who offer only mass. The narrator’s amusement turns on the specific traits chosen, the monotony of the cart and the inertness of the stones.

A model sentence. “By comparing Mr Fenn’s voice to a cart on gravel that is ‘always about to arrive’ and his congregation to stones aware of each other ‘only as a weight’, the narrator reduces the service to noise without movement and conveys a weary, satirical view of both preacher and flock.”

Worked example 2: personification in both directions

Original passage written by Marlbridge for practice.

The house sulked behind its hedge and refused to notice the rain. Mrs Quill, who had been a handsome clock in her day, ticked down the passage with her hands folded, at a quarter to six.

Task. Identify the personification and explain the attitudes conveyed.

Things given human qualities. “The house sulked … and refused to notice the rain” gives the house a mood and a stubborn will. The effect is to suggest an atmosphere of resentful isolation and a faint comedy, since a house that “refused to notice” weather is behaving like a stubborn person. The attitude to the house is wry affection mixed with gloom.

A person given non-human qualities. Mrs Quill “had been a handsome clock in her day” and “ticked down the passage”. The narrator assigns the qualities of a clock to her: regularity, mechanical precision and a life measured by the hour, since even her passage is timed “at a quarter to six”. The effect is to present her as ordered, punctual and perhaps rigid, and to suggest a lost beauty (“a handsome clock in her day”). The attitude is affectionate mockery, tinged with sympathy for a person ruled by routine.

Function. The two examples work together: a sulking house and a ticking woman suggest a household where objects have moods and people have mechanisms, a setting that is stuffy, regulated and slightly absurd.

A model sentence. “By letting the house sulk like a person while Mrs Quill ticks down the passage like a clock, the narrator inverts the usual order of the household, and so conveys an affectionate but ironic view of a world governed by routine.”

Weak and strong comments side by side

Weak	Why it is weak	Strong
“The simile paints a picture of the sun.”	Vague; names no trait or effect	“Comparing the sun to a pasted wafer makes it flat, small and manufactured, so the scene loses its grandeur.”
“The house is personified.”	Names a technique only	“By letting the house ‘refuse’ to notice the rain, the narrator gives it a stubborn will and sets a wry, gloomy mood.”
“The narrator compares the clerk to a stamp, which shows he is a clerk.”	Restates the obvious and misses the attitude	“Describing the clerk as a rubber stamp reduces him to repetition and impersonality, which conveys the narrator’s weary contempt for routine.”

Extended comparisons and related tools

A comparison does not have to be a single phrase. A writer may sustain a figure over several sentences, such as a town described as a machine that rattles, steams and consumes. When you meet an extended comparison, ask how each added detail extends the chosen trait. The same questions also work for metaphor, which says one thing is another without “like” or “as”. Metaphor, simile and personification often appear together, and a good analysis treats them as one system of choices that shapes tone.

Common misconceptions

• “A simile is decoration.” It selects and emphasises traits, and so shapes tone and attitude.
• “Naming the simile is analysis.” Say what is compared, what trait links the two and what effect results.
• “Personification is only for things.” People can be described with the qualities of objects, animals or machines, and that is a way of expressing an attitude about them.
• “All similes are positive.” Many are ironic, mocking or unsettling.
• “Every comparison needs an elaborate meaning.” Keep the claim proportionate to the evidence: name the main trait and the attitude.

Where this leads

Figurative language is one kind of evidence for an argument. Topic 7.7 returns to writing a thesis and commentary, with more advanced moves. Test yourself with the Topic 7.6 practice questions, review with the revision notes and track your progress with the checklist.