Metaphors in “The Story of an Hour” and “Do not go gentle into that goodnight”

Metaphors in “The Story of an Hour” and “Do not go gentle into that goodnight”

Introduction

Metaphors are those literary figures of speech which describes the subject of the story. These figures of speech are written in a way which disguised the comparisons between two dissimilar things that must have something in common. Use of metaphor in poetry is said to be one of the most important feature of the poetic style which should be mastered. Metaphors are also described as a part of speech in which something is referred to something else to which it looks like such as a vicious person can be referred to the tiger. Silent stone would be a description of a person who is uncommunicative. Here stone is a figure which is used to describe the severe silence of a person. In this way it is said that metaphors are used in poetry in order to elucidate and explain feelings, emotions and relationships along with other elements whose descriptions in ordinary language is not possible. Metaphors are also used by poets to explain something in a short but effective way.

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. It is a story of 60 minutes in which the central character Mrs. Louise Mallard faced a great transition of feelings. Her grievance, joy and then her death, all of the incidents occurred during an hour in which she got to know about the death of her husband but soon realized that he was alive. The “breath of rain” is a metaphor which encircles the story and it has contributed to create a meaning in the story. “Do not go gentle into that goodnight” is a poem written by Dylan Thomas in lyrical format. In this poem the thoughts and experiences of death are expressed by the author. Though the title does not discloses that the poem is about rising above the death or fighting against it to live but the text discloses this fact and good night is also the metaphor which explains and enfolds the story of the poem. In this poem the poet urges his father to prefer death over life.

Discussion

The story of an hour

At the start of the story Mrs. Mallard was demonstrated as a weak lady as she had a heart trouble. Due to her fragility she was under care of her sister Josephine. Her initial illustrations show that she was an elderly woman who has lost her interest in life. Her character changed the pace when she got the news of her husband's death. Unlike many other women who generally react in surprise upon the death of their husbands, Mrs. Mallard wept hard and left for her room alone. There she felt a fresh “breath of rain” filling the air. Despite of feeling shattered with her husband's death, a new sense of freedom rushed to her. A sense of youth and ...