What is a Comparison?
Comparison Definition
A comparison is a consideration of the similarities or differences between two things. Comparisons can be made between people, places, ideas, or other entities. Making a comparison can highlight how two things are alike or unalike, creating meaningful and/or innovative perspectives for the reader.
Use of Comparison in Literature
Writers use comparisons for description and imagery to enhance a reader’s understanding and/or enjoyment of the material. Many literary devices utilize this form of figurative language, such as:
Poetry is often constructed by using comparison, such as “She walks in beauty, like the night.”
Examples of Comparison in Literature
In the following comparison examples, we will try to analyze literary devices used to show comparisons.
Metaphor
A metaphor makes a hidden comparison between two things or objects that are dissimilar to each other, but have some characteristics common between them. Unlike simile, we do not use “like” or “as” to develop a comparison in a metaphor. Consider the following examples:
Example #1: When I Have Fears (By John Keats)
These lines are from When I Have Fears, by John Keats.
“Before high-pil’d books, in charact’ry
Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain,”
John Keats compares writing poetry with reaping and sowing, and both these acts stand for the insignificance of a life and dissatisfied creativity.
Example #2: As You Like It (By William Shakespeare)
This line is from As You Like It, by William Shakespeare.
“All the world’s a stage and men and women merely players…”
Shakespeare uses a metaphor of a stage to describe the world, and compares men and women living in the world with players (actors).
Simile
A simile is an open comparison between two things or objects to show similarities between them. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of words “like” or “as.”
Example #3: Lolita (By Vladimir Nabokov)
This line is from the short story Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.
“Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of Pisa.”
In this line, Vladimir Nabokov compares old women leaning on their sticks to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Here the comparison made between two contrasting things creates a hilarious effect.
Analogy
An analogy aims at explaining an unfamiliar idea or thing, by comparing it to something that is familiar.
Example #4: The Noiseless Patient Spider (By Walt Whitman)
These lines are from Walt Whitman’s poem The Noiseless Patient Spider“:
“And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.”
Walt Whitman uses an analogy to show similarity between a spider spinning a web and his soul.
Example #5: Night Clouds (By Amy Lowell)
These lines are from Night Clouds, written by Amy Lowell:
“The white mares of the moon rush along the sky
Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens.”
Amy constructs an analogy between clouds and mares. She compares the movement of the white clouds in the sky at night with the movement of white mares on the ground.
Allegory
An allegory uses symbols to compare persons or things, to represent abstract ideas or events. The comparison in allegory is implicit.
Example #6: Animal Farm (By George Orwell)
Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is an allegory that compares animals on a farm to the Communist Revolution in Russia before WW II. The actions of the animals on the farm can be compared with the greed and corruption after the revolution. The animals on the farm represent different sections of Russian society after the revolution.
For instance, “Pigs” can be compared to those who became the authority after the revolution;”Mr. Jones,” the owner of the farm, is likened to the overthrown Tsar Nicholas II; and “Boxer,” the horse, stands for the laborer class.
Example #7: Faerie Queen (By Edmund Spenser)
Faerie Queen is an allegory by Edmund Spenser, in which the good characters of the book can be compared to the various virtues, while the bad characters can be compared to vices. For example, “The Red-Cross Knight” represents Holiness, and “Lady Una” Truth, Wisdom, and Goodness. Her parents symbolize the Human Race, and the “Dragon,” which has imprisoned them, stands for Evil.
Function of Comparison
The above examples of comparison help us realize that, in general, writers utilize different kinds of comparison to link an unfamiliar or a new idea to common and familiar objects. It helps readers to comprehend a new idea, which may have been difficult for them to understand otherwise. The understanding of a new idea turns out to be simpler when viewed with a comparison to something that is familiar to them.
In addition, by making use of various literary tools for comparison, writers increase their chances of catching the attention and interest of their readers, as comparisons help them identify what they are reading to their lives.