6 types of METAPHORS with EXAMPLES in literary texts
The metaphor It is one of the most used figures of speech in the Spanish language. It is characterized by uniting two descriptions at the same level, only one is real and the other is fictional. This resource is commonly used in literature, but also in common language.
Knowing the metaphors will not only help you to understand their meaning, but also to be able to create them and write them in your texts. In this lesson from a PROFESSOR we want to show you the different types of metaphors that exist, so you can get to know this literary resource more deeply.
As we have mentioned before, the metaphor is a Figure of speech that we use in both written and oral language. It is used to give a sentence a different meaning than it would have if we read it literally. metaphors have a aesthetic purpose, but they also serve to make the interlocutor laugh.
Metaphor example: The time is gold.
It is clear that time is not something material that we can touch, nor that it is golden in color and we can see it. What this metaphor is referring to is that the time we spend doing each thing is very valuable and we should take advantage of it.
The types of metaphors that we can find are the following.
It is also called simple metaphor. When we read it we can easily identify which is the real term and which is the unreal.
For example: Your eyes are two stars.
On this occasion, the real prayer is linked to the unreal by means of a preposition. Usually, it is usually the word "of".
For example: You have honey lips.
When we speak of a pure metaphor it is that in the sentence only the term unreal appears, which comes to replace the real one. That is, the real image that the author wants the reader to understand is hidden under the guise of an unreal image.
For example: The twilight of his life had come.
The appositional is another type of metaphor. This type of metaphor is characterized in that the real term and the unreal term are not separated by no link, but there is usually a comma between them and the reader must imagine what is the word that unites them.
For example: The row, an extensive human river.
Negative metaphors are characterized by having a adverb of negation in its composition.
For example: It's not hell, it's the street (Federico G. Lorca)
Describes the confusion of sensations perceived by different bodily senses. The human senses acquire capacities that are impossible, such as a flavor acquiring a color tone.
we leave you with some examples of metaphors so that you can see the theory that we have explained to you, put into practice:
Now that you know all the types of metaphors that exist and have seen some examples, it is time to put everything in practice through this exercise.
Find the hidden metaphors in this snippet of Don Quijote of La Mancha:
we leave you with solution of the previous exercise of metaphors. We have marked in bold the metaphors present in the text of Don Quijote of La Mancha, so that you can compare it with the answers you had given:
"I will not be able to say whether or not my sweet enemy likes the world to know that I serve her. I only know how to say, responding to what is asked of me with so much restraint, that her name isDulcinea; her homeland, El Toboso, a place in La Mancha; its quality must be at leastshe princess, because she is queen and my lady; her beauty, her superhuman, because in her they come to dotrue all the impossible and chimerical attributes of beauty that poets give to their ladies:that her hair is gold, her forehead elysian fields, his eyebrows arches from the sky, the eyes of her soles, their pink cheeks, her coral lips, pearls her teeth, alabaster her neck, marble your chest, ivory her hands, its white snow, and the parts that from human sight concealed honesty are such, according to what I think and understand, that only discreet consideration can make them more expensive, and not compare them."
Now you know What are the types of metaphors? If you are interested in continuing to learn more about this topic, consult our section on literary concepts.
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