“But she is really like a Tanagra statuette, and would be rather annoyed if she were told so”. (p.175),

we have a simile. “She” and “statuette” belong to heterogeneous classes of objects and Wilde has found that the beauty of Mabel Chiltern may be compared with the beauty of the ancient Tanagra statuette. Of the two concepts brought together in the Simile – one characterised (Mabel Chiltern), and the other characterising (Statuette) – the feature intensified will be more inherent in the latter than in the former. Moreover, the object characterised, is seen in quite a new and unexpected light, because the author as it were, imposes this feature on it. Thus, Simile is an imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes.

Similes forcibly set one object against another regardless of the fact that they may be completely alien to each other. And without our being aware of it the Simile gives rise to a new understanding of the object characterising as well as of the object characterised.

The properties of an object may be viewed from different angles, for example, its state, actions, manners, etc. Accordingly, Similes may be based on adjective-attributes, adverbs-modifiers, verb-predicates, etc.

e.g. “Dear Agatha and I are so much interested in

Australia. Agatha has found it on the map. What a

curious shape it is! Just like a large packing case.”

(p.42)

“She looks rather like an orchid and makes great

demands on one’s curiosity.” (p.176)

“Twenty years of romance make a woman look like a

ruin; but twenty years of marriage make her something

like a public building.” (p.108)

Similes have formal elements in their structure:

A pair of objects (for example: woman + ruin; woman + orchid; Australia + a large packing case).

Connective words such as: like, as, such as, as if, as though, seem, etc.

Here are some more examples of similes taken from Wilde’s plays.

e.g. “She looks like an “edition de luxe” of a wicked French novel,

meant specially for the English market.”(p.48)

The structure of this simile is interesting for it is sustained. This simile goes through the whole sentence. The author finds a certain resemblance of Mrs. Erlynne and an “edition de luxe” of a wicked French novel. He shows that this woman is as bright and attractive as a coloured journal.

e.g. “It is as if a hand of ice were laid upon one’s heart. It is as if

one’s heart were beating itself to death in some empty

hollow.”(p.211)

This simile is the perfect work of imagination. This is an example of a simile, which is half a metaphor. Let us analyse it. If not for the structural word “as if”, we could call it a metaphor. Indeed, if we drop the word “as if” and say: “a hand of ice is laid upon one’s heart…”, this sentence becomes a metaphor. But the word “as if” keeps apart the notions of metaphor and makes this sentence a real simile. As for the second sentence of this example, the situation is the same: if we drop the word “as if”, the sentence becomes a metaphor. In other words, this example is the action that is described by means of simile.

The semantic nature of the simile-forming elements “seem” and “as if” is such that they only remotely suggest resemblance. Quite different are the connectives “like” and “as”. They are more categorical and establish quite straightforwardly the analogy between the two objects in question.

e.g. “Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom

is gone.”(p. 296)

In this example of a simile the object characterised is seen in a quite new and unexpected meaning. This simile is also may be considered as a half metaphor. The author confers to ignorance a new sense and the qualities of an exotic fruit. That is why this simile has a metaphoric character. And all the above-mentioned formal elements make the simile of easily recognisable unit of poetic speech.

e.g. “ You are like a pink rose, cousin Cecily.”(p.311)

This is the real simile. This simile is used for purposes of expressive evaluation, emotive explanation, and highly individual description. In a simile two objects are compared on the ground of similarity of some quality. So “a pink rose” of this case allows to simultaneously foreground such features as “fresh, beautiful, fragrant, attractive”, etc.

So, we can see that simile is another interesting stylistic device used by Oscar Wilde in his plays. It shows the individual viewpoint of the author on different objects, actions, and phenomena. Everybody uses the similes in his everyday speech. But the literary similes gain especially wonderful character. They make our speech more expressive and our world more interesting.

HYPERBOLE

Frankly speaking, every person sometimes uses hyperbole and exaggeration in his speech for more expressiveness.

According to Professor Galperin I.R., another stylistic device which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object described is hyperbole. It can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature