The New Dress

A simile is a figure of speech that describes something by comparing it to something different, typically by using “like” or “as.” A metaphor substitutes one term with another term for something superficially different to render the meaning of the first term more vivid. Woolf uses both similes and metaphors to develop her central symbol of the fly. She introduces the fly with a simile: “We are all like flies trying to crawl over the edge of the saucer, Mabel thought” (Paragraph 5). And Mabel repeats the simile later when talking to Robert Haydon: “I feel like some dowdy, decrepit, horribly dingy old fly” (Paragraph 6). In other passages, however, the narrator uses the word “fly” as a metaphor for Mabel. When Charles Burt fails to give Mabel the kind of compliment she hoped for, the narrator says, “The poor fly was absolutely shoved into the middle of the saucer” (Paragraph 13).

Imagery is the use of visually descriptive language, and Woolf’s “The New Dress” features abundant imagery that builds a