A Midsummer Night’s Dream Metaphors and Similes Quotes

Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
Henceforth be never number’d among men!
O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!
Durst thou have look’d upon him being awake,
And hast thou kill’d him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. A distraught Hermia asks Demetrius if he killed Lysander, because she woke up in the woods and Lysander was not by her side. She uses a series of animal metaphors to compare Demetrius to a dog, adder and serpent.

There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here therefore for a while I will remain.
So sorrow’s heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:
Which now in some slight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Demetrius is feeling sleepy and sorrowful after his unsuccessful pursuit of the "fierce" Hermia, so he decides to call it a day. He lies down and takes a nap. He uses a money metaphor to compare his lack of sleep to a money deficit, saying that he will pay down his sleep deficit – "his tender" – by resting here a while.

O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,
Fann’d with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
When thou hold’st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. After Puck drops the love potion into Demetrius’ eyes, he wakes up, sees Helena and immediately falls in love with her. Demetrius uses metaphorical language to describe Helena’s beauty and compare her to a goddess and her lips to tempting cherries. This is a sharp change from his former dislike and disgust of Helena. She is really confused at this stage, as Lysander just before this told her that Demetrius didn’t like her: "he loves not you."

Lysander, keep thy Hermia. I will none.
If e’er I loved her, all that love is gone.
My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourned,
And now to Helen is it home returned,
There to remain.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Demetrius, after his enchantment by the fairies and under the influence of Puck’s magic, declares his love for Helena – once again! He first loved Helena. Then he loved Hermia and couldn’t stand the sight of Helena. Now he suddenly discovers that it was Helena all along. Demetrius, thy name is fickleness. This passage uses a metaphor to describe how Demetrius’ heart visited Hermia while on a small journey, but now it had returned home to Helena and would remain there.

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds
Had been incorporate.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Helena asserts the close connection between her and Hermia, starting from the time they grew up together. She uses a simile to compare the two close friends to two gods embroidering a flower together on the same sampler.

LYSANDER: Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! Vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.
HERMIA: Why are you grown so rude? What change is this,
Sweet love?
LYSANDER: Thy love? Out, tawny Tartar, out!
Out, loathèd med’cine! O. hated potion, hence!

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Lysander uses a series of metaphors to insult Hermia, calling her cat, a burr, a Tartar and disgusting medicine. He compares her to a serpent, using a simile. Referring to Hermia as "loathèd med’cine" and "hated potion" is ironic, seeing as Lysander is the one drugged by Oberon’s love juice. A confused Hermia cannot understand the transformation in her "sweet love" and why he is now so mean to her.

"Puppet!" why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urg’d her height,
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail’d with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak!
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. The war of the insults by metaphor continues between Hermia and Helena, as Hermia responds to Helena’s "puppet" jibe. She thinks Helena is making fun of her short height. In the escalating quarrel between the two, she uses an uncomplimentary metaphor as she labels the taller Helena a "painted beanpole." Relations between the childhood friends have hit an all-time low.

But we are spirits of another sort.
I with the Morning’s love have oft made sport
And, like a forester, the groves may tread
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Oberon tells Puck that the fairies are not like the damned spirits, who are cursed to remain forever in darkness and must avoid daylight. He and the fairies are free to wander the forest day and night, he points out, and uses a simile to compare himself to a forester.

On the ground
Sleep sound:
I’ll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye:
And the country proverb known,
That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Oberon gives Puck a flower to reverse the enchantment on Lysander, which has caused confusion and conflict. When the four star-crossed lovers are asleep, Puck squeezes the juice from the flower into Lysander’s eyes, so that he will awaken to love his former lady Hermia. Meanwhile he leaves Demetrius permanently under the love spell so that he remains in love with Helena. Puck is intent on fixing things and reversing his mischief. He says that he is resetting things to their natural state, where each "Jack" will have his "Jill." There is a touch of gender inequality when Puck uses a bawdy animal metaphor to compare a male lover’s woman to his "mare." This suggests that she is her lover’s property.

Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms…
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist. The female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Titania is completely besotted with Bottom, urging him to sleep next to her. Here she speaks about the “female ivy” climbing the elm tree – this image is a metaphorical representation of a couple’s relationship as the woman wraps herself around a man.

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go.
Dispatch, I say, and find the Forester. [A Servant exits]
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top
And mark the musical confusion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. On the morning of their wedding Theseus and Hippolyta are in the woods with a hunting party. The Duke wants Hippolyta to join him on the mountain summit to watch his hounds in action in the valley below. Obviously proud of his hunting animals, Theseus uses a metaphor to compare their howling to "music."

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Hippolyta shares an interest in hunting with Theseus. Here she reminisces about her hunting days before she met Theseus. She recalls being on a hunt with Hercules and Cadmus and hearing the hounds of Sparta cornering a bear. She metaphorically compares their howling to "musical discord" and "sweet thunder." We are also reminded here of Hippolyta’s regal status as Queen of the Amazons.

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew’d, so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-kneed, and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tunable
Was never holloed to.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Theseus brags about his marvelous hunting hounds to Hippolyta. He gives a very vivid description of the animals, using various figures of speech. A metaphor tells us that their flopping ears hang so long that they brush the morning dew from the grass. Similes compare them in appearance to bulls from Thessaly and their barks to bells with different notes but perfectly in tune.

My love to Hermia,
Melted as the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaud
Which in my childhood I did dote upon.
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I saw Hermia,
But like a sickness did I loathe this food,
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Demetrius professes his complete affection for Helena, declaring that she is his one true love. He analyzes his brief crush on Hermia as a momentary lapse of his normal taste. Using a simile, he says that his infatuation for Hermia is "melted as the snow." He uses a metaphor to compare it to "an idle gaud" or cheap trinket that he used to love as a child. Employing a food metaphor he describes the changing tastes of love. Engaged to Helena before he ever saw Hermia, he was like a sick man who could not stand "this food." But now being healthy again, his normal taste had returned, and all he wanted was Helena.

These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Morning has arrived and the fairy charms have worn off for the four Athenian lovers. Standing alone in the morning light, they begin to consider what has happened to them. Demetrius is confused and doesn’t know if everything is real or not. Using a simile, he compares what happened to distant mountains touching the sky, you can’t tell what is mountain and what is cloud.

"Merry" and "tragical"? "Tedious" and "brief"?
That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow!
How shall we find the concord of this discord?

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Theseus reads a list of plays that the amateur players are ready to perform. Last on the list and the one he chooses is the love story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Theseus’ obvious puzzlement and amusement are foreshadowing of how ridiculous and foolish the play will be. He employs a series of oxymorons and metaphors to describe its contradictions.

THESEUS: This fellow does not stand upon points.
LYSANDER: He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt. He knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Theseus and Lysander comment on Quince’s dreadful Prologue speech. Theseus says that he doesn’t adhere to proper punctuation. Lysander uses a simile to compare Quince’s performance to riding a wild colt, he didn’t know how to stop. It’s not enough to speak, but you need to speak correctly, Lysander says.

THESEUS: A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
DEMETRIUS: The very best at a beast, my lord, that e’er I saw.
LYSANDER: This lion is a very fox for his valour.
THESEUS: True, and a goose for his discretion.
DEMETRIUS: Not so, my lord, for his valour cannot carry his discretion, and the fox carries the goose.
THESEUS: His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour, for the goose carries not the fox; it is well. Leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. After Snug tells the women that he is not a real lion and doesn’t want to frighten them, there is a bit of banter and wordplay from members of the audience. Using metaphors they compliment him on being "fox for his valour" and "goose for his discretion." These are sarcastic references to fables, where the fox is crafty and not valorous, and the goose silly and not discreet.

Asleep, my love?
What, dead, my dove?
O Pyramus, arise!
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Dead? Dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
These lily lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowslip cheeks
Are gone, are gone!…
His eyes were green as leeks…
With hands as pale as milk.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Flute, playing Thisbe, laments Pyramus’ death in a very comical style, first asking if he is asleep or dead. Then using a series of metaphors he gives us a humorous description of the dead Pyramus. He tells us of his “lily lips,” “cherry nose” and “cowslip cheeks.” However, his facial colors are mismatched, the lips should be cherry-colored, while cowslip yellow cheeks are a sign of someone who is diseased. He also uses a number of ill-chosen similes – “eyes were green as leeks” and “hands as pale as milk.”

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend,
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long,
Else the Puck a liar call.
So, goodnight unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Puck asks forgiveness from the audience if the fairies, including himself, have offended any of the audience with their mischievous behavior and meddling in the world of mortals. He uses the metaphor of a hissing snake to represent the audience expressing frustration. If they don’t like what they have seen, he suggests that they think of it as a dream, a vision that occurred while they slept. In this final speech of the play, Puck is alone on stage and addressing the audience directly. He asks for their forgiveness and their applause.
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