Comparison is a stylistic device based on the figurative transformation of a grammatically formalized comparison. The means of grammatical formalization of S. are: 1) comparative phrase (see), introduced by conjunctions as, as if, as if, exactly, evenly, as if, etc.: “The faded joy of crazy years is heavy for me, like a vague hangover But, like wine ,- sadness days gone by In my soul, the older, the stronger” (Pushkin); 2) comparative adjective or adverb and (less often) creative form. p. (instrumental comparison): “Under him is a stream of lighter azure” (Lermontov); 3) connecting structure, introduced by a conjunction and usually containing an expanded C: “I live sad, lonely, And I wait: will my end come? So, struck by the late cold. Like a storm the winter whistle is heard, One - on a naked branch A belated leaf trembles!..” (Pushkin).
A special place is occupied by the so-called. negative C, characteristic of works folk art and folklore stylizations: “It’s not the huntsman who trumpets the oak tree, the ripped-off head cackles, - Having cried, the young widow chops and stabs firewood” (Nekrasov).
The stylistic expressiveness of S. is determined by the nature and degree of transformation of the general linguistic semantic-stylistic basis of comparison, and both semantics and syntax can undergo transformations (separately or simultaneously): “Harun ran faster than a doe. Faster than a hare from an eagle...” (Lermontov). However, in the statements “He ran like an arrow” or “He ran like a real athlete”, no stylistic effect occurs: the imagery of the first is of a general linguistic nature (cf.: hungry like a wolf, angry like a dog, drink in one gulp), in the second there is a usual equation.
The figurative transformation is caused by: 1) a comparison of diverse (semantically distant) concepts: “At least for the sake of decency, listen to me, beautiful and nimble, to the Soul through my tongue-tiedness. Like warmth through a sheepskin coat. Feeling" (Svetlov); 2) complication or deployment of an object or means of comparison: “And over the peaks of the Caucasus the Exile of Paradise flew. Under him, Kazbek, like the facet of a diamond, shone with eternal snows...” (Lermontov). The symbolism here is of a two-degree nature: first, Kazbek in itself is compared to the facet of a diamond, and then this symbolism is complicated by the fact that Kazbek, in relation to the action attributed to him (shiel), is also compared to the edge of a diamond; 3) omission of the union: “We are, from any side, inseparable parts: I am like the biography of the country, You are its today’s happiness” (Svetlov); 4) violation of forms of syntactic correlation (influence of colloquial speech structures), which is typical for poetic texts: “How the heart contracts with trembling for the final order of the earth. Groves stood along the road and trembled like jogging” (Voznesensky).
A figurative comparison is a figure of speech that in an interesting way compares two different things. The purpose of a comparison is to create an interesting connection in the mind of the reader or listener. Comparison is one of the most common forms figurative language. Figurative similes can be found anywhere from poems to song lyrics and even in everyday conversations.
Similes and metaphors are often mixed together. The main difference between a simile and a metaphor is that a simile uses the words "as" to compare, while a metaphor simply states the comparison without using "as". An example of a comparison is: she is as innocent as an angel. Example of metaphor: She is an angel.
Comparisons in everyday language
Comparisons are used in literature to make speech more vivid and powerful. In everyday speech they can be used to convey meaning quickly and effectively, since many frequently used expressions are similes. For example, when someone says, “He is as busy as a bee,” it means that he is working hard, as bees are known to be very hardworking and busy.
Some other well-known comparisons that you often hear:
- Happy as an elephant.
- Light as a feather.
- Innocent as a lamb.
- Tall like a giraffe.
- White as a ghost.
- Sweet like sugar.
- Black as coal.
As is the case with big amount figurative language when you are talking to someone from another region or do not speak your own native language, they may not understand the meaning of many comparisons.
Comparisons add depth to your speech
Figurative comparisons can make our language more visual and pleasant. Writers often use comparisons to add depth and emphasize the point they are trying to convey to the reader or listener. Comparisons can be funny, serious, mundane or creative.
Figurative comparisons are a great tool to use in creative language. Not only do they make what you write or say more interesting, but they can often intrigue the reader. When creating your own comparisons, watch out for clichés and try to go beyond the obvious comparisons.
To make the text expressive, deep and interesting to read, authors use the following tools when writing artistic expression. Today we'll talk about what comparison is in literature.
Comparison in literary work is a means of artistic expression that helps enhance the meaning of an action, object or event.
The purpose of use is to reveal the personality of a character or event, his deepest motives. The role of comparison is determined by the author.
The main feature is the use of prepositions: as if, as, as if, exactly, similar to, exactly, as if, similarly. Comparative construction easy to spot thanks to prepositions.
Now let's define what comparison is in Russian. This is the name given to the stylistic device of likening one object to another, highlighting them general meaning. The role of comparison in the work is quite significant.
Note! Comparisons in literary text are often used to gain a deeper understanding of a character, his thoughts, character and intentions.
Literary examples
Let us give examples of comparisons from works written in verse.
“You see how calm he is! Pulse of a Dead Man” (“Cloud in Pants”, V. Mayakovsky).
“I was like a horse driven into the soap, spurred by a brave rider” (“Letter to a Woman”, S. Yesenin)
“Horse in soap” is an idiom that emphasizes the bustle and active actions a person, bringing him only stress and fatigue. IN in this case The trope is used to show the lyrical hero who lived in a crazy rhythm, on the verge of life and death.
His emotions and feelings were subjected to severe blows from the heroine to whom the poem is dedicated. In this case, the woman is a brave rider who is not afraid to kill the horse, continuing to ride it (figuratively), that is, continuing to play on the feelings of the lyrical hero.
“Because I made him drunk with tart sadness” (“I clenched my hands under a dark veil,”)
Here Akhmatova shows the degree of emotional explosion of the lyrical hero, which is indicated in the poem by the pronoun “he”. She got drunk and threw me off balance with her words. When a person is drunk, he does not control himself and can perform spontaneous actions, the same thing happened with the lyrical hero:
“How can I forget? He came out staggering...”
The heroine said something to him that served as a serious blow and forced him to leave the room “staggering”, with his mouth twisted painfully. The epithets “came out staggering” and “twisted painfully” emphasize the above.
“And the queen is over the child, Like an eagle over an eaglet” (the tale of Tsar Saltan, A.S. Pushkin)
Pushkin shows the queen's serious and reverent attitude towards her children. Eagles approach children responsibly, from choosing a partner to nesting and upbringing.
“I am moved, silently, tenderly, admiring you like a child!” (“Confession”, A.S. Pushkin)
Children are the most sincere and clean people. Their brains haven't been corrupted yet bad thoughts, unclean intentions and the search for profit. When they rejoice or admire something, they are so helplessly beautiful in their expression of feelings that it is impossible not to notice. IN this poem lyrical hero experiences such strong and pure feelings that he is compared to a child.
“And the way it speaks, It’s like a river babbling.” (fairy tale about, A.S. Pushkin)
The murmur of the river is soothing, you want to listen endlessly. Similar comparison A.S. Pushkin emphasizes beautiful and composed speech, which can be listened to.
Now let's give examples of comparisons in the literature. Let’s take for this purpose the famous novel “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
“Started a smooth, decent conversational car.”
Lev Nikolaevich clearly demonstrates what comparison is in literature - this technique in the epic novel was found on almost every second page. In this case, Anna Pavlovna Sherer is compared not with nature or animals, but with inanimate object- a talking machine.
Anna Scherer serves as a mediator between people's conversations. If you remember the novel, it was with her input that conversations, acquaintances began and circles were formed.
“His words and actions poured out of him as uniformly, necessarily and directly as a scent is released from a flower.”
This is the opinion that Pierre formed about Platon Karataev. The scent is released continuously and uncontrollably from the flower. So accurate description, show the character of Plato, who always backs up his words with actions and does not make him doubt himself. An extensive comparison was used, as suggested by the adverbs “necessary” and “directly”. The author already explains the use of the trope.
“And Natasha, opening her big mouth and becoming completely stupid, began to roar like a child, not knowing the reason and only because Sonya was crying.”
The child is associated with purity and spontaneity. They can sincerely worry and cry because others feel bad. Children take everything to heart, without dirty intentions. The trope is used to understand Natasha - she is pure, bright, her brain is not polluted by rotten thoughts and double standards, she does not seek profit, but lives as if tomorrow does not exist.
Examples from the novel Anna Karenina ().
“A man who calmly crossed the bridge, and then saw that the bridge had been dismantled and that there was an abyss there. This abyss absorbs him.”
This is how Lev Nikolaevich demonstrates Alexander, Anna’s husband, introducing a figurative character. He does not look around, he is deep in himself and refuses to understand what is happening to him, ignoring what is happening.
He feels individual for whom everything around does not exist - a walking wife, a family and the bad words of the environment, nevertheless he is drowning and he himself does not understand the depth of this abyss.
“The memory of the evil done to her husband aroused in her a feeling similar to disgust and similar to what a drowning person would experience, having torn away the person clinging to him.”
The image of Anna is compared with a figurative character who, in the name of his chance at life, rejects another drowning man. Will he be saved? – a rhetorical question. Anna appears to be selfish, but there is also something human in her - she reproaches herself for what she has done and bears full responsibility for it.
To understand why the author uses the trope, you need to read the work or part of it in its entirety, not forgetting about the author’s irony. For example, you need to understand what a telephone means when describing Anna Pavlovna Scherer. Read at least 5 pages in its entirety. If you extract only tropes from the text, then the meaning and attitude of the author are barely perceptible.
Important! How to find a trope if you don’t have time to reread the text: pay attention to the prepositions. They often provide means of artistic expression.
Useful video
Conclusion
Any character can be compared to understand his deepest motives and his personal qualities. To find this trope in a text, pay attention to prepositions and sentence placement.
In life we constantly resort to comparisons. This is what we do in a store, comparing products before making a choice. We compare the actions of people, their qualities, films, music, etc. And this is correct, because everything is learned by comparison. But what is comparison?
Meanings of the term
The term comparison is used in most different areas. In everyday life, comparison is the identification of qualities based on the principle of similarity, finding out whether objects are equal to each other, which one is better. Often “comparison” is defined as a way of identifying the unity and diversity of things. In mathematics, this is a comparison of numbers for equality and inequality (more or less). Thus, the main meaning of the word “comparison” is the process of comparing the various properties of two objects, both qualitative and quantitative.
The term “comparison” is used in psychology, sociology, and philosophy. In psychology, there are special comparison tests to identify the degree of development of mental abilities. “Comparison” in philosophy is a cognitive operation with the help of which the characteristics of processes and phenomena are revealed.
Comparison in the literature
But we perceive literary comparisons most emotionally. What is comparison in literature? This is an artistic technique (or trope) based on the comparison of the qualities of phenomena, objects or people, as well as the likening of one object (phenomenon) to another. The purpose of literary comparison is to more fully reveal the image through common features. In a comparison, both objects being compared are always mentioned, although the common feature itself may be omitted.
Types of literary comparisons
- Simple comparisons are phrases expressed using conjunctions: as if, exactly, as if, as if, directly, etc. (“Fast as a deer”).
Like a tiger, life tears the body with its claws,
And the firmament took the mind and heart in chains...
(Baba Tahir).
- Non-union - through a compound nominal predicate.
My summer robe is so thin -
Cicada wings!
- Negative - one object is opposed to another. Often used in popular expressions(“It’s not the wind that bends the branch, It’s not the oak tree that makes noise”).
- “Creative” comparisons – using a noun in instrumental case.
Joy crawls like a snail,
Grief has a mad run...
(V. Mayakovsky).
- Comparison using an adverb of manner of action (“He screamed like an animal”).
- Genitives - using a noun in genitive case(“Running like the wind,” as opposed to “Running like the wind”).
So, you have learned what a comparison is, examples of literary comparisons. But comparative turnover are widely used not only in literature, but also in scientific, colloquial speech. Without comparisons, our speech would be less figurative and vivid.
June 14, 2014We can talk endlessly about the beauty and richness of the Russian language. These arguments are just another reason to join such a conversation. So, comparisons.
What is comparison
In fact this term polysemantic. This fact is confirmed endless examples comparisons that we observe in everyday life. In colloquial speech, it is rather a likening of different objects, a statement that they are equal or similar.
In mathematics, the term “comparison” is intertwined with the similar concept of “relation.” By comparing numbers for equality or inequality, we find the difference between them.
Comparison is also the process of comparing the similarities and differences, disadvantages and advantages of several objects. As examples show, comparisons in sciences such as philosophy, psychology, sociology are a kind of cognitive operations that underlie reasoning about the similarities and differences of the objects being studied. With the help of comparisons, various characteristics of these objects or phenomena are revealed.
Comparison in the literature: definition and examples
Stylistic and literary comparisons have a slightly different meaning. These are figures of speech stylistic devices, in which some phenomena or objects are similar to others in some way common feature. The comparison method can be simple, then certain words are usually present in circulation. Among them are: “as”, “as if”, “as if”, “exactly”. But there is also an indirect method of comparison: in this case, the comparison is made using a noun in the instrumental case without a preposition. Example: “Onegin lived as an anchorite” (“Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin).
Video on the topic
Similes and metaphors
Comparisons are inextricably linked to others literary concept, metaphor - an expression used in figuratively. Actually, the basis of the metaphor is a comparison that is not directly expressed. For example, A. Blok’s line “The streams of my poems run” is a typical metaphor (the word “streams” is used in a figurative sense). But this same line is also a comparison: poems flow like streams. 
It is interesting to use metaphorical devices in the case of the so-called negative comparison. Examples of comparison can be easily found in epics. “Not two clouds converged in the sky, but two daring knights converged” - in this example of the Old Russian epic, the similarity of formidable warriors with dark terrible clouds is simultaneously emphasized, and their identity is denied, and an absolutely amazing overall picture is drawn. 
Negative comparisons, more typical of works of folk art and their folklore stylizations, play a special role in the perception artistic image. Here is a line from A. Nekrasov’s work: “It’s not the huntsman who trumpets the oak wood, it’s the wild head who cackles—after crying, the young widow chops and chops wood.” The second part of the expression (After crying...) is self-sufficient in itself and fully conveys the required meaning. But only the combination of both parts of the sentence allows you to feel all the bitterness, all the tragedy of what happened.
Means of expressive language
Comparisons help explain concepts or phenomena by comparing them with other objects - sweet like honey, sour like vinegar. But the main goal is not to emphasize characteristic properties subject. The main thing is figurative, as much as possible exact expression author's thought, because one of the most powerful means of expression is comparison. Examples from literature brilliantly illustrate its role in the formation of the image desired by the author. Here is a line of creation from M.Yu. Lermontov: “Harun ran faster than a deer, faster than a hare from an eagle.” One could simply say: “Harun ran very fast” or “Harun ran at great speed.” But, being absolutely true in their essence, such phrases would not achieve even a small degree of the effect that is inherent in Lermontov’s lines. 
Peculiarities
Paying tribute to comparisons as powerful exponents of the peculiarities of Russian speech, many researchers were amazed at the rationality of these comparisons. It would seem, what does rationality have to do with it? After all, no one demands special accuracy or literalness from comparisons! But here are dissimilar comparison examples, strings belonging to different people. “There were fire-faced elands here, like glasses of bloody wine” (N. Zabolotsky) and “Fate, you look like a market butcher, whose knife is bloody from tip to handle” (Khakani). Despite all the dissimilarity of these expressions, what distinguishes them is general feature. Both phrases tell about completely ordinary things (about red flowers, about the difficult human fate) and, written in a slightly different form, could easily be lost in any text. But the use of comparisons (“glasses of bloody wine”, “butcher’s knife”) turned out to be exactly the touch that deliberately added in simple words special expressiveness and emotionality. This is probably why in songs and romantic poems, where the emotional mood is already strong, comparisons are even less common than in realistic narratives.
Examples of comparisons in Russian
Russian language is considered one of the most difficult. And at the same time, the creations of domestic classics are recognized throughout the world as the most brilliant, original, and talented. It seems that there is an inextricable connection between these facts. The difficulty of learning a language lies in the considerable number of features, possibilities, and rules present in it. But this also opens up enormous scope for a talented writer who has managed to master cunning techniques. The Russian language is indeed very rich: it contains truly limitless possibilities, allowing you to turn ordinary word in bright visual image, make it sound in a new way, so that it remains in memory forever. Particularly disposed to this poetic works. “Our life in old age is like a worn-out robe: it’s both a shame to wear it and a pity to leave it.” This line by P. Vyazemsky is an excellent example of the use of comparisons in literary work.
About the work of A.S. Pushkin
The great poet was a recognized genius in mastering the most complex literary devices. The comparisons used in his poems and poems are striking in their unexpectedness and at the same time accuracy and precision. 
“His beaver collar is silvered with frosty dust” - this is a line from the poem “Eugene Onegin”. Only a few words, but the capital’s boulevard, covered with snow, and a young dandy heading to the ball emerge before my eyes. And then there’s the episode at the ball: “He walked in: and the cork hit the ceiling, the current flowed out from the comet.” If Pushkin had written that a footman had opened a bottle of champagne, he would not have deviated from the truth. But would this picture of extraordinary, festive, sparkling fun have emerged so clearly then?
And this is already from the poem “ Bronze Horseman": "And before the younger capital, old Moscow faded, like a porphyry-bearing widow before the new queen." Is it possible to more accurately convey the atmosphere of a certain patriarchy and even abandonment that reigned in Moscow after the city of Petra was named the capital of Russia? “Let the Finnish waves forget their ancient enmity and captivity!” - this is about how the waters of the Neva were encased in granite. Yes, probably, this could be stated without comparisons, but would the pictures drawn by the author appear so clearly before the eyes?
And more about Russian poetic creativity
Great use cases comparative images There is also plenty of it in the works of other Russian poets. Amazing comparisons in Bunin's poem "Childhood" accurately convey the atmosphere of the roast summer day, the sensations of a child enjoying the sun and aromas of the forest. The author’s sand is silk, the tree trunk is a giant, and the sun-drenched summer forest itself is sunny chambers. 
No less remarkable, although completely different examples are present in the works of other Russian wordsmiths. Comparisons in Yesenin’s poem “With Good morning! reveal to the reader a summer dawn. Golden stars are dozing instead river water- a mirror of the backwater, there are green catkins on the birch trees, silver dews are burning, and the nettles are dressed in bright mother-of-pearl. In fact, the whole poem is one great comparison. And how beautiful it is!
We can talk about comparisons in S. Yesenin’s works for a long time - they are all so bright, imaginative and at the same time different. If in the work “Good Morning” the atmosphere is light, joyful, pleasant, then when reading the poem “Black Man” there is a feeling of heaviness, even disaster (it is not for nothing that it is considered a kind of requiem by the author). And this atmosphere of hopelessness is also formed thanks to unusually accurate comparisons!
“The Black Man” is a tragically unique poem. A certain black man who appeared either in a dream or in the author’s feverish delirium. Yesenin is trying to understand what kind of vision this is. And further whole line brilliant comparisons: “Just like a grove in September, alcohol showers your brain,” “My head flaps its ears like the wings of a bird, its legs on its neck can no longer stand,” “In December in that country the snow is devilishly pure, and the snowstorms blow up cheerfully.” spinning wheels." You read these lines and see everything: the bright frosty winter, and enormous human despair. 
Conclusion
You can express your thoughts in different ways. But for some it is faded and dull phrases, or even completely incoherent babble, while for others it is luxurious, flowery paintings. Comparisons and others artistic techniques allow you to achieve figurative speech, both written and oral. And you should not neglect this wealth.