"She erected in her mind a mighty Staircase, with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom; and down those stairs, from day to day and hour to hour, she saw Louisa coming."
— Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Bradbury & Evans
Date
1854
Metaphor
"She erected in her mind a mighty Staircase, with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom; and down those stairs, from day to day and hour to hour, she saw Louisa coming."
Metaphor in Context
Now, Mrs. Sparsit was not a poetical woman; but she took an idea, in the nature of an allegorical fancy, into her head. Much watching of Louisa, and much consequent observation of her impenetrable demeanor, which keenly whetted and sharpened Mrs. Sparsit's edge, must have given her as it were a lift, in the way of inspiration. She erected in her mind a mighty Staircase, with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom; and down those stairs, from day to day and hour to hour, she saw Louisa coming.
(p. 151)
(p. 151)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times ed. George Ford and Sylvère Monod (New York: Norton, 1990). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
04/18/2011
