Metaphor: Childish Happiness
Osvald lost his father and he always tries to find out some new things about him. As far as he knows, his father “was brimming over with the joy of life”—but this is a lie. Osvald’s mother carefully hides the truth about her husband from Osvald in order to bring him up as a person not disappointed in his father, thereby saving him from pain and anger. This literal act of deception can be viewed as a metaphor for parents' desire to maintain their children's innocence-derived happiness.
Simile: Life's Burdens
Pastor Manders says to Helene, "You've recklessly and irresponsibly tossed aside every inconvenience in your life, like some package you could just put down at will" (85). This simile reveals Manders's judgmental attitude and callous disregard for Helene's own feelings and motivations. He suggests that she is reckless and does not care about her duties, comparing her behavior towards her husband to the way one would toss a worthless package aside.
Metaphor: Abyss
Manders tells Helene, "Do you remember how, after being married barely a year, you came to the outer edge of the abyss?" (84) and "Your entire marriage—all those years of life with your husband—were nothing more than wallpaper over an abyss!" (87.) Manders uses the metaphor of the abyss to suggest the extent of Helene's misery and how close she was to falling into the darkness of sin. He then suggests that, though she pretended like she fixed herself and her marriage, in reality she only "wallpapered" over the hole in her soul, allowing it to easily open up again.
