Roderick Hudson on Roderick Hudson
Very early on in the novel—the second chapter, to be precise—Roderick goes off on a tangent about an argument with his mother that occupies an entire paragraph which itself takes up about half a page. Near the end of that paragraph, Roderick engages the power of simile to provide some self-reflective insight into his personality:
“It’s rather a hard fate, to live like a saint and to pass for a sinner!”
Christina Light
Rowland Mallett is bewitched by Christina Light, impressed with her charm that is a singular type he does not associated with most American women. Roderick sums up this ineffable quality for him:
“Ah, she has an atmosphere.”
Constancy...Sweet Constancy
The character trait of constancy plays a surprisingly significant role in the story. A high price is placed on acquisition and maintenance of this attribute which leads to one of the most aesthetically constructed uses of metaphor in the novel:
“constancy is the flower of devotion, reciprocity is the guarantee of constancy”
Roderick Hudson on Roderick Hudson, Part II
Toward the middle of the novel, Roderick again launches into a long tangent; one that takes twice the amount of words as the tangent mentioned above. This one also leads directly a simile only this time around Roderick reveals the elevation of intellect and culture to which he has been exposed since that argument with his mother. Of course, he remains as lugubrious self-involved as ever.
“My mind is like a dead calm in the tropics, and my imagination as motionless as the phantom ship in the Ancient Mariner!”
Foolish Mortals
The novel ends on a metaphorical note as Rowland recalls how Cecilia invariably describes him as the “most restless of mortals” to which he always responds that, in truth, he is actually the most patient of mortals.
