Sound (Simile)
Nina cannot bear to listen to her father trying to dissuade her from leaving, thinking of how his voice is “like a fatiguing dying tune droned on a beggar’s organ” (72). This simile effectively conveys how she associates him with death, especially as she blames him for destroying Gordon’s chance at sexual happiness with her before he died. She wants life, vitality, sex, reproduction, and her father can only offer “words arising from a tomb of a soul in puffs of ashes” (72).
Gutter (Metaphor)
Darrell is contemptuous of Nina’s sexual behavior, and tells Marsden, “A few more [men] and she’ll dive for the gutter just to get the security that comes from knowing she’s touched bottom and there's no farther to go!” (87). This metaphor of someone diving into the gutter depicts Nina as someone whose behavior makes them so low, so base, so groveling that there is eventually going to be nowhere else to go.
Mummy (Simile)
Nina admits that she was flirting with Darrell in the first part of their friendship, intrigued by his scientific coldness. She laughs that he did kiss her—“But once he kissed me—in a moment of carnal weakness! I was as startled as if a mummy had done it!” (92)—but that both of them found it lacking in any sort of sensuality or warmth. This, of course, is ironic given their later relationship, but it testifies to the type of man Darrell thinks he wants to be.
Thoughts (Metaphor)
Marsden cannot help the thoughts that pour into his mind and will not leave him alone. He uses this metaphor to explain how irritating they are: “Round and round…thoughts…damn pests!...mosquitos of the soul…whine, sting, suck one’s blood…” (101).
Guinea Pigs (Simile)
Nina is trying to justify taking a lover in order to have a child by him, as she believes Sam’s lineage is cursed. When she speaks with Darrell, she relies on his objectivity and says: “I need the courage of someone who can stand outside and reason it out as if Sam and I were no more than guinea pigs” (128). By comparing the people involved to guinea pigs, she is removing emotion from the equation and providing her decision with a scientific certitude.
