SAT II Literature : Figurative Language: Prose
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Example Question #41 : Figurative Language
Passage adapted from Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
I thought I must be dreaming, for the three women threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. I seemed somehow to know their faces, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they should kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down; lest some day it should meet my wife's eyes and cause her pain, but it is the truth [. . . ]. I lay in the bed with an agony of delightful anticipation. One advanced and bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet, but with a bitter underlying the sweet, a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood. It was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal.
What is the effect of the underlined and bolded simile?
It connects the beauty of the women to valuable precious stones, implying that their beauty is not pure or natural, but purchased through some vulgar means
It describes the beauty of the women solely in terms of color, implying that the narrator is an artist at heart
It connects the beauty of the women to valuable precious stones, implying that the narrator dreams of becoming rich
It connects the beauty of the women to valuable precious stones, implying that the narrator wishes to pay to be beautiful as well
It likens the beauty of the women to pearls, implying that these mysterious women have come from the ocean
It connects the beauty of the women to valuable precious stones, implying that their beauty is not pure or natural, but purchased through some vulgar means
These women deliberately cause the narrator to think impure, "wicked" thoughts, which go against his values as a married man. He does not admire their beauty, but is enthralled by it - they put him under a spell, into a dreamlike state. Their actions and appearances are vulgar, and so is false, purchased beauty.
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