Similes In Pericles First Speech

Plays are often considered dull and boring to read, yet often they are enthralling and many characters within each play can be relatable and exciting. The main character in William Shakespeare’s Pericles is the Prince of Tyre, Pericles, and he accomplishes that. We accompany him through his journey of life, and sympathize with the grief, frustration, and joy he experiences. Previous to Pericles’s first speech, the play opens with Pericles having a conversation with Antiochus, the King of Antioch. He is the father of a beautiful girl, and Pericles has arrived to seek her hand in marriage. In order to win her father’s approval, he must solve a riddle the King provides. Little does Pericles know that whether he solves the riddle or not, he will be executed. The riddle unveils the dark secret the King holds: incest with his daughter. …show more content…
A strong simile found closer to the end of the speech is “Murder’s as near to lust as flame to smoke” (144). Pericles uses this relatable comparison to emphasize the severity of the sin the King and his daughter committed. Another simile is found when Pericles says “both like serpents are” (138) in which he is comparing them to serpents, alluding to Satan and sin. As found in many plays, Shakespeare uses rhyme, particularly end rhyme and some assonance, such as in “flesh” and “bed” and the ends of lines 136 and 137. Along with all this, the entirety of the sin and riddle requirement evokes Sophocles’s Oedipus, in which Oedipus kills his father (just like how Antiochus wants to kill Pericles) and sleeps with his mother (another situation involving incest). Despite its overall messy plot, Pericles has many twists and turns that keep the reader interested. Pericles goes through the worst hardships imaginable, but in the end finds happiness once again, and the reader becomes part of that. Pericles is yet another masterpiece by the amazing William

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