Sorrow-ella
The backstory of Cinderella is not nearly as well-known as the main narrative. But think about how awful that story must be. To be reduced by virtue of an unwise marriage on her father’s part to the circumstances of being looked upon with superiority by such inferior creatures as her step-family. Surely, such a backstory would produce something noticeable in the eyes:
"There's a sorrow deep in your eyes. It's rarely gone."
Her hand flew to her face, as if she could actually touch that sorrow, as if it were solid, something that could be massaged away.
Contemplative Metaphor
The more contemplative one becomes, the greater the tendency to move from the literal to the metaphorical. As thoughts begin to run deep, the simplistic language of mere surface description begin to fail and before one knows it—not everyone, of course, but those with a desire to raise above the rabble—one’s thought overflow with figurative language:
“He wasn’t certain how this woman had come to mean so much to him. It seemed that one day she was a stranger, and the next she was as indispensable as air. And yet it hadn’t happened in a blinding flash. It had been a slow, sneaky process, quietly coloring his emotions until he realized that without her, his life lacked all meaning.”
He wants Her
Sexuality is also fertile ground for metaphor. Not because it has to be, anyway, of course. Today, if a writer resorts to metaphor during a sex scene, it is a choice, not an imposition. Still works just as well as when it was a necessity, however:
“Her only response was a soft mewling sound that came from deep in her throat. For some reason that was like oil on the fire within him, and his fingers clutched at her even tighter, pressing into her skin, as his lips traveled down the swanlike column of her throat.”
Don’t be Afraid of the Dark
Interestingly, the author is one of the few writers of the age who seems almost to purposely reject the opportunity to use “darkness” metaphorically. Although it is a metaphorical term that pervades fiction more than a century, it is noticeably skimpy in the Bridgerton series. Not that the dark is entirely avoided within the metaphorical realm:
“The words hung in the air, heavy and dark.”
Not Nice, but True
Benedict is exposed to any number of single young women who pose absolutely no interest for him, either romantically or platonically. It is part of the downside to the upside of being a desirable bachelor. Especially when one is yoked to a mother who don’t stop bugging him to dance with these disappointing examples of the womanhood:
“Benedict fought a groan. Prudence Featherington, while essentially a nice person, had a brain the size of a pea and a laugh so grating he’d seen grown men flee with their hands over their ears.”
