Few words, much action (metaphor)
“A rope should be long but a speech short”.
Hadji Murad told these words to Bata, who had promised to lead Murad’s man to the Russian Commander. Bata, though a very responsible and reliable man, inclines to self-praise, and Hadji Murad does not like this. Metaphorically speaking, he says that when it comes to words there must be but few; when it comes to action – there is no limit, and the more the better.
Sparks in the eyes (metaphor)
Sado’s daughter is depicted as a strong and determined girl, and the introduction of her to the story starts with the description of her appearance: “her eyes, as sloe-black as those of her father and brother, sparkled brightly in her young face which tried to be stern.” Her appearance in the story is just occasional, but her character says for most of the Caucasian women.
Nature appearance (metaphor&simile)
The story is filled with metaphors and similes of beautiful nature, which service as a background to the events.
“The stars are beginning to go out”
“All was silent again, except for the wind that swayed the branches, now revealing and now hiding the stars”
“It was still winter, but towars noon the sun had risen high enough and was powerful enough to make the men quite hot, and its rays were so bright that it was painful to look at the shining steel of the bayonets or at the reflections – like little suns – on the brass of the cannons”
Metaphorical imitation
The work of a flail is imitated through the metaphor: “The son silently took a flail and they began threshing with four flails. “Trak, tapatam…trak, tapatam…trak..’ came down the old man’s heavy flail after the three others.” This kind of a metaphor is called onomatopoeia.
Khan (Simile)
Hadji Murat was telling the Russians the story of his life, and stopped on one of his previous Khans, whose body’s, he said, “was as strong as a bull’s and he was as brave as a lion, but his soul was weak as water”. The simile shows that social position does not always benefits, because if a person does not possess a stern character, he is destined to fail. That is what had happened to the Khan – he was killed.
