Love metaphor
Robert describes how he falls in love with Celia: "Love has entered me like a disease, so stealthily I have not seen its approach nor heard its footsteps." He describes it as being like a “disease”, which is significant in several ways. Firstly, it represents the danger of falling in love with Celia, as she is the King’s mistress. Additionally, it also connects to the general imagery of disease in the text, including the plague outbreak in London.
River simile
Robert describes how his actions ultimately cause his own downfall using a simile: "as if my words had become a liquid and I immersed in them, like a drowning man in a rushing river.” His own actions become the thing that harms him, which is described here with a simile about him drowning in a river of his own actions.
Blood simile
Pearce says to his patients that Christ is within them "as surely as if he were the very blood that moves in a circle out from your heart and to it again." Here Pearce is trying to reassure his patients and give them hope by suggesting that Christ is close to them. He uses a simile to suggest that Christ is within them in the same way that blood is.
Corruption metaphor
In this text, The Great Plague is used as a metaphor for societal corruption. While the poor are ill and starving, the rich prosper. The monarchy is shown to be corrupted in this text, as the King holds extreme wealth and uses it only to further his own interests.
