Man hands – links of iron (Simile)
This thought comes into Mary’s mind when Mr. Hemming is holding her wrists in his hands. Just a minute ago, she told him that she doesn’t want to be a young lady who just sits and waits for something, that she wants to be herself and to work out her own destiny, and all of that kind. But then he said that he has feelings for her and everything has changed. Now she thinks that she can bear waiting and uncertainties of woman’s life. Her nature doesn’t want it, but she can’t resist: “Something held her against her will”. It was Vincent, her lover, a man, who was just her friend a minute ago. And now he is holding her hands in his, felt like links of iron, like shackles. “In that one supreme moment, Mary Erle tasted for the first time, in all its intensity, the helplessness of woman, the inborn feeling of subjection to a stronger will, inherited through generations of submissive feminine intelligences”.
The eternal question of sex (Metaphor)
Mary knows that it doesn’t matter how hard she would work she would never achieve more than a man. This is the man’s world and even modern women have nothing to do with that. She will be always treated like a person whose priorities are to get married and have children. Otherwise you will be treated like a miserable person who didn’t achieve anything in life. Because only man should be the head, and woman is ought to love and support him. She is not allowed to do crazy stuff like men, that is why Mary refuses to run away with Vincent – he is a man he can allow it, but she is the woman who has a particular reputation and she should value it. The question of sex is decisive here.
The girl with dead woman inside (Metaphor)
When Mary is waiting for Vincent, she sees in the park a girl, who is also waiting for somebody, but this girl looks ugly: “Her hair was untidy; in her hat was dirty pink bow; her dark stuff gown was frayed at the edge”. She didn’t care about her appearance anymore, Mary realizes than the woman inside this poor creature was dead. Her lover won’t come and she knows that, her heart is broken and she will never be happy again. She can’t be herself anymore; she lost the interest for life, because life without love is nothing. Here the appearance of this girl metaphorically reveals Mary’s inner state, her soul.
