Demeter Figurative Language

At first glance The Seven Ages of Man and Demeter seem to be nothing alike. The first being a monologue talking about man and the second being a story about a greek god looking for her daughter; but if one were to look closer both are closer than one would think. Taking a closer look one can see that both deal with the theme of change and acceptance, with The Seven Ages of Man’s author, William Shakespeare, representing this using figurative language specifically on one person. In the myth of Demeter the author, Edith Hamilton, uses figurative language as well for one to fully understand the world and how it changed in the story. While both are different in content the message these two pieces of text offer are the same. Both works are explaining to the reader that change will happen no matter what, sometimes happening in cycles. In Shakespeare’s The Seven Ages of Man he mainly focuses on the change that is bound to happen in a person. Shakespeare describes life as seven stages “ At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms; And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school” (Shakespeare 5-9). He then lists the other stages of change being lover, soldier, justice,
Both use imagery to make their pieces of text more descriptive and understandable. “At first an infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms… last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history”(Shakespeare 5,6,25,26). Shakespeare uses imagery to allow the reader to understand the stages of a young child to an old person. “Nothing grew; no seed sprang up; in vain the oxen drew the plowshare through the furrows”(Hamilton 67-68), in this quote from Demeter one can see that Hamilton uses imagery to change the surroundings depending on Demeter’s mood as it changes over the course of the story, eventually becoming a