19th March 2018 — Levi
Metaphor / Personification
“That my keen knife see not the wound it makes”
This is a personification because it is saying that the knife is “keen” but a knife doesn’t have any feelings meaning it can not be “keen” and to be keen is a human characteristic making this a personification.
For “keen knife see not the wound it makes” We would usually say it is the person that it harming the other not the knife. Also a knife is not able to see anyway so it would never be able to see the wounds it makes.
This is factually accurate – now the job is to explore why Shakespeare used this metaphor. What additional meaning does it convey that makes it useful to developing our understanding?