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1. What kind of figurative language does Elizabeth George use in the first two chapters of "A Great Deliverance", and what purpose does figurative language serve in the novel?

Elizabeth George uses figurative language like similes and metaphors in the first two chapters of "A Great Deliverance". She uses a simile, for example, to describe the old woman on the train with Father Hart as "like a creaking Salome with rather more than seven veils". She uses a metaphor to describe Inspector Lynley's face as "a Greek sculpture" and a simile to describe his movements as "like a cat's". She also uses metaphors to describe Deborah Allcourt-St. James as "a Titian creation come to life" and to describe Simon Allcourt-St. James as "Hephaestus to Lynley's Apollo". The purpose figurative language serves in the novel is to enrich the characterization. George's similes and metaphors show how attractive Sergeant Barbara Havers finds Lynley and his friends. Havers' references to Greek mythology in her figurative language also reveals that Havers thinks the aristocracy have a godlike beauty and power that she and her working-class family will never experience

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