Question

read the following excerpt from wuthering heights by emily brontë. answer the question that follows.
heathcliff stood near the entrance, in his shirt and trousers; with a candle dripping over his fingers, and his face as white as the wall behind him. the first creak of the oak startled him like an electric shock: the light leaped from his hold to a distance of some feet, and his agitation was so extreme, that he could hardly pick it up.
which figurative language device appears in the bolded text?
alliteration
metaphor
personification
simile

Explanation:

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things using the words "like" or "as". In the bolded text "The first creak of the oak startled him like an electric shock", the word "like" is used to compare the startle caused by the creak of the oak to an electric shock.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial consonant sounds in a sequence of words. There is no such repetition here. A metaphor is a direct comparison without "like" or "as". Personification is giving human qualities to non - human things. The bolded text does not fit these definitions.

Answer:

Simile