This article studies the issue of decoding extended metaphors. The research is performed based on the novel The Collector by John Fowles, which contains a globally extended metaphor: from the title until the end. The emphasis is put on coherence as the ability of the reader to find correspondences between the concepts of the metaphor. This research reveals the problems that appear while decoding local metaphors, how they influence decoding the global one and how the global metaphorical nodes crystallise in the novel.