LITERARY FIGURES Flashcards
- Allegory
What is It: A work that symbolizes or represents an idea or event.
Example: The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory for the Russian Revolution, with characters representing key figures in the movement.
- Alliteration
What is It: The repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in succession.
Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.
- Allusion
What is it: An indirect reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea .
Example: The song “American Pie” by Don McLean is full of allusions to events that occurred in the 1950s and 60s. For instance, “February made me shiver” is an allusion to the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly on February 3, 1959.
- Analogy
What is it: A parallel between disparate ideas, people, things, or events that is more elaborate than a metaphor or simile.
Example: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
- Anthropomorphism
What is it: The interpretation of a nonhuman animal, event, or object as embodying human qualities or characteristics.
Example: Inanimate objects such as Mrs. Potts and Lumiere are anthropomorphized in Beauty and the Beast.
- Anachronism
What is it: An intentional or unintentional error in chronology or a timeline.
Example:
Brutus: “Peace! Count the clock.”
Cassius: “The clock has stricken three.”
—William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 1
Mechanical clocks did not exist in 44 A.D., when the play takes place, so this the inclusion of the clock here is an anachronism.
- Colloquialism
What is it: An informal piece of dialogue or turn of phrase used in everyday conversation.
Example: Contractions such as “ain’t” are colloquialisms that are used in everyday conversation or dialogue to make the speaker and speech sound more authentic.
- Diction
What is it: The word choice and speaking style of a writer or character.
Example: Diction is involved in almost every piece of writing because it is a vehicle for conveying the tone of the work. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck speaks in a distinctive way characterized by his lack of education and outsider status. This is his diction.
- Elegy
What is it: A poem expressing grief over a death.
Example: O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman is an elegy for Abraham Lincoln.
- Epiphany
What is it: A moment of sudden realization by a character.
Example: In the movie Clueless, Cher has an epiphany that she is in love with her stepbrother, Josh.
- Euphemism
What is it: A less provocative or milder term used in place of a more explicit or unpleasant one.
Example: “I have to let you go” is a euphemistic expression for firing someone.
- Foreshadowing
What is it: Hinting at future or subsequent events to come to build tension in a narrative.
Example: In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the witches portend evil, chanting, “Something wicked this way comes.”
- Hyperbole
What is it: A statement that is obviously and intentionally exaggerated.
Example: “I have a million things to do” is a hyperbolic statement, since no individual actually has one million items on her to-do list.
- Idiom
What is it: A figure of speech that is indecipherable based on the words alone.
Example: “Don’t cut any corners” is an idiom; on its surface, it doesn’t make sense but is a known phrase that means don’t take shortcuts.
- Imagery
What is it: A compilation of sensory details that enable the reader to visualize the event.
Example: “Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.” —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
In this passage, Melville uses vivid imagery such as the “yawning gulf” and “sullen white surf” to capture the scene.
- Irony
What is it: An instance of language conveying the opposite of its literal meaning:
Verbal irony: speech that conveys the opposite of its literal meaning
Situational irony: An event that occurs that is the opposite of what is expected
Dramatic irony: Usually applied to theater or literature, an instance in which the audience knows something the characters involved do not
- Irony
Examples:
Verbal Irony: “That’s nice” as a response to an insulting statement is an instance of verbal irony.
Situational irony: In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’s parents abandon him to prevent the prophecy of him killing his father and marrying his mother from coming true. The abandonment itself leads him to fulfill the prophecy.
Dramatic irony: In Psycho, the audience knows a killer approaching, but Marion does not.
- Juxtaposition
What is it: Ideas, people, images, ideas, or object placed next to one another to highlight their differences.
Example:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Here, Dickens juxtaposes multiple circumstances, uses opposites for emphasis.
- Malapropism
What is it: An incorrect word intentionally or unintentionally used in place of a similar-sounding one, sometimes used for humorous effect.
Example:
“Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.”
—William Shakespeare, Much Ado Without Nothing, Act 3, scene 5
The malapropisms, in this case, are the misuse of “comprehended” in place of “apprehended” and “auspicious” instead of “suspicious.”
- Metaphor
What is it: A comparison of two ideas, events, objects, or people that does not use “like” or “as.”
An extended metaphor is a lengthy metaphor that continues the comparison for several sentences, paragraphs, or even pages.
Example:
“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief.”
—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
- Mood
What is it: The general feeling the speaker evokes in the reader through the atmosphere, descriptions, and other features.
Example:
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”
—Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven
Poe evokes an air of mystery in the opening lines of his poem, setting a dark mood.
- Onomatopoeia
What is it: A word the is closely associated or identical to the sound it describes.
Example: Buzz
- Oxymoron
What is it: A pairing of seemingly contradictory terms used to convey emphasis or tension.
Example:
“A fine mess”: this is an oxymoronic characterization because “fine” is typically associated with beauty and order, while “mess” is the opposite. I
- Paradox
What is it: An apparent contradiction that, upon further unraveling, may contain truth, used for effect on the reader.
Example:
Hamlet: “I must be cruel to be kind.”
—William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4
In this instance, Hamlet must, in fact, act in a seemingly cruel way in order to ultimately be kind.