Literary Devices Practice

Define the Literary Devices; find examples from the text. Make it your continually upgraded
document. Always USE IT.

Literary device Definition Example 1 Example 2

An allegory is a story that is used to George Orwell's book -
Allegory represent a more general message about
real-life issues and events Animal Farm

Peter Piper picked a peck

of pickled peppers." In this
Alliteration is a series of words or
tongue twister, the "p"
Alliteration phrases that all start with the same
sound is repeated at the
sound.
beginning of all major
words.
A famous example of
Anaphora is when a word or phrase is
anaphora is Winston
Anaphora repeated at the beginning of multiple
Churchill's "We Shall Fight
sentences through a text.
on the Beaches" speech
Anastrophe is a figure of speech in which
Edgar Allen Poe - The
the normal word order of the subject, the The novel-1984, by George
Raven.
Anastrophe verb, and the object is changed. For
"Deep into that darkness,
Orwell. "In the face of pain
example, sentence - "I like strawberries" there are no heroes."
peering,
might be changed to "strawberries I like".
An antithesis is a rhetorical and literary device
Love is an ideal thing, “Folks who have no vices
with parallel grammar structure but which
Antithesis establishes a nearly complete or exact
marriage a real thing.” – have very few virtues.” –
opposition in ideas or characters. Goethe. Abraham Lincoln.
In "Romeo and Juliet", Juliet
An aphorism is a short statement or catch uses the aphorism - “That 'In three words I can sum up
Aphorism phrase containing a well-known or general which we call a rose / by everything I've learned about
truth or opinion expressed in a short any other name would smell life: It goes on.''
manner. as sweet.”

As a literary device, apostrophe refers to a
speech or address to a person who is not
Apostrophe present or to a personified object, such as
Yorick's skull in Hamlet.
The original pattern or model from which
all things of the same kind are copied or
Archetype on which they are based; a model or first
form; prototype.
Asyndeton is a literary device that
Asyndeton excludes conjunctions (and, or, but, for,
nor, so, yet) to add emphasis.
"O Romeo, Romeo, “Death, be not proud, though
wherefore art thou Romeo?" some have called thee
Juliet believes she is alone Mighty and dreadful, for thou
and addresses Romeo, art not so;” from "Death, be
not proud" by John Donne
thinking that he is absent.
couldn't find any -
"The Scholar-Gipsy" By
Matthew Arnold - Go,
shepherd, and untie the
wattled cotes!
"Othello" By William
No longer leave thy wistful
Shakespeare - “Call up her
flock unfed,
father.
Nor let thy bawling fellows
Rouse him. Make after him,
rack their throats,
Poison his delight,
Nor the cropp’d herbage
Proclaim him in the streets.
shoot another head…
Incense her kinsmen,
Thou hast not lived, why
And, though he in a fertile
should’st thou perish, so?
climate dwell…”
Thou hadst one aim, one
business, one desire;
Else wert thou long since
numbered with the dead…”

"Northanger Abbey" By
Jane Austen - In this novel,
Austen highlights the
ingenuous and imaginative
nature of the leading
character, Catherine
Morland. She uses
Catherine’s increasingly
active imagination to work
Bathos is the act of a writer making like bathos in order to
absurd metaphors, descriptions, or ideas parody the plot used in Ann
trying to be increasingly emotional or Radcliffe’s Gothic novels,
Bathos passionate. and the likes of her.
The prodigal son’s father
calls for a fatted calf to be
killed for the welcoming
feast as his son was
returning after squandering
his fortune. Killing the fatted
calf is now used as an
The Bible is another frequently referenced expression for sparing no
source for writers utilizing allusion as a expense on a celebration or
Biblical Allusion literary device. celebrate exuberantly.
"Gulliver’s Travels" By
Jonathan Swift - “And being
no stranger to the art of war,
I have him a description of
cannons, culverins,
muskets, carabines, pistols,
bullets, powder, swords,
bayonets, battles, sieges,
In literature, Cacophony means to use retreats, attacks,
words with sharp, harsh, hissing, and undermines, countermines,
unmelodious sounds – to achieve desired bombardments, sea-
Cacophony results. fights…”
"The Mary Tyler Moore
Show" - had an episode that
involved the death of the
clown Chuckles, who was
killed very brutally by a
stampeding elephant.
Everyone on the station
keeps making jokes about it
that Mary does not approve
of. Later on, when she
attends the funeral, she
starts laughing hysterically
while the rest of the people
stare at her exasperated.
Judas was paid thirty pieces
of silver for betraying Jesus.
Judas was well known for
his weakness for money, so
he was tempted to accept
the offer. Payment for any
treacherous act is now
referred to thirty pieces of
silver, or blood money.
"Rime to the Ancient
Mariner" By Samuel Taylor
Coleridge - “With throats
unslaked, with black lips
baked,
Agape they heard me call.”

"The Winter Tales" by
William Shakespeare - It is
for you we speak, || not for
ourselves:
You are abused || and by
some putter-on
“Caesura,” is a rhythmical pause in a That will be damn’d for’t; ||
poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in would I knew the villain,
the middle of a line, or sometimes at the I would land-damn him. ||
beginning and the end. At times, it occurs Be she honour-flaw’d,
with punctuation; at other times it does I have three daughters; ||
Caesura not. the eldest is eleven
Originally, the term was used as a "Macbeth" by William
metaphor in Poetics by Aristotle, to Shakespeare - William
explain the impact of tragedy on the Shakespeare wrote two
audiences. famous examples of
catharsis. One of these
catharsis examples is his
tragic drama Macbeth. The
audience and readers of
Macbeth usually pity the
tragic central figure of the
play because he was
blinded by his destructive
preoccupation with
Catharsis ambition.
"Othello" by William
Shakespeare - “But O, what
Chiasmus is a rhetorical device in which damned minutes tells he o’
two or more clauses are balanced against er
each other by the reversal of their Who dotes, yet doubts;
structures in order to produce an artistic suspects, yet strongly
Chiasmus effect. loves.”
"Mother and Poet" by
Elizabeth Barrett - Dead !
One of them shot by the sea
in the east…
What art can a woman be
good at? || Oh, vain !
What art is she good at, ||
but hurting her breast
With the milk-teeth of
babes, || and a smile at the
pain ?
Ah boys, // how you hurt! ||
you were strong as you
pressed,
And I proud, || by that test.
"Romeo and Juliet" by
William Shakespeare -
“Here’s to my love! [Drinks]
O true apothecary! Thy
drugs are quick. Thus with a
kiss I die. [Falls]”
"Essay on Man" by
Alexander Pope) - “His time
a moment, and a point his
space.”
 Chremamorphism is the literary device of
comparing a person to an object in some
Chremamorphism way.
Circumlocution is a rhetorical device that
can be defined as an ambiguous or
paradoxical way of expressing things,
Circumlocution ideas, or views.
A cliché is an expression that is trite,
Cliché worn-out, and overused
Connotation refers to a meaning that is
implied by a word apart from the thing
Connotation which it describes explicitly.
Consonance is a literary device that refers
to the repetition of the same consonant
Consonance/Assonance sounds in a line of text.
"Hamlet" by William
Shakespeare - “Then weigh
what loss your honour may
sustain
If with too credent ear you
list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your
chaste treasure open
To his unmast’red
importunity.”
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by
Harper Lee - There was no
hurry, for there was
nowhere to go, nothing to
buy and no money to buy it
with, nothing to see outside
the boundaries of Maycomb
County. But it was a time of
vague optimism for some of
the people: Maycomb
County had recently been
told that it had nothing to
fear but fear itself.
Sonnet 18 (By William
Shakespeare)- Metaphors
are words that connote
meanings that go beyond
their literal meanings.
Shakespeare, in his Sonnet
18, says: “Shall I Compare
Thee to a Summer’s Day…”
"The Importance of Being
Earnest" by Oscar Wilde - “I
was within a hair’s breadth
of the last opportunity for
pronouncement, and I found
with humiliation that
probably I would have
nothing to say…”
An Essay on Criticism by
Alexander Pope - Where’er
you find “the cooling,
western breeze,”
In the next line, it “whispers
through the trees”;
If crystal streams “with
pleasing murmers creep,”
The reader’s threatened
(not in vain) with “sleep.”
The Sun Rising (By John
Donne)
Similarly, John Donne says
in his poem The Sun Rising
says:
“She is all states, and all
princes, I.”

Denotation is an important literary device
that allows a writer to choose an exact
word to describe or convey something to
Denotation the reader.
To Kill a Mockingbird by
Harper Lee
We know all men are not
created equal in the sense
some people would have us
believe- some people are
smarter than others, some
people have more
opportunity because they’re
born with it, some men
make more money than
others, some ladies make
better cakes than others-
The Sun Also Rises by some people are born gifted
Ernest Hemingway beyond the normal scope of
men.
You’re an expatriate. You’ve But there is one way in this
lost touch with the soil. You country in which all men are
get precious. Fake created equal- there is one
European standards have human institution that
ruined you. You drink makes a pauper the equal
yourself to death. You of a Rockefeller, the stupid
become obsessed with sex. man the equal of an
You spend all your time Einstein, and the ignorant
talking, not working. You are man the equal of any
an expatriate, see? You college president. That
hang around cafes. institution, gentlemen, is a
court.
 Dilemma is a rhetorical device in which a
conflicting situation arises for a person to
choose between right and wrong, where
both seem of equal worth.
Dilemma
Ekphrasis
Hamlet (By William
Shakespeare)
In the play Hamlet, William
Shakespeare’s leading
character, Hamlet, struggles
with a dilemma in how to out
the orders of his father’s
ghost to kill his stepfather; in
order to exact revenge for
marrying his mother, and
usurping the throne. Ophelia
also faces a dilemma in the
play, as her brother and
father believe that Hamlet is
not faithful to her, and would
rather use her; whereas her
heart is convinced that
Hamlet loves her. Neither of
them could reconcile the
situation following the
ethical dilemmas they got
entangled in.
Dr. Faustus (By Christopher
Marlowe)
We find a perfect example
of moral dilemma in
Christopher Marlowe’s play,
Dr. Faustus. His major
moral dilemma is he desires
to get extensive knowledge
for his benefit, but intends to
use it to exploit others. For
this, he sells his soul to the
representative of
Mephistopheles. We see his
moral dilemma through his
lust. He wishes to get things
that were impossible to get,
like power to rule an entire
kingdom, but at heart he
feels that he is doing wrong.
 Enjambment is a literary device in which a Love Sonnet XVII (Pablo
line of poetry carries its idea or thought Neruda, translated by Mark
over to the next line without a grammatical Eisner)
pause.
I Love You as the plant that
doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers,
hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the
tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in
my body.
Enjambment
An epigraph is a literary device in the form Heart of Darkness (By
of a poem, quotation, or sentence, usually Joseph Conrad)
placed at the beginning of a document or
a simple piece – having a few sentences, Many famous poems
but which belongs to another writer. An provide good examples of
epigraph can serve different purposes, epigraph. For instance,
such as it can be used as a summary, “Mistah Kurtz, he dead,” is a
introduction, example, or an association line from Heart of Darkness
with some famous literary work, so as to by Joseph Conrad, which
draw a comparison, or to generate a was used in the famous
specific context for the piece. poem The Hollow Men by T.
S. Eliot to describe how
modern people have dead
souls, like the character
Kurtz of Heart of Darkness.
It is because they have
taken materialism as their
demigod, and accepted its
domination, submitting their
Epigraph spirits to it like Kurtz did.
This Is Just To Say (William
Carlos Williams)
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
The Brothers Karamazov
(By Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Epigraph examples are also
found in philosophical
novels. The epigraph used
by Dostoevsky in The
Brothers Karamazov is from
the Holy Bible, specifically
John 12:24. It says:
“Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone: but if it
dies, it bringeth forth much
fruit.”
 An epilogue, is a chapter at the end of a Romeo and Juliet (By
work of literature, which concludes the William Shakespeare)
work. “A glooming peace this
morning with it brings;
The sun for sorrow will not
show his head.
Go hence to have more talk
of these sad things,
Some shall be pardoned,
and some punished,
For never was a story of
more woe
Than this of Juliet and her
Romeo.”
Epilogue
Epimone
Epithet is a descriptive literary device that Brendon Hills (A. E.
describes a place, a thing, or a person in Housman)
such a way that it helps in making its
characteristics more prominent than they “Here of a Sunday morning
actually are. My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured
counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky."
Epithet
As You Like It (By William
Shakespeare)
“… and I charge you, O
men, for the love you bear
to women — as I perceive
by your simpering, none of
you hates them — that
between you and the
women the play may
please. If I were a woman, I
would kiss as many of you
as had beards that pleased
me, complexions that liked
me, and breaths that I
defied not. And I am sure as
many as have good beards,
or good faces, or sweet
breaths will, for my kind
offer, when I make curtsy,
bid me farewell
Beauty and Beauty (By
Rupert Brooke)
“The earth is crying-sweet,
And scattering-bright the air,
Eddying, dizzying, closing
round,
With soft and drunken
laughter…”
 It is defined as a rhetorical device in which Cymbeline (By William
the words or phrases are repeated in Shakespeare)
quick succession, one after another, for
emphasis. “Hark, hark! the lark at
heaven’s gate sings,
And Phoebus gins arise,
His steeds to water at those
springs
On chaliced flowers that
lies;
And winking Mary-buds
begin
To open their golden eyes:
With everything that pretty
is,
My lady sweet, arise:
Epizeuxis Arise, arise!”
In rhetoric, ethos represents credibility, or “Doctors all over the world
an ethical appeal, which involves recommend this type of
persuasion by the character involved. treatment.”
People tend to believe the
opinions of doctors in the
matter of medical
treatments.
Ethos
King Lear (By William
Shakespeare)
“And my poor fool is
hanged! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse,
a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all?
Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never!”
My three decades of
experience in public service,
my tireless commitment to
the people of this
community, and my
willingness to reach across
the aisle and cooperate with
the opposition, make me the
ideal candidate for your
mayor.”
The public can easily be
persuaded by giving them
some knowledge about a
candidate’s past
experience, past actions,
and preferred policies.
 Euphemism is a figure of speech
commonly used to replace a word or
phrase that is related to a concept that
might make others uncomfortable.
Euphemism
A flashback is a device used in stories,
films, television episodes, etc., that
interrupts the flow of the plot to “show”
readers/viewers an event that happened
previously. Most flashbacks are utilized to
provide background so that the audience
has a greater understanding of the story,
characters, setting, etc., taking place in
the chronological present.
Flashback
Foil is a literary device designed to
illustrate or reveal information, traits,
values, or motivations of one character
through the comparison and contrast of
another character.
Foil
The Catcher in the Rye by
J.D. Salinger
‘What’d you do?’ I said.
‘Give her the time in Ed
Banky’s goddam car?’
The Holy Bible (By Various
Contributors)
The Bible is a good source
of flashback examples. In
the Book of Matthew, we
see a flashback has been
used when Joseph,
governor of Egypt, sees his
brothers after several years.
Joseph “remembered his
dreams” about his brothers,
and how they sold him into
slavery in the past.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia
Woolf
Despairing of human
relationships (people were
so difficult), she often went
into her garden and got from
her flowers a peace which
men and women never gave
her.
Afterwards by Thomas
Hardy
If I pass during some
nocturnal blackness, mothy
and warm,
When the hedgehog travels
furtively over the lawn,
One may say, “He strove
that such innocent creatures
should come to no harm,
But he could do little for
them; and now he is gone.”
Birches (By Robert Frost)
“So was I once myself a
swinger of birches. And so I
dream of going back to be.”
Of Mice and Men by John
Steinbeck
“He ain’t no cuckoo,” said
George. “He’s dumb as hell,
but he ain’t crazy. An’ I ain’t
so bright neither, or I
wouldn’t be buckin’ barley
for my fifty and found.”
 Foreshadowing is a literary device that
writers utilize as a means to indicate or
hint to readers something that is to follow
or appear later in a story.
Foreshadowing
The Historical Allusion is a reference to
Historical Allusion some historical events of the period.
Hubris is character trait that features pride Moby Dick (Herman
or increased self-confidence, leading a
protagonist to disregard a divine warning
or violate an important moral law
Hubris
Of Mice and Men (John
Steinbeck)
You seen what they done to
my dog tonight? They says
he wasn’t no good to
himself nor nobody else.
When they can me here I
wisht somebody’d shoot me.
But they won’t do nothing
like that. I won’t have no
place to go, an’ I get no
more jobs.”
? ?
Melville)
Is, then, the crown too
heavy that I wear? this Iron
Crown of Lombardy. Yet is it
bright with many a gem; i,
the wearer, see not its far
flashings; but darkly feel
that i wear that, that
dazzlingly confounds. ‘Tis
iron –that I know–not gold.
‘Tis split, too –that I feel; the
jagged edge galls me so,
my brain seems to beat
against the solid metal; aye,
steel skull, mine; the sort
that needs no helmet in the
most brain-battering fight!
Macbeth (William
Shakespeare)
By the pricking of my
thumb,
Something wicked this way
comes.
Macbeth (William
Shakespeare)
There is none but he
Whose being I do fear: and,
under him,
My Genius is rebuked; as, it
is said,
Mark Antony’s was by
Caesar. He chid the sisters
When first they put the
name of king upon me,
And bade them speak to
him: then prophet-like
They hail’d him father to a
line of kings:
Upon my head they placed
a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in
my gripe,
Thence to be wrench’d with
an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding.
 Hyperbole is a figure of speech and
literary device that creates heightened
effect through deliberate exaggeration.
Hyperbole
Hypophora is a figure of speech in which
a writer raises a question, and then
immediately provides an answer to that
question.
Hypophora
A Modest Proposal
(Jonathan Swift)
I have been assured by a
very knowing American of
my acquaintance in London,
that a young healthy child
well nursed, is, at a year
old, a most delicious
nourishing and wholesome
food, whether stewed,
roasted, baked, or boiled;
and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a
fricasie, or a ragoust.
Henderson the Rain King
(By Saul Bellow)
“What made me take this
trip to Africa? There is no
quick explanation. Things
got worse and worse and
worse and pretty soon they
were too complicated.”
The Foreigner (Larry Shue)
ELLARD. That’s my favorite
name. If I ever catch me
that chipmunk,
that’s what he’s gonna be—
Buddy the chipmunk.
CATHERINE. Ellard, you
couldn’t catch a chipmunk if
all its legs were
broken and it was glued to
the palm of your hand.
A Christmas Memory (By
Truman Capote)
“Thirty-one cakes,
dampened with whiskey,
bask on window sills and
shelves.
Who are they for?
Friends. Not necessarily
neighbor friends: indeed,
the larger share is intended
for persons we’ve met
maybe once, perhaps not at
all. People who’ve struck
our fancy. Like President
Roosevelt.”
 Imagery is a literary device that refers to
the use of figurative language to evoke a
sensory experience or create a picture
with words for a reader.
Imagery 5 types
In Medias Res means narrating a story
from the middle after supposing that the
audiences are aware of past events,
In Media Res
The Red Wheelbarrow
(William Carlos Williams)
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
Iliad by Homer
“Sing, O goddess, the anger
of Achilles son of Peleus,
that brought countless ills
upon the Achaeans. Many a
brave soul did it send
hurrying down to Hades,
and many a hero did it yield
a prey to dogs and vultures,
for so were the counsels of
Jove fulfilled from the day
on which the son of Atreus,
king of men, and great
Achilles, first fell out with
one another.”
The Yellow Wallpaper
(Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
The color is repellant,
almost revolting; a
smouldering unclean yellow,
strangely faded by the slow-
turning sunlight.
It is a dull yet lurid orange in
some places, a sickly
sulphur tint in others. No
wonder the children hated it!
I should hate it myself if I
had to live in this room long.
Dostoyevsky’s novel The
Gambler can also be cited
as an example of In Medias
Res. The novel starts forth
as “At length, I returned
from two weeks leave of
absence to find that my
patrons had arrived three
days ago in Roulettenberg. I
received from them a
welcome quite different to
that which I had expected.
The General eyed me
coldly, greeted me in rather
haughty fashion, and
dismissed me to pay my
respects to his sister. It was
clear that from
SOMEWHERE money had
been acquired. I thought I
could even detect a certain
shamefacedness in the
General’s glance.”
 Irony is a literary device in which A Modest Proposal
contradictory statements or situations (Jonathan Swift)
reveal a reality that is different from what A child will make two dishes
appears to be true. at an entertainment for
friends; and when the family
dines alone, the fore or hind
quarter will make a
reasonable dish, and
seasoned with a little
pepper or salt will be very
good boiled on the fourth
Irony- 3 TYPES day, especially in winter.
Not Waving but Drowning
(Stevie Smith)
Nobody heard him, the
dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than
you thought
And not waving but
drowning.
 Jargon is sometimes wrongly confused
with slang, and people often take it in the
same sense but a difference is always
there. Slang is a type of informal category
of language developed within a certain
community, and consists of words or
phrases whose literal meanings are
different than the actual meanings.
Jargon, on the other hand, is broadly
associated with a subject, occupation, or
business that makes use of standard
words or phrases, and frequently
comprised of abbreviations.
Jargon/slang and
colloquialism
Hamlet (By William
Shakespeare)
Hamlet to HORATIO:
“Why, may not that be the
skull of a lawyer? Where be
his quiddities now, his
quillities, his cases, his
tenures, and his tricks? Why
does he suffer this mad
knave now to knock him
about the sconce with a
dirty shovel, and will not tell
him of his action of battery?
Hum! This fellow might be
in’s time a great buyer of
land, with his statutes, his
recognizances, his fines, his
double vouchers, his
recoveries: is this the fine of
his fines, and the recovery
of his recoveries, to have
his fine pate full of fine dirt?
Will his vouchers vouch him
no more of his purchases
and double ones too, than
the length and breadth of a
pair of indentures? The very
conveyances of his lands
will scarcely lie in this box;
and must the inheritor
himself have no more, ha?”
 Juxtaposition is a literary device that
implies comparison or contrast.
Juxtaposition
Literary Allusion
Litotes is a figure of speech featuring a
phrase that utilizes negative wording or
terms to express a positive assertion or
statement.
Litotes
Derived from a Greek word, Logos means The Art of Rhetoric (By
“logic.” Logos is a literary device that can Aristotle)
be described as a statement, sentence, or “All men are mortal.
argument used to convince or persuade
the targeted audience by employing
reason or logic.
Logos
Naming of Parts (Henry
Reed)
This is the safety-catch,
which is always released
With an easy flick of the
thumb. And please do not
let me
See anyone using his finger.
You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in
your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless,
never letting anyone see
Any of them using their
finger.
The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
i am no prophet — and
here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of
my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal
Footman hold my coat, and
snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
Socrates is a man.
Therefore, Socrates is
mortal.”
Animal Farm (George
Orwell)
Twelve voices were
shouting in anger, and they
were all alike. No question,
now, what had happened to
the faces of the pigs. The
creatures outside looked
from pig to man, and from
man to pig, and from pig to
man again; but already it
was impossible to say which
was which.
Hamlet by Shakespeare
Horatio says ’tis but our
fantasy,
And will not let belief take
hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight,
twice seen of us. (1.1.17)
Of Studies (By Francis
Bacon)
“Reading maketh a full man;
conference a ready man;
and writing an exact man.”
 Malapropism means “inappropriate.” It is
the use of an incorrect word in place of a
similar-sounding word, which results in a
nonsensical and humorous expression.
Malapropism
Merism
The Rivals (By Richard
Brinsley Sheridan)
In his novel, The Rivals,
Richard Sheridan introduces
a character, Mrs. Malaprop,
who habitually uses words
that mean quite the opposite
to the words she intends to
use, but which have similar
sounds to the words she
replaces. It becomes a great
source of humorous effect in
the play. For example, in
Act III, Scene 3, she tells
Captain Absolute:
“Sure, if I reprehend
anything in this world it is
the use of my oracular
tongue, and a nice
derangement of epitaphs!”
Much Ado About Nothing
(By William Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare uses
malapropism in his plays as
well. Look at the following
example of malapropism
uttered by Constable
Dogberry in Act III, Scene 5
of Much Ado About Nothing:
“Our watch, sir, have indeed
comprehended two
auspicious persons.”
 Fire and Ice by Robert Dreams by Langston
Frost Hughes

Some say the world will end Hold fast to dreams

in fire, For if dreams die
Some say in ice. Life is a broken-winged bird
From what I’ve tasted of That cannot fly.
desire
I hold with those who favor Hold fast to dreams
fire. For when dreams go
A metaphor is a figure of speech But if it had to perish twice, Life is a barren field
that makes a comparison between I think I know enough of Frozen with snow.
hate
two non-similar things. As a literary
To say that for destruction
device, metaphor creates implicit ice
comparisons without the express Is also great
Metaphor use of “like” or “as.” And would suffice.
Metonymy is a figure of speech in which A Midsummer Night’s All’s Well that Ends Well
one object or idea takes the place of Dream (William (William Shakespeare)
another with which it has a close Shakespeare)
association. In fact, metonymy means I know a man that had this
“change of name.” As a literary device, it And as imagination bodies trick of melancholy sold a
is a way of replacing an object or idea with forth goodly manor for a song.
something related to it instead of stating
what is actually meant. The forms of things
unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes and

gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a

Metonymy/Synecdoche name.
 Motif is an object or idea that repeats itself Hamlet by William
throughout a literary work.
Motif
Nemesis is a literary device that refers to
a situation of poetic justice, where the
good characters are rewarded for their
virtues, and the evil characters are
punished for their vices.
Nemesis
To Kill a Mocking Bird by
Shakespeare Harper Lee
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The central idea of the co-
we find a recurring motif of existence of good and evil
incest, accompanied by in Harper Lee’s To Kill a
incestuous desires of some Mocking Bird is supported
characters. Laertes speaks by several motifs. Lee
to his sister Ophelia in a strengthens the atmosphere
way that is sexually explicit. by a motif of Gothic details,
Hamlet’s obsession with in recurrent images of
Gertrude’s sexual life with gloomy and haunted
Claudius has an underlying settings, supernatural
tone of incestuous desire. events, and a full moon.
Another motif in the
narrative is the small-town
life of Maycomb, which
depicts goodness and
pleasantness in life.
Oedipus Rex (By
Sophocles)
In a famous Greek tragedy
Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles,
the nemesis of King
Oedipus is his hubris or
excessive pride. He is so
proud that he does not even
shrink from defying
prophecies of the gods. We
see that the king ends up
doing what he fears and
tries to avoid.
 Oxymoron is a figure of speech pairing
two words together that are opposing
and/or contradictory. This combination of
contrary or antithetical words is also
known in conversation as a contradiction
in terms.
Romeo and Juliet (William
Shakespeare)
Good night, good night!
parting is such sweet
sorrow,
The Catcher in the Rye (J.
D. Salinger)
I’m the most terrific liar you
ever saw in your life.

That I shall say good night

till it be morrow.
Oxymoron
Pathos is a literary device that is designed Funeral Blues by W.H. Romeo and Juliet by
to inspire emotions from readers. Auden William Shakespeare

He was my North, my Two households, both alike

South, my East and West,
My working week and my
Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my
talk, my song;
I thought that love would
last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted
now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and
dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and
sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever
come to any good.
Pathos
in dignity
In fair Verona, where we lay
our scene
From ancient grudge break
to new mutiny
Where civil blood makes
civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of
these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers
take their life
Whose misadventured
piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury
their parents’ strife.
 Parallel structure is a stylistic device, and
a grammatical construction having two or
more clauses, phrases or words, with
similar grammatical form and length.
Parallel Structure
Parataxis can be defined as a rhetorical
term in which phrases and clauses are
placed one after another independently,
without coordinating or subordinating
them through the use of conjunctions
Parataxis
Good Faith (by Jane
Smiley)
“I had been short, and now I
was tall. I had been skinny
and quiet and religious, and
now I was good-looking and
muscular. It was Sally
Baldwin who brought me
along, told me what to wear
and do and think and say.
She was never wrong; she
never lost her patience. She
created me, and when she
was done we broke up in a
formal sense, but she kept
calling me.”
Life of Caesar (By Plutarch) Bleak House (By Charles
“Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I
saw, I conquered”)
Goodbye to Forty-Eighth
Street (by E.B. White)
“The wheels wheeled, the
chairs spun, the cotton
candy tinted the faces of
children, the bright leaves
tinted the woods and hills. A
cluster of amplifiers spread
the theme of love over
everything and everybody;
the mild breeze spread the
dust over everything and
everybody. Next morning, in
the Lafayette Hotel in
Portland, I went down to
breakfast and found May
Craig looking solemn at one
of the tables and Mr.
Murray, the auctioneer,
looking cheerful at another.”
Dickens)
“Dogs, undistinguishable in
mire. Horses, scarcely
better–splashed to their
very blinkers. Foot
passengers, jostling one
another’s umbrellas, in a
general infection of ill-
temper, and losing their
foothold at street corners…”
 A parody is an imitation of the style of
something that is deliberately exaggerated Shakespeare)
to create a comedic effect.
Parody
Sonnet 130 (By William
William Shakespeare wrote
Sonnet 130 in parody of
traditional love poems
common in his day. He
presents an anti-love poem
theme in a manner of a love
poem, mocking the
exaggerated comparisons
they made:
“My mistress’ eyes are
nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than
her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then
her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires
grow on her head.
I have seen roses
damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in
her cheeks…”
Robinson Crusoe (By
Daniel Defoe)
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson
Crusoe was a travel
narrative. Swift adopted a
similar mode to describe
Gulliver’s travels to the
strange land of Lilliput, and
other such places where he
meets “Lilliputians,” and the
giant “Brobdingnagians.” He
also meets other strange
creatures like “Laputians”
and “Houyhnhnms,” and the
“Yahoos”. The parody for
Swift was intended as a
satire on English society.
 Periphrasis is a stylistic device that can be
defined as the use of excessive and
longer words to convey a meaning which
could have been conveyed with a shorter
expression, or in a few words.
Periphrasis
David Copperfield (By Sonnet 74 (By William
Charles Dickens) Shakespeare)
“‘Under the impression,’ “When that fell arrest
said Mr. Micawber, ‘that Without all bail shall carry
your peregrinations in this me away.”
metropolis have not as yet
been extensive, and that
you might have some
difficulty in penetrating the
arcana of the Modern
Babylon in the direction of
the City Road—in short,’
said Mr. Micawber, in
another burst of confidence,
‘that you might lose
yourself—I shall be happy to
call this evening, and install
you in the knowledge of the
nearest way …'”
 Personification is a figure of speech in The House on Mango Street How Cruel Is the Story of
which an idea or thing is given human (Sandra Cisneros) Eve (Stevie Smith)
attributes and/or feelings or is spoken of
as if it were human. Personification is a But the house on Mango It is only a legend,
common form of metaphor in that human Street is not the way they You say? But what
characteristics are attributed to nonhuman told it at all. It’s small and Is the meaning of the
things. red with tight steps in front legend
and windows so small you’d If not
think they were holding their To give blame to women
breath. most
And most punishment?
This is the meaning of a
legend that colours
All human thought; it is not
found among animals.

How cruel is the story of

Eve,
What responsibility it has
Personification/anthropomorp In history
hism For misery.
Point of view is utilized as a literary device nvisible Man (Ralph Ellison) The Story of an Hour (Kate
to indicate the angle or perspective from Chopin)
which a story is told. I was never more hated
than when I tried to be She said it over and over
honest. Or when, even as under her breath: “free, free,
just now I’ve tried to free!” The vacant stare and
articulate exactly what I felt the look of terror that had
to be the truth. No one was followed it went from her
satisfied. eyes. They stayed keen and
bright. Her pulses beat fast,
and the coursing blood
warmed and relaxed every
Point of View inch of her body.
Portmanteau
 A pun is a literary device that is also
known as a “play on words.” Puns involve
words with similar or identical sounds but
with different meanings.
Pun
Repetition is a literary device that involves Macbeth (William
intentionally using a word or phrase for
effect, two or more times in a speech or
written work
Repetition
Reverse Syntactic Structure
The Importance of Being
Earnest Oscar Wilde
To lose one parent, Mr.
Worthing, may be regarded
as a misfortune; to lose both
looks like carelessness.”
Shakespeare)
Tomorrow, and tomorrow,
and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace
from day to day,
To the last syllable of
recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have
lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Romeo and Juliet William
Shakespeare ask for me
tomorrow and you shall find
me a grave man.
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
(Carson McCullers)
But the hearts of small
children are delicate organs.
A cruel beginning in this
world can twist them into
curious shapes. The heart
of a hurt child can shrink so
that forever afterward it is
hard and pitted as the seed
of a peach. Or again, the
heart of such a child may
fester and swell until it is a
misery to carry within the
body, easily chafed and hurt
by the most ordinary things.
 Sarcasm generally takes the form of an
ironic remark, somewhat rooted in humor, J.D. Salinger
that is intended to mock or satirize
something.
Sarcasm
Satire is a literary device for the artful Lysistrata (Aristophanes)
ridicule of folly or vice as a means of
exposing or correcting it.
Satire
The Catcher in the Rye by
When I was all set to go,
when I had my bags and all,
I stood for a while next to
the stairs and took a last
look down the goddam
corridor. I was sort of crying.
I don’t know why. I put my
red hunting hat on, and
turned the peak around to
the back, the way I liked it,
and then I yelled at the top
of my goddam voice, ‘Sleep
tight, ya morons!’
LYSISTRATA: May gentle
Love and the sweet Cyprian
Queen shower seductive
charms on our bosoms and
all our person. If only we
may stir so amorous a
feeling among the men that
they stand firm as sticks, we
shall indeed deserve the
name of peace-makers
among the Greeks.
Resume’ by Dorothy Parker
Razors pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acids stain you,
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful.
You might as well live.
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (William
Shakespeare)
Ay me! for aught that I could
ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or
history,
The course of true love
never did run smooth
 A simile is a figure of speech in which two Horseradish (Lemony
essentially dissimilar objects or concepts Snicket)
are expressly compared with one another
through the use of “like” or “as.”
Simile
The literary device stream of
consciousness is the continuous flow of
thoughts of a person and recorded,
thereof, in literature as they occur.
Stream of Consciousness
Technique
Symbol
A library is like an island in
the middle of a vast sea of
ignorance, particularly if the
library is very tall and the
surrounding area has been
flooded.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia
Woolf
“What a lark! What a
plunge! For so it always
seemed to me when, with a
little squeak of the hinges,
which I can hear now, I
burst open the French
windows and plunged at
Bourton into the open air.
How fresh, how calm, stiller
than this of course, the air
was in the early morning;
like the flap of a wave; the
kiss of a wave; chill and
sharp and yet (for a girl of
eighteen as I then was)
solemn, feeling as I did,
standing there at the open
window, that something
awful was about to happen
…”
A Red, Red Rose (Robert
Burns)
O my Luve’s like a red, red
rose,
That’s newly sprung in
June;
O my Luve’s like the
melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in
tune.
Ulysses by James Joyce
James Joyce successfully
employs the narrative mode
in his novel Ulysses, which
describes a day in the life of
a middle-aged Jew, Mr.
Leopold Broom, living in
Dublin, Ireland. Read the
following excerpt:
“He is young Leopold, as in
a retrospective
arrangement, a mirror within
a mirror (hey, presto!), he
beholdeth himself. That
young figure of then is seen,
precious manly, walking on
a nipping morning from the
old house in Clambrassil to
the high school, his book
satchel on him bandolier
wise, and in it a goodly hunk
of wheaten loaf, a mother’s
thought.”
 Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which The Great Gatsby – F.
a part of something is used to signify the Scott Fitzgerald
whole, or vice-versa. As a literary device,
synecdoche allows for a smaller It was the kind of voice that
component of something to stand in for the ear follows up and
the larger whole, in a rhetorical manner. down, as if each speech is
an arrangement of notes
that will never be played
again.
Synecdoche
I heard a Fly buzz–when I
died (Emily Dickinson)
I heard a Fly buzz – when I
died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the
Air –
Between the Heaves of
Storm –
The Eyes around – had
wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering
firm
For that last Onset – when
the King
Be witnessed – in the Room
–
 Tautology is a literary device used by
writers to say something more than once,
using the same words or synonymous
words.
Tautology
Hamlet (William
Shakespeare)
To be, or not to be, that is
the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the
mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a
sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to
say we end
The heart-ache and the
thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a
consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To
die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to
dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that sleep of death
what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off
this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s
the respect
That makes calamity of so
long life.
To Kill a Mockingbird
(Harper Lee)
Now, gentlemen, in this
country, our courts are the
great levelers. In our courts,
all men are created equal. I’
m no idealist to believe
firmly in the integrity of our
courts and of our jury
system – that’s no ideal to
me. That is a living, working
reality! Now I am confident
that you gentlemen will
review, without passion, the
evidence that you have
heard, come to a decision
and restore this man to his
family. In the name of GOD,
do your duty. In the name of
God, believe… Tom
Robinson.
 Tmesis which means “to cut.” It is a Romeo and Juliet (By Hymn to Christ (By John
rhetorical device that involves the William Shakespeare) Donne)
breaking down of a phrase or a word into “This is not Romeo, he’s “In whattorn shipsoever I
two parts. some other where.” embark,
That ship shall be my
emblem
Whatseasoever swallow
me, that flood
Shall be to me an emblem
Tmesis of thy blood.”
Tragic flaw is a literary device that Macbeth (William The Legend of Sleepy
represents a flaw or deficiency in Shakespeare) Hollow (Washington Irving)
character that results in the downfall of the I have no spur to prick the He could not help, too,
hero in a tragic literary work. sides of my intent, but only rolling his large eyes round
vaulting ambition, which o’ him as he ate, and
erleaps itself and falls on th’ chuckling with the possibility
other. that he might one day be
lord of all this scene of
almost unimaginable luxury
and splendor. Then, he
thought, how soon he’d turn
his back upon the old
school-house; snap his
fingers in the face of Hans
Van Ripper, and every other
stingy patron, and kick any
itinerant pedagogue out of
doors that should dare to
call him comrade!
Tragic Flaw
 Othello (Othello by William
Shakespeare)
When you shall these
unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am.
Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in
malice. Then must you
speak
Of one that loved not wisely,
but too well.
Tragic hero is a literary device utilized to Of one not easily jealous,
create a protagonist for a tragic work of but being wrought,
literature. A tragic hero is a character that Perplexed in the extreme.
represents the consequences that come Of one whose hand,
from possessing one or more personal Like the base Indian, threw
flaws or being doomed by a particular a pearl away
Tragic Hero fate. Richer than all his tribe
Victor Frankenstein
(Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley)
It was the secrets of heaven
and earth that I desired to
learn; and whether it was
the outward substance of
things or the inner spirit of
nature and the mysterious
soul of man that occupied
me, still my inquiries were
directed to the
metaphysical, or in its
highest sense, the physical
secrets of the world.
 Vignette is a small impressionistic scene,
an illustration, a descriptive passage, a
short essay, a fiction or nonfiction work
focusing on one particular moment; or
giving an impression about an idea,
character, setting, mood, aspect, or
object.
Vignette
Zeugma, is a figure of speech in which a
word, usually a verb or an adjective,
applies to more than one noun, blending
together grammatically and logically
different ideas.
Zeugma
In Our Time (By Ernest
Hemingway)
“Maera lay still, his head on
his arms, his face in the
sand. He felt warm and
sticky from the bleeding.
Each time he felt the horn
coming. Sometimes the bull
only bumped him with his
head. Once the horn went
all the way through him and
he felt it go into the sand …
Maera felt everything getting
larger and larger and then
smaller and smaller. Then it
got larger and larger and
larger and then smaller and
smaller. Then everything
commenced to run faster
and faster as when they
speed up a cinematograph
film. Then he was dead.”
The Holy Bible, Exodus 20:
18 (By the Prophet Moses)
“And all the people saw the
thundering, and the
lightning, and the noise of
the trumpet, and the
mountain smoking: and
when the people saw it, they
removed, and stood afar
off.”
An American Childhood (By
Annie Dillard)
“Some boys taught me to
play football. This was fine
sport. You thought up a new
strategy for every play and
whispered it to the others.
You went out for a pass,
fooling everyone. Best, you
got to throw yourself
mightily at someone’s
running legs … In winter, in
the snow, there was neither
baseball nor football, so the
boys and I threw snowballs
at passing cars. I got in
trouble throwing snowballs,
and have seldom been
happier since.”
Of Studies (By Francis
Bacon)
“Histories make men wise;
poets, witty; the
mathematics, subtle; natural
philosophy, deep; moral,
grave; logic and rhetoric,
able to contend.”
 Zoomorphism is a literary technique in
which animal attributes are imposed upon
non-animal objects, humans, and events;
and animal features are ascribed to
humans, gods, and other objects.
Zoomorphism
Barn Burning (By William
Faulkner)
“The two sisters got down,
big, bovine, in a flutter of
cheap ribbons; one of them
drew from the jumbled
wagon bed a battered
lantern, the other a worn
broom. His father handed
the reins to the older son
and began to climb stiffly
over the wheels … There
was something about his
wolf-like independence and
even courage when the
advantage was at least
neutral which impressed
strangers, as if they got
from his latent ravening
ferocity not so much a
sense of dependability, as a
feeling that his ferocious
conviction in the rightness of
his own actions would be of
advantage to all whose
interest lay with his …”
A&P (By John Updike)
“You never know for sure
how girls’ minds work (do
you really think it’s a mind in
there or just a little buzz like
a bee in a glass jar?) but
you got the idea she had
talked the other two into
coming in here with here,
and now she was showing
them how to do it, walk slow
and hold yourself straight …
The sheep pushing their
carts down the aisle – the
girls were walking against
the usual traffic (not that we
have one-way signs or
anything) – were pretty
hilarious…”