Literary Devices

Allegory 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 The repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in succession.

Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Allusion 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 A parallel between disparate ideas, people, things, or events that is

more elaborate than a metaphor or simile.

Example: When Juliet (from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) says “What’s in a
name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet,” she is
drawing an analogy between Romeo and a rose.

Anthropomorphism 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. This is different from personification because it involves
making non-human things have literal human traits or literally act like humans while
personification gives non-human things human-like characteristics in a metaphorical
or representative way.

Anachronism An intentional or unintentional error in chronology or a timeline.

Example: In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus makes reference to a clock when he

says, “Peace! Count the clock.” Mechanical clocks did not exist in 44 A.D., when the
play takes place, so the inclusion of the clock here is an anachronism.

Colloquialism 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 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.
 Epiphany A moment of sudden realization by a character.

Example: In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the main character, Scrooge,

experiences an epiphany. Scrooge begins the novel as a pessimistic, harsh man who
has no sympathy for other people. On Christmas Eve, he is led through the past,
present, and future by three ghosts who show him the effects his attitude has on
people he loves. As a result of this journey, Scrooge has an epiphany that he no longer
wants to live life in this manner and changes his outlook.

Euphemism 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 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 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 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 A compilation of sensory details that enable the reader to visualize the
event.

Example: In Moby-Dick, Melville describes his scene: “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.” In this passage, Melville uses vivid imagery such as the “yawning gulf”
and “sullen white surf” to capture the scene.

Irony An instance of language conveying the opposite of its literal meaning.

There are different types of irony:

Verbal irony: speech that conveys the opposite of its literal meaning.
Example: “That’s nice” as a response to an insulting statement is an instance of verbal
irony.

Situational irony: An event that occurs that is the opposite of what is

expected.
Example: 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: Usually applied to theater or literature, an instance in
which the audience knows something the characters involved do not
Example: In Psycho, the audience knows a killer approaching, but Marion does not.

Juxtaposition Ideas, people, images, ideas, or objects placed next to one another to
highlight their differences.

Example: In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens begins his story with an example
of juxtaposition:
“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.”
Here, Dickens juxtaposes multiple circumstances, using opposites for emphasis.

Magical Realism A narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion

of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction.

Example: Imagine a woman discovers she can cry fabric (instead of water), so she
starts a clothing business where she knots her tears into dresses. This odd blending of
the magical and the mundane constitutes the elements of magical realism, a genre
present in the literature of many distinct nations.

Malapropism An incorrect word intentionally or unintentionally used in place of a

similar-sounding one, sometimes used for humorous effect.

Example: In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, characters display malapropism

when they state, “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.”
The malapropisms, in this case, are the misuse of “comprehended” in place of
“apprehended” and “auspicious” instead of “suspicious.”

Metaphor 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:
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare makes the sun a metaphor for Juliet:
“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.”

Mood The general feeling the speaker evokes in the reader through the
atmosphere, descriptions, and other features.

Example: In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, Poe evokes an air of mystery and sets a
dark mood by opening his poem with, “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood
there wondering, fearing,
 Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”

Onomatopoeia A word that is closely associated or identical to the sound it describes.

Example: “buzz”, “ding-dong”, “sizzle”

Oxymoron 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.

Paradox An apparent contradiction that, upon further unraveling, may contain

truth, used for effect on the reader.

Example:
When Hamlet says, “I must be cruel to be kind,” Shakespeare has presented a
paradox. Hamlet must, in fact, act in a seemingly cruel way in order to ultimately be
kind.

Personification Lending descriptions generally applied to human beings to nonhumans.

This term differs from anthropomorphism in that the nonhuman entities
are not thought to behave in human-like ways but are merely described
in these terms.

Example: The shadows danced on the wall. Shadows do not actually dance, but the
lending of the human action personifies them.

Repetition Multiple instances of a word or phrase, often in succession, used for

emphasis.

Example:
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
—Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

The repetition emphasizes the length of the speaker’s journey.

Satire A phrase or entire work that uses irony to critique behaviors, events,
people, or vices.

Example: Animal Farm is a work of satire, critiquing Stalinism and the politics of the
Soviet Union.

Simile A comparison between objects, events, or people that uses “like” or

“as.”

Example:
 “I wandered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high o’er vales and hills.”
—William Wordsworth, Daffodils

“Lonely as a cloud” is a simile, comparing the states of isolation.

Symbolism Something used to represent a larger concept or idea.

Example: In Macbeth, the “spot” Lady Macbeth cannot get off her dress is a symbol
of her guilt-stained conscience.

Synecdoche An instance of a part representing a whole or vice versa.

Example: When someone refers to looking out at a “sea of faces,” the faces represent
whole people.

Tone The speaker or narrator’s attitude toward the subject of the piece,
distinct from mood in that it is not used to evoke a particular feeling in
the reader.

Example:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
—Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
The speaker is evoking a tone of unhappiness and possible regret with the words
“with a sigh.”