Allusion Notes

What is an allusion?

What is an allusion?

An allusion is a reference to something or someone.

It is not the same as the word illusion. Illusion is when your eyes play tricks on you and you think you see something that is not really there.

Where can I see and hear allusions? Commercials Movies Books The store School The mall Just about anywhere

Allusions are all around us. People use them every day.

Most allusions come from one of the following sources: The Bible Mythology History A Culture Shakespeare Literary

A Biblical Allusion

A reference to a character, story, place, or scripture from The Bible.

Example1: “He was a Good Samaritan yesterday when he

helped the lady start her car.” This refers to the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. 

Example 2: “This place is like a Garden of Eden.” The

Garden of Eden was the paradise God made for Adam and Eve.

A Mythological Allusion

A reference to Greek or Roman Mythology. This can be a reference to a god or goddess, or a mythical hero or creature.

Example : “Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel.” This means

that her weakness was her love of chocolate. Achilles is a character in Greek mythology who was invincible. His mother dipped him in magical water when he was a baby, and she held him by the heel. The magic protected him all over, except for his heel. 

Example # 2 of Mythological Allusions

This is an allusion to the Greek warrior Ajax, who was known for his skills in battle in Homer’s book, The Iliad

A Historical Allusion

A reference to a historical person, place, or event.

Example:

This is an allusion to Abraham Lincoln. If you were not familiar with the US presidents, you might not know who “Honest Abe” is.

Example # 2 of Historical Allusions These are lyrics from a song:

Can you guess who they’re singing about?

Early morning, April 4Shot rings out in the Memphis skyFree at last, they took your lifeThey could not take your pride

A Cultural Allusion

A reference to a person, place, event, or thing within a specific culture. If someone is not familiar with that culture, he or she will probably not understand the allusion.

Some cultural allusions will overlap with historical, biblical, literary, Shakespearean, and mythological allusions.

Example of a Cultural Allusion # 1 “You’re killing me Smalls.” – Quote from the movie The Sandlot.

#2 He’s as jolly as Old Saint Nick. - reference to Santa Claus

Example # 3 Cultural Allusion“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”

This is an allusion to The Wizard of Oz.

A Shakespearean Allusion

A reference to one of William Shakespeare’s characters or a reference to one of his quotes.

Example # 1 “ Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your

ears…” Quote from Julius Caesar

Example: # 2 “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” “He was a real Romeo with the ladies.”

A Literary Allusion

A reference to any character, author, or quote from any piece of literature throughout history; however, literary allusions usually refer to classic pieces of literature.

Example # 1“When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge, and refused to buy anything that wasn’t necessary.” Scrooge was an extremely stingy character from Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol.

Example # 2 Literary Allusion  “I was surprised his nose was not

growing like Pinocchio’s.” This refers to the story of Pinocchio, where his nose grew whenever he told a lie. It is from The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi.