Literary Devices Project

• By Scott Walraven• Class 4A

Imagery

Imagery- Figurative description or illustration; the formation of mental images, figures, or likeness of things, or of such images collectively. Hamlet example: “My lord, as I was sewing in my

closet…As if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horros, --he comes before me.”(Act 2, Scene 1); Ned Stark is imagery of honor-

Game of Thrones

Simile

• A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared. Hamlet example: “The knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand an end, like quills upon the fearful porpentine…”(Act 1, scene 5, lines 24-26); “…stone dragons on the castle walls seemed blurred, as if Davos were seeing them through a veil of tears.” Pg. 111, A Clash of Kings

Metaphor

• Metaphor- A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. Hamlet example: Act 1, scene 5, lines 64-66: “And in the porches of my ear did pour the leprous distilment, whose effect holds such an enmity with blood..”; “it is burning outside-it is really hot”

Personification

• Personification-The attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure. Hamlet example: “For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous sign”(Act 2, scene 2); “The winds came roaring down from the sides of the castle and presented the soldiers with a deathly kiss…”(GOT)- A Dance with Dragons

Apostrophe

• Apostrophe- A sign which is used to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether unpronounced, or pronounced. Hamlet example: “Frailty thy name is woman!” (Act 1, Scene 2); "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! / Thou art the ruins of the noblest man / That ever lived in the tide of times." Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1

Symbol

• Symbol- Something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial. Hamlet example: poision-evil; “…Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment…”(Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 61-64); The three dragons are symbols for power in a Game of Thrones

Allegory

• Allegory- A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another. ; The inevitable battle of forces in the North and forces in the South symbolize a dualistic nature of the world.(GOT)

Paradox

• Paradox- Any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature. Hamlet example: “I must be cruel to be kind”(Act 3, scene 4); Schrodinger’s cat paradox- one in which a cat can be an any state(dead or alive) until observed.

Hyperbole

• Hyperbole- An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally. Hamlet example: “With such dexterity to incestuous sheets.”(Act 1, Scene 2); “It felt like my blood was being boiled inside of me…”- A Clash of Kings

Understatement

• Understatement- The act or an instance of understating; or representing in a weak or restrained way that is not borne out by the facts. Hamlet example: in context of paragraph--“It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue” (Act 1, scene 2, lines 157-158); “The young wolf could see the battle was going well”- as his army was crushing that of his opponents- A Clash of Kings

Irony

• Irony- A technique indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated. Hamlet example: “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in gried, and our whole kingdom”(Act 1, Scene , Lines 1-3); Brienne receives what is left of the sword “ice” from the Stark family as she is on a quest to help the Starks- A Dance with Dragons

Chiasmus

• Chiasmus- A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases.

Metonymy

• Metonymy- A figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part. Hamlet example: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life”(Act 1, Scene 5); the Young wolf is used to refer to Rob Stark- A Storm of Swords

Synecdoche

• Synecdoche- A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special. Hamlet example: “There were six guns out on the moor”(Act 1, scene 5); Napoleon destroyed the left flank of the enemy with two thousand horse

Repartee

• Repartee- A quick, witty reply. Hamlet example: “Why, right, you are in the right…”(Act 1, scene 5, line 127); when talking to Lady Stark about betrayal and friends Tyrion Lannister replies with “true friends stab you in the front” –A Storm of Swords

Stichomythia

• Stichomythia- Dramatic dialogue characterized by brief exchanges between two characters, each of whom usually speaks in one line of verse during a scene of intense emotion or strong argumentation. Hamlet example: “Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue”; “Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue”(Act 1, scene 4); The king frowned. “My lady mother said it is not fitting…Isn’t that so, dog?” The Hound’s mouth twitched. “Against this lot? Why Not?”- A Clash of Kings

Stock Characters

• Stock Characters- A character in literature, theater, or film of a type quickly recognized and accepted by the reader or viewer and requiring no development by the writer. Hamlet example: Horatio; he is a static character. Tywin Lannister is a static character in a Game of Thrones

Animal Farm

• Alliteration- The commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or ground. Hamlet example: “In equal scarle weighing delight and dole”(Act 1, Scene 2); "May men of merit be motivated to act"- Animal Farm

Assonance

• Assonance- A rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words. Hamlet example: “…O wicked wit and gifts”(Act 1 scene 5, lines 50-51); "For the race and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore” The Raven

Consonance

• Consonance- The correspondence of consonants, especially those at the end of a word, in a passage of prose or verse. Hamlet example: “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.”(Act 3, scene 4, line 38); “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”- the Raven

Rhyme

• Rhyme- A word agreeing with another in terminal sound. Hamlet example: “But I have that within which passeth show; these but the trappings and the suits of woe.”(Act 1, scene 2, Lines 85-86); “Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”- The Raven

Rhythm

• Rhythm- The effect produced in a play by the combination or arrangement of formal elements, as length of scenes, speech and description, timing, or recurrent themes, to create movement, tension, and emotional value in the development of the plot. Hamlet example: Iambic pentameter. The raven has a trochaic octameter

Meter

• Meter- Poetic measure; arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses. Hamlet example: “Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue”; “Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue”(Act 1, scene 4); “Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary” –The Raven

End-stopped line

• End-stopped line-A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break, or with punctuation. A line is considered end-stopped, too, if it contains a complete phrase. Hamlet example: “Why seems it so particular with thee?” (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 75); “And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.”- The Raven

Run-on-line

• Run-on line- A metrical line that does not end in a grammatical boundary, break, or with punctuation. Hamlet example: “To reason most absurd, whose common theme…”(Act 1, Scene 2, line 103); “Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow…” –The raven

Caesura

• Caesura- A break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line. Hamlet example: “To be,// or not to be, //that is the question:”(Act 3, scene 1); “Once upon a midnight dreary// while I pondered// weak and weary- The Raven

Free verse

• Free verse- A verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern. Hamlet example: “We do it wrong, being so majestical, to offer it the show of violence, for it is, as the air, invulnerable.”(Act 1, scene 1, lines 142-145); “She hit him. Hard, right between his little eyes”- A clash of Kings

Iambic Pentameter

• Iambic pentameter- A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable. Hamlet example: “And by opposing end them? To die to sleep; no more; and by a sleep to say we end.” (Act 3, Scene 1); “Batter my heart three-personed God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.”- Sonnet by John Donne

Grammatical/rhetorical pauses

• Grammatical/rhetorical pauses- A natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line by its phrasing and syntax. Hamlet example: “To be, or not to be—that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer”(Act 3, Scene 1) ; “They’re hiding by the pebbles, they’re running round the rocks”- Sea Faries by Eillen Mathias

Concluding Couplet

• Concluding couplet- Two ending lines which are a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length. “But I have that within which passeth show; these but the trappings and the suits of woe.”(Act 1, scene 2, Lines 85-86); “As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door”- The Raven