RHETORICAL DEVICES

RHETORICAL DEVICES

WHAT IS A RHETORICAL DEVICE? • A rhetorical device is a technique of using language that will increase the persuasiveness of a piece of writing.

ALLITERATION The recurrence of initial consonant sounds: • Ah, what a delicious day! • Yes, I have read that little bundle of pernicious prose, but I have no comment to make upon it. • Done well, alliteration is a satisfying sensation. What affect does this device have? Why use it?

This two-word alliteration calls attention to the phrase and fixes it in the reader's mind, and so is useful for emphasis as well as art. Often, though, several words not next to each other are alliterated in a sentence. Here the use is more artistic:

I shall delight to hear the ocean roar, or see the stars twinkle, in the company of men to whom Nature does not spread her volumes or utter her voice in vain. --Samuel Johnson • Do not let such evils overwhelm you as thousands have suffered, and thousands have surmounted; but turn your thoughts with vigor to some other plan of life, and keep always in your mind, that, with due submission to Providence, a man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself. --Samuel Johnson

ANADIPLOSIS ("doubling back") the rhetorical repetition of one or several words; specifically, repetition of a word that ends one clause at the beginning of the next. • "Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business." Francis Bacon What affect does this device have? Why use it?

It can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression: * Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,/ Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain; . . . . --Philip Sidney

Most commonly, though, anadiplosis is used for emphasis of the repeated word or idea, since repetition has a reinforcing effect: • In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. --John 1:1

ANAPHORA Is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences: • To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. –Peacham • If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. (Anne Bradstreet) What affect does this device have? Why use it?

The reader's / listener's attention is drawn directly to the message of the sentence: • A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. (Pearl Bailey) What is the example of anaphora and what is the message?

ASSONANCE Similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants: • A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. --Matthew 5:14b (KJV) • "Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. . . .

SIMILE An explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'. • My love is as a fever, longing stillFor that which longer nurseth the disease" Shakespeare, Sonnet CXLVII • Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope" D. Hume • Let us go then, you and I,While the evening is spread out against the sky,Like a patient etherized upon a table" T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

METAPHOR Metaphor compares two different things in a figurative sense. Unlike in a simile (A is like B.), “like” is not used in metaphor (A is B.): • Truthsare first clouds, then rain, then harvest and food. (Henry Ward Beecher) • Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.

LITERARY DEVICES Collectively comprise the art form’s components; the means by which authors create meaning through language, and by which readers gain understanding of and appreciation for their works. They can also be considered rhetorical devices.

HYPERBOLE Deliberate/Extreme exaggeration • Used sparingly, hyperbole effectively draws the attention to a message that you want to emphasize: • I was so hungry, I could eat an elephant. • I have told you a thousand times.

SOLILOQUY A speech delivered by a character in a play or other literature while alone, or an utterance by a person who is talking to him/herself, disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present • Hamlet’s “to be, or not to be” is the most notable example of a soliloquy

ASIDE An actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is usually used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. • In Othello, Iagogives several asides, informing the audience of his plans and how he will try to achieve his goals. • Asides are important because they increase an audience's involvement in a play by giving them vital information pertaining what is happening, both inside of a character's mind and in the plot of the play

PARADOX • Paradox can prove to be very revealing about human nature and the way that we speak. If someone says to you "I'm a compulsive liar," do you believe them or not? That statement in itself is a paradox, because it is self contradictory, which is precisely what a paradox is. • At the most basic level, a paradox is a statement that is self contradictory because it often contains two statements that are both true, but in general, cannot both be true at the same time. In the aforementioned example, can someone be both a compulsive liar yet telling the truth at the same time?

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the words "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" are part of the cardinal rules. Clearly this statement does not make logical sense. However, the point of a paradox is to point out a truth, even if the statements contradict each other. Other examples: • You can save money by spending it. • I'm nobody. • "What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw • Wise fool • Bittersweet

PUN • A pun is a joke that makes a play on words. Fun Puns • Santa’s helpers are known as subordinate Clauses. • She had a photographic memory but never developed it. • The two pianists had a good marriage. They always were in a chord. • I was struggling to figure out how lightning works then it struck me. • I really wanted a camouflage shirt, but I couldn't find one. • A chicken farmer's favorite car is a coupe.

PERSONIFICATION A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics: • One example of this is James Stephens’s poem "The Wind" in which wind preforms several actions. In the poem Stephens writes, “The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers…” • By giving the wind human characteristics, Stephens makes this poem more interesting and achieves a much more vivid image of the way wind whips around a room. Personification is most often used in poetry, coming to popularity during the 18th century

PROTAGONIST • considered to be the main character or lead figure in a novel, play, story, or poem. It may also be referred to as the "hero" of a work • Who was the protagonist in Animal Farm? • Who was the protagonist in Romeo & Juliet?

ANTAGONIST A character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works again the main character, or protagonist, in some way. The antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. It could be death, the devil, an illness, or any challenge that prevents the main character from living “happily ever after." In fact, the antagonist could be a character of virtue in a literary work where the protagonist represents evil. • An antagonist in the story of Genesis is the serpent • What are some good examples of antagonist that are human beings and non-human?

RHETORICAL DEVICES