Literary Devices

Literary Devices D-H DENOTATION - HYPERBOLE

DENOTATION • The literal dictionary definition of a word • Example: de·no·ta·tion (denō táysh'n ) n. 1. basic meaning: the most specific or literal meaning of a word, as opposed to its figurative senses or connotations

DENOUEMENT • The resolution of the plot; the point at which all mysteries are solved, tangles untied, and conflict resolved • Example: When Oedipus banishes himself from Thebes and asks Creon to bury Jocasta and care for his daughters; when Victor asks Robert Walton to pursue the creature and finish the job

DESCRIPTION • Writing that uses imagery and figurative language to show detail and help the reader picture scenes, events, and characters • Example: “The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the rusty bicycle pump.”

DIALECT • Language that conveys a regional distinction of a people group • Example: “My hand is in my hussyfskap, Goodman, as ye may see; An it souldnae be barrd this hundred year, It’s no be barrd for me.” (From “Get Up & Bar the Door”)

DIALOGUE • Written conversation between two or more characters • Example: “Merry Christmas, Uncle!” “Bah humbug!”

DIARY • A writer’s personal day-to-day account of his or her thoughts, impressions, and experiences. • Example:Anne Frank’s main literary accomplishment; anyone’s personal journal; The Diary of Samuel Pepys

DICTION • A writer’s specific choice of words—both vocabulary and syntax (word arrangement and usage); diction may be formal, informal, technical, abstract, concrete, etc. • Example: The poet’s choice for Hrothgar; Shakespeare’s choices for Hamlet; Chaucer’s decision to use the vernacular of the lower class in his writing

DRAMA • A form of literature presented on stage with actors speaking dialogue in front of an audience Examples: Romeo & Juliet; Much Ado About Nothing; Once Upon a Mattress; The Crucible; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

DRAMATIC IRONY • When the audience knows before the characters what will happen Examples: The fact that we know before Oedipus that he is the murderer of his own father; the fact that the reader knows the plans of the three rioters to kill each other in “The Pardoner’s Tale”

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE • A narrative poem or speech in which one character speaks and reveals feelings, personality, or other information previously unknown to the audience Example:Juliet’s speech regarding Romeo; a newscaster reporting on the day’s events; to speak out loud to one’s self, evaluation a course of action

ELEGY • A poem or speech expressing mourning or loss, usually over the death of someone Examples: “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament”; Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam, written in memory of his friend; “On My First Son” by Ben Jonson after the death of his child

ELIZABETHAN (ENGLISH) SONNET • A 14-line poem made up of 3 quatrains (4-line stanzas) and a final couplet Examples:“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day,”; all of Shakespeare’s sonnets

END RHYME • When the sounds of words at the ends of two or more lines of poetry are identical • Example: “In buying victuals; he was never rash / Whether he bought on credit or paid cash.” (from Chaucer’s “Prologue” to Canterbury Tales)

EPIC • A long, narrative poem about the deeds of a hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated • Examples:Beowulf; The Iliad & The Odyssey; Paradise Lost

EPIC SIMILE • A long comparison that continues for a number of lines throughout a long story-telling poem; it usually contains the words like or as • Example: Conspicuous as the evening star that comes, amid the first in heaven, at full of night, and stands most lovely in the west, so shone in sunlight the fine-pointed spear Achilles poised in his right hand… (from The Iliad)

EPIGRAM • A short, witty poem or pointed statement; often written in two well-balanced parts • Examples: “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” “Early bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

EPITAPH • An inscription on a gravestone or monument to honor the memory of the deceased • Example: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”

EPITHET • A descriptive phrase or compound word that functions as an adjective and is used to point out specific traits of a person or thing • Examples:“The sin-stained demon,” “boar-headed helmets,” “gold-covered benches”

ESSAY • A brief work of non-fiction that offers an opinion on a subject • Examples: “Of Studies,” or “Of Marriage and Single Life” by Francis Bacon (Father of the English essay)

EXAGGERATION • To stretch the truth for effect; hyperbole • Example: “There was no one greater or stronger anywhere on the earth than Beowulf.”

EXPOSITION • The part of a narrative or drama in which important background information is revealed • Example: “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” (From A Christmas Carol)

EXTENDED METAPHOR • A comparison of two things, not using like or as, that goes on throughout an entire poem, or portion of a story • Examples: When a poet gives a long description of his love as a mathematician’s compass he is using this; a song describing a person’s love like a fire through an entire song

EXTERNAL CONFLICT • Problems that are outside of the protagonist rather than within • Examples: Scrooge v. fate; Beowulf v. Grendel; Victor v. the Creature; the three young ritoers v. Death

FABLE • A brief tale told in verse or prose for the purpose of teaching a moral or lesson; often contain animals as main characters • Examples: “The Hare & the Tortoise,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “The Goose Who Laid the Golden Egg”

FALLING ACTION • The point within a plot following a crisis and showing a reversal of fortune for the protagonist • Example: When Jocasta discovers the truth and Oedipus continues to seek the truth regarding the murderer; when Victor decides to go after the Creature

FANTASY • A work of fiction that disregards the restraints of reality; creatures or events that are not real are presented in an organized fashion • Examples: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia

FARCE • Exaggerated comedy that features absurd plot, ridiculous situations, and humorous dialogue • Examples: A pie in the face; a slip on a banana peel; a mix-up of character identities

FICTION • Imaginative works of prose, usually presented in novel or short story form; the people and events of a work of literature that are NOT true • Examples: Frankenstein; A Christmas Carol; A Separate Piece; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE • Language that communicates meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words; includes similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, etc. • Examples: A writer using various methods to describe a flower…the flower was as red as dawn; the flower was a glowing ember; the flower awoke with joy to the light of sunrise

FIRST PERSON P.O.V. • When the narrator in a work of literature tells the story as he or she perceives it—from the perspective of I, me, mine, we, etc. • Example: When we arrived to the scene, the first thing I noticed were the shards of glass throughout the room.

FLASHBACK • An account of an event that happened before the beginning of the story • Example: The narrator explains that a character used to love dance as a child and gives a long explanation of a scene from that character’s childhood, then jumps back to the present scene where the character is despising dance.

FOIL • A character who provides a striking contrast to another character • Example: Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, is one to Scrooge; Elizabeth is one to Victor Frankenstein; Darth Vader is one to Yoda.

FOLK BALLAD • An anonymous poem or song handed down from generation to generation • Examples: “Get Up and Bar the Door,” “Sir Patrick Spens,” and “Barbara Allan” are all examples of this form.

FOLK TALE • A story handed down by work of mouth from generation to generation • Examples: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Three Little Pigs,” “Rumplestiltskin,” “Paul Bunyan”

FORESHADOWING • A writer’s clues or hints about events that will occur later within the work • Examples: Teiresias’ predictions of Oedipus’ loss of sight; Frankenstein’s sense of doom before a loved one dies

FORM All the principles of arrangement in a poem—the ways in which the words and images are organized and pattered. Form includes rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, consonance, and assonance. Examples: A sonnet, a haiku, a dramatic monologue, a free verse poem, a narrative poem, an elegy—all are examples of this literary device.

FRAME STORY • A story within another story • Examples: “The Canterbury Tales,” “Federigo’s Falcon,” and the tales from The Decameron; Frankenstein

FREE VERSE • Verse that contains no particular pattern of rhythm or rhyme • Example: “I have met them at the close of day/ coming with vivid faces / from counter or desk… (a stanza from a poem)

HAIKU • A poem of three lines and 17 syllables and arranged in lines of 5 syllables (first line), 7 syllables (second line), and 5 syllables (third line) • Example: “Purple crocuses Rise up to meet the dawn Stems of royalty” (a poem)

HERO • The protagonist or central character in a work of fiction, a drama, or epic poem • Examples: Oedipus, Beowulf, Victor Frankenstein, Ebeneezer Scrooge, and Hamlet are all examples of this.

HEROIC COUPLET • Two rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter (10 beats per line) • Example: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

HISTORICAL WRITING • The narrative or systematic telling of real past events • Example: A work of literature retelling the real events of Lewis and Clark; a work that retells the accounts of several lives involved in the Civil War

HUMOR • Literature that includes sarcasm, irony, exaggeration, puns, and characters in ridiculous situations • Example: Dave Barry’s use of satire to show the ridiculous side of recent news events; Chaucer’s use of mockery to poke fun at the Miller; when you are sarcastic to make people laugh

HYPERBOLE • Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis • Example: There was no one greater or stronger than Beowulf anywhere on the earth.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” with the meaning that the bit of blood on Macbeth’s hand will turn the entire ocean red. A: Hyperbole/Exaggeration

Teiresias’ predictions to Odysseus as to how to get home; the eclipse of the moon, the horses running wild, the winds blowing trees down—all before Duncan’s actual murder; Frankenstein’s feeling of dread and doom as he listens to Justine’s last words in her cell A: Foreshadowing SAMPLE QUESTIONS

The conversation between the three rioters in “The Pardoner’s Tale”; the conversation between Anansi and his daughter; words spoken by Macbeth to Lady Macbeth A: Dialogue SAMPLE QUESTIONS

The Odyssey; The Iliad; Beowulf; Paradise Lost; Lord of the Rings A: Epic SAMPLE QUESTIONS

A pie in the face; a slip on a banana peel; a falling safe hits someone on the head; some of Shakespeare’s mixed identity plays; Saturday Night Live’s various skits, especially those of cheerleaders, politicians, nerds, etc. A: Farce SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Literary Devices