Category: Literary Devices

Onomatopoeia: A Literary Device

As a literary term, onomatopoeia means a process of creating sounds through words for specific animals that resemble those animals.

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Onomatopoeia

Etymologically, the literary device of onomatopoeia has entered the English language from the Latin language. In Latin, it has come from Greecian terms onoma and poiein. Onoma means the name and poiein means to create or make. Therefore, it means creating sounds specific to titles or names. The term is in vogue in the English language since the 16th century.

Grammatically, it is a noun. Different dictionaries state that it is an act of creating sounds for different specific things that are akin to those things.

Definition of Literary Device of Onomatopoeia

As a literary term, onomatopoeia means a process of creating sounds through words for specific animals that resemble those animals. For example, the bleating of lambs, the roaring of lions, and the braying of donkeys.

Common Examples of Literary Device of Onomatopoeia
  1. Dogs bark.
  2. Cellphones beep.
  3. Bees buzz.
  4. Leaves rustle.
  5. Birds chirp.
  6. Snakes hiss.
  7. Alligators hiss.
Literary Examples of Onomatopoeia
Example # 1

From ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas Gray

The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,

         The swallow twitt’ring from the straw-built shed,

The [rooster]’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, (word replace for offensive nuances)

         No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

These verses from Thomas Gray’s popular “Elegy” shows the use of the literary device of onomatopoeia in the third verse such as the clarion of a c*ck and echoing of a horn. The second line also shows the use of twitter with swallow though it is used with almost every other bird. This is a beautiful use of onomatopoeia.

Example # 2

From Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

These verses from Macbeth, a popular play by William Shakespeare, show how Shakespeare is adept in using the literary device, onomatopoeia. Here double, bubble, and its repeated use show that the use of onomatopoeia has created a unique musical quality.

Example # 3

From Tales of Childhood by Rold Dahl

Mr Coombes stood back and took up a firm stance with his legs well apart. I thought how small Thwaites’s bottom looked and how very tight it was. Mr Coombes had his eyes focused squarely upon it. He raised the cane high above his shoulder, and as he brought it down, it made a loud swishing sound, and then there was a crack like a pistol shot as it struck Thwaites’s bottom.
Little Thwaites seemed to lift about a foot into the air and he yelled ‘Ow-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w!’ and straightened up like elastic. ‘‘Arder!’ shrieked a voice from over in the corner.

These lines from Tales of Childhood by Dahl show the use of sounds. Arder and oww are sounds though they are meaningless and are not associated with anything specific. Yet their usage shows that they could become popular when associated with something specific as here with the emotions and mood of Little Thwaites. This is a good use of the literary device of onomatopoeia.

Example # 4

From Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

So her Mummy most carefully didn’t; and bright and early next morning Tegumai went down to the river to think about new sound pictures, and when Taffy got up she saw Ya-las (water is ending or running out) chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank, outside the Cave.
‘Um,’ said Taffy. ‘These picture-sounds are rather a bother! Daddy’s just as good as come here himself and told me to get more water for Mummy to cook with.’ She went to the spring at the back of the house and filled the tank from a bark bucket, and then she ran down to the river and pulled her Daddy’s left ear—the one that belonged to her to pull when she was good.

Kipling, too, has used Ya-las and Um as specific sounds that are only associated with human beings in Just So Stories. The reason for this use of onomatopoeic sounds is that human beings are inventive and creative and can create and subsequently associate the sounds with specific acts.

Example # 5

From Animal Farm by George Orwell

And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into Beasts of England in tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it. They were so delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might have continued singing it all night if they had not been interrupted.

This passage occurs in Animal Farm, a phenomenal fable by George Orwell. Here Orwell has listed the sounds of all the animals such as the winning of the dogs and the bleating of sheep. These sounds show the skill of George Orwell in using the literray device of onomatopoeia.

How to Create Onomatopoeia
  1. Check with the specific idea, thing, plant, or animal and think out about its specific sound.
  2. If there is no specific sound, feel the sound and use your sense to create a new one.
  3. Place the sound in a specific context.
  4. Evaluate whether the sound makes sense in that context and could be used in other contexts, too.
Benefits of Using Onomatopoeia
  1. It helps readers understand things, objects, and animals and their associated sounds.
  2. It helps writers clearly define and present things and events.
  3. It helps writers write distinct and beautiful descriptions.
  4. It shows the dexterity of the writer in his craft.
  5. There are no specific sounds for specific new things such as you could garr for grate or carr for screeching of a wood on the floor.
Literary Device of Onomatopoeia in Literary Theory
  1. As far as literary theory is concerned, onomatopoeia is an integral part of descriptive and figurative language. Therefore, it is important to review and critique the role of the literary device of onomatopoeia in formalism, readers’ response theory, New Criticism, and psychoanalytic literary theory.
  2. It is also important in indigenous critical theory as distinct sounds are different for each indigenous animal or object.
  3. It is an integral part of postmodernism and postcolonialism when it comes to narratives of different cultures to mark the epistemological values of these sounds in native cultures.
Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary Of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Assaneo, María Florencia, Juan Ignacio Nichols, and Marcos Alberto Trevisan. ‘The Anatomy of Onomatopoeia.’ PloS one 6.12 (2011): e28317. Bredin, Hugh. ‘Onomatopoeia as a Figure and a Linguistic Principle.’ New Literary History 27.3 (1996): 555-569.

Juxtaposition

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device Juxtaposition

Etymologically, the literary term, juxtaposition, has originated from the Latin term juxta which means close, near, or at hand. It entered the French vocabulary in 1660, which almost means the same thing that two things are close to each other, or one thing is beside the other, or one thing is near the other.

Definition of Literary Device Juxtaposition

In literature, juxtaposition means to put two ideas or literary or linguistic elements close to each other in the same sentence, showing their comparison and contrast, or for that matter their differences or similarities which are not explicit but implicit.

Common Examples of Juxtaposition
  1. Do what you wish and don’t do what you hate.
  2. Let us demonstrate bravery, but not demonstrate cowardness.
  3. Do not make black white or white black. Let the color stay the same and see the same sameness.
  4. It was the best of the times and it was the worst of the times. (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)
  5. Let us not dispel our fear, but expel our cowardness.
  6. Show your guts and remove the ruts.
Literary Examples of Juxtaposition
Example # 1

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition, and indeed it takes
From our achievements, though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.

Hamlet speaks these lines in the first act of the play where he juxtaposes different ideas as shown as “honored in the breach than the observance.” It shows a comparison in the very next line about the east and west as well as “pith and marrow.” This shows how Hamlet differentiates different conventions in different cultures and compares them to his own culture.

Example # 2

From A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy

Elfride had as her own the thoughtfulness which appears in the face of the Madonna della Sedia, without its rapture: the warmth and spirit of the type of woman’s feature most common to the beauties––mortal and immortal––of Rubens, without their insistent fleshliness. The characteristic expression of the female faces of Correggio*––that of the yearning human thoughts that lie too deep for tears*––was hers sometimes, but seldom under ordinary
conditions.

This passage occurs in the novel of Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes. He presents the character of Elfride and her thoughtfulness as how it looks when compared to mortal and immortal, common and specific, and superficial and deep. The last one is rather implicit as the other two ideas are explicitly compared.

Example # 3

From A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Two women, one white and one colored, are taking the air on the steps of the building. The white woman is Eunice, who occupies the upstairs flat; the colored woman a neighbor, for New Orleans is a cosmopolitan city where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races in the old part of town.

This setting in the first scene of the play by Tennessee Williams shows how the author has beautifully compared two ladies with two different cultures putting the ideas in juxtaposition so that the readers fully understand his purpose. This juxtaposition intensifies the understanding of the audience.

Example # 4

From A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

I don’t enjoy it,” I said. He shook his head and looked out of the window.
“You do not mind it. You do not see it. You must forgive me. I know you are
wounded.”
“That is an accident.”
“Still even wounded you do not see it. I can tell. I do not see it myself but I feel it a
little.”
“When I was wounded we were talking about it. Passini was talking.”
The priest put down the glass. He was thinking about something else.
“I know them because I am like they are,” he said.

This passage occurs in the novel, A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. It shows how Hemingway has juxtaposed different ideas about knowing, not knowing, enjoying, not enjoying, and looking, not looking in the conversation between Rinaldi and the priest. Rinaldi even states that he does not see but only feels that is an interesting juxtaposition of two different ideas of seeing and feeling.

Example # 5

“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

This short poem presents the anaphoric juxtaposition of two different ideas as shown in the title. Frost compares both the ideas of fire and ice after equating them with love and hate and survival and destruction though survival is implicit and not explicit.

Example # 6

From Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

Zora Neal Hurston has beautifully reversed as well as juxtaposed two ideas remembrance and forgetting in the same sentence, joining them with a conjunction. Although it is a reversal of the same ideas, it is a beautiful juxtaposition that an African American woman writer has used.

How to Create Juxtaposition
  1. Make a plan to compare, contrast, differentiate, or equate two events, characters, ideas, character traits, objects, or abstractions.
  2. Think about where, how, and when you want to employ those two ideas.
  3. Create a sentence with two ideas in it with both in different clauses, each clause having an equal number of words.
  4. Read the sentence again to check that you have compared or contrasted them.
  5. Now relate them to what you have used the idea for.
Benefits of Using Juxtaposition
  1. Showing good or bad traits of a character through the juxtaposition of two characters such as God and Satan in Paradise Lost by John Milton, or Hamlet and Claudius in Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
  2. Showing relations between ideas, races, nations, characters, and objects such as Claudius and Hamlet are related to each other. Black and white color are related to each other in racial discrimination.
  3. Showing a binary opposition in the theoretical lenses.
  4. Showing a sense of humor through comparison and contrast of opposite ideas such as in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift.
Literary Device Juxtaposition in Literary Theory
  1. Juxtaposition is an integral part of the formalistic analysis of a literary piece as it shows different ideas compared, contrasted, and equated to each other such as totalitarianism and democracy have been contrasted in Animal Farm by George Orwell and liberalism and authoritarianism have been contrasted in 1984 by George Orwell.
  2. Juxtaposition is also very useful when analyzing a piece of literature from indigenous critical theory, critical race theory, or post-colonialism. It outlines the binary oppositions of different cultures, races, and social structures during the analysis of the texts written in these cultural scenarios.
  3. It also helps in outlining ideas in the reader’s response theory as it juxtaposes the author and the text, the reader and the author, and the author’s ideas and ideas of the society in which he lives.
Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism and Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004. Print.

Horrocks, Roger. Mosaic: A Study of Juxtaposition in Literature, As An Approach to Pound’s Cantos and Similar Modern Poems. Diss. ResearchSpace@ Auckland, 1976. Ebook. Sontag, Susan. “Happenings: An Art of Radical Juxtaposition.” Against Interpretation (1966): 263-74.

Imagery

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Imagery

Etymologically, the literary term, imagery, seems to have originated from the archaic French word, image. It soon transformed into imager which means making an image, or imagerie that entered the English language as imagery. In Middle English, it meant statuary or carved images. It is also said that the term has originated from a Latin term, imitari which means to copy or imitate something.

Now, it is used as imagery which also means images. In grammar, it is a noun.

Definition of Literary Device of Imagery

As a literary term, imagery means the use of language in novels, poems, short stories, or essays, showing the use of figurative language intended to evoke sensory experiences of the readers. It often appeals to the five senses: sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste. In other words, it means the verbal description of things to create mental images in readers.

Common Examples of Imagery

Imagery is common in everyday language. People often use these images to make their audience picture things.

  • His gait was abnormally dismal like a lame duck.
  • The trees were shedding leaves like a hailstorm.
  • The leaves were making a blanket on the grass.
  • The grass was waving its long arms in the wind.
  • The darkness was threatening their calm walk.
Literary Examples of Imagery
Example # 1

From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

“Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.”

This is a very good use of descriptive language Shakespeare uses in his play, Julius Caesar. The images that Cassius creates about Brutus and his eyes show that he lacks gentleness. This shows that his hand is not only strange but also stubborn. The metaphorical language creates two powerful images; strange eyes and strange hands that both have turned to their benefactor, though, the owner of both is Brutus. This is a beautiful way of indirectly saying things to a person about another person through the use of imagery.

Example # 2

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

So, oft it chances in particular men,
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth–wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin–
By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason.

These lines from Hamlet show that the readers or audiences see the use of the metaphor of a mole, the personification of nature, and images of color create a strong sense of an evil person. This is the use of images of color, sight, and sound that makes these lines powerful. The sense that the imagery creates is that of an evil.

Example # 3

From Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Mrs. Darling Screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door opened, and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled and sprang at the boy, who leapt lightly through the window. Again Mrs. Darling screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, and she ran down into the street to look for his little body, but it was not there; and she looked up, and in the black night she could see nothing but what she thought was a shooting.

This passage occurs in Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. The images of sound in the second line show the use of figurative language and the sensory experience of sound that the readers will go through. It seems as if Nana is a dog. The response is almost the same as Mrs. Darling shows the same thing. Again, an image of color appears by the end. This passage shows the use of imagery.

Example # 4

From “Past, Present, Future” by Emily Bronte

Tell me, tell me, smiling child,

What the past is like to thee?

‘An autumn evening soft and mild

Wind a wind that sights mournfully.’

Tell, what is the present hour?

‘A green and flowery spray

Where a young bird sits gathering its power

To mount and fly away.’

These verses from the poem “Past, Present, Future” by Emily Bronte show the use of different images. The image of touch “soft and mild,” the image of sight of color “green and spray” and of movement such as “mount and fly” show that Emily Bronte has used balanced imagery to make the children read this rhyming poem as a song.

Example # 5

From “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a water’s shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

Because my love is come to me.

These lines from “A Birthday” shows the beautiful use of different images. The use of metaphors makes these images accentuate as the singing bird, water, heart, apple, boughs, fruits, and sea seem to create a powerful scene in the eyes of readers.

How to Create Imagery
  1. Select an object, thing, idea, or figure.
  2. Create a metaphor or simile to relate it with.
  3. Write down its features and create and use sound devices and structural devices to bedeck it with more images.
  4. Place that person or object in a setting and write lines about the setting and the relation of the person with the setting in a timeline.
Benefits of Using Imagery
  1. Imagery helps writers to engage readers and audiences.
  2. It helps in making reading interesting.
  3. It helps in clarifying things, events, scenes, and characters.
  4. It helps in associating meanings with symbols and things.
Literary Device of Imagery in Literary Theory
  1. As imagery creates mental pictures, it not only embodies things, persons and events but also gives them a referential position with reference to consciousness and rationality. Having four varieties of mental imagery, it is important for a literary narrative to create an asymmetric relationship between words and referents.
  2. Imagery is an essential element of figurative language. Therefore, it is important in the formalistic analysis of a poem or a piece of prose to draw meanings that the writers put into their writings.
  3. As far as other literary theoretical perspectives, imagery is important in postmodern as well as in indigenous critical theory, as both draw their meanings from the environment as well as descriptive features of characters, objects, and events.
Suggested Readings

Finke, Ronald A. Principles of Mental Imagery. The MIT Press, 1989. Print.

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print. Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.

More from Literary Devices:

Foreshadowing

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Foreshadowing

The term, foreshadowing, comprises two different words fore- and shadow. It seems to indicate that an object throws its shadow before it appears in view.

In grammar, it appears as a verb having irregular forms such as foreshadowed and foreshadowing.

Literally, it means a warning, a hint, or a clue about something going to happen in the future such as his belligerence toward me foreshadows his enmity in the future. Some other related terms include foretell, portend, and augur. It often happens or appears at the start of a story or poem or the start of the chapter of a story, or novel.

Definition of Literary Device of Foreshadowing

In literature, it is a term that indicates what is going to happen later in the story. It often happens, appears, or is inserted in the form of clues, or hints. Some of its forms are red herrings, flashforwards, or symbols.

Types of foreshadowing

There are two major types of foreshadowing. It is either direct or indirect.

  1. Direct Foreshadowing: This type of foreshadowing directly points out the danger such as the danger of sharks for the Marlin in The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway.
  2. Indirect Foreshadowing: This type of foreshadowing indirectly points toward the danger that may appear real or unfounded such as the danger of animal rebellion that later materializes in Animal Farm, a novella written by George Orwell.
Literary Examples of Foreshadowing
Example # 1

From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

This is the first passage of Pride and Prejudice, the phenomenal novel by an English writer, Jane Austen. The very first line shows that the novel is bout marriage making and the next few lines clarify that Mr. Bennet has a huge family having a good yet nagging lady. Therefore, there must be something about marriage at his home. It, later, turns out that almost all his daughters are of marriageable age and that Mrs. Bennet is very pressing about their matches. This is a good and appropriate example of a foreshadowing.

Example # 2

From Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Ralph did a surface dive and swam under water with his eyes open; the sandy edge of the pool loomed up like a hillside. He turned over, holding his nose, and a golden light danced and shattered just over his face. Piggy was looking determined and began to take off his shorts.
Presently he was palely and fatly naked. He tiptoed down the sandy side of the pool, and sat there up to his neck in water smiling proudly at Ralph.

The image of Ralph that William Golding has created in his novel, Lord of the Flies, is not only suitable for a leader, but also for a guide. His swimming skill, piggy’s envy, and their friendship show that it is going to be a combination of mind and matter. This is another good example of a foreshadowing.

Example # 3

From Moby-Dick or The Whale by Herman Melville

Once more. Say, you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries—stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region.

This description of the sailor shows that he is obsessed with voyages. That is why it seems from those magical lands he mentions that even an absent-minded person would lead another person to water. This shows his obsession with the sea and water which later proves correct. This is a very good foreshadowing used by Herman Melville.

Example # 4

From Beloved by Toni Morrison

124 was spiteful . Full of a baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old—as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny hand prints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard).

These lines show that Sethe is going to face difficult times as Baby Suggs, her old companion, has left her and other men have run away. This foreshadowing used by Toni Morrison has all the necessary elements.

Example # 5

From A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

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—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

By using anaphoric lines “It was…,” Dickens has employed a beautiful yet implicit foreshadowing to let the reader see that the times were different across the English Channel and that both of these times were going to show things differently for characters from France and England. This is an apt and yet abstract use of a foreshadowing.

Example # 6

From Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.

This passage from Brave New World shows the type of society Huxley has presented. It clearly shows that it is a very advanced society with very short and curt shibboleths for the people to follow. Therefore, it must have been a dystopic society. This prediction proves true later in the novel, and shows his skillful use of a foreshadowing.

How to Create a Foreshadowing
  1. Using conversation related to the event, accident, or incident such as in Pride and Prejudice.
  2. Use character traits of the characters involved in the event or incident such as in Beloved by Toni Morrison
  3. Use the title of the book, the story, or the chapter such as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
  4. Use natural settings to announce what is going to happen such as in A Tale of Two Cities.
Benefits of Using Foreshadowing
  1. It keeps the reader hooked to the text until he finishes.
  2. It makes the reader enjoy and be relished the story.
  3. It makes the reader have a sense of improvement in his comprehension of world events.
  4. It makes the readers aware of new happenings to understand the world around them.
  5. It makes stories and poems interesting.
  6. It fills stories and poems with a multiplicity of meanings.
Literary Device of Foreshadowing in Literary Theory
  1. Although some other theoretical studies have used foreshadowing to predict emotions, emotional responses, and human adjustment such as structural affect theory, foreshadowing is in use in discursive theoretical studies, discursive English studies, post-colonial studies, and narratology.
  2. Interestingly, two main literary terms/devices, foreshadowing, and flashbacks have been used in an interactive narrative generation on computers. Yet, in theoretical lenses, they become part of progress in discussion, debate, and arguments about narratives.
Suggested Readings

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction To Literary And Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, 2020. Print. ‘

Bae, Byung-Chull, and R. Michael Young. “A Use Of Flashback And Foreshadowing For Surprise Arousal In Narrative Using A Plan-Based Approach.” Joint International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008. Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism, and Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004. Print.

Interested in reading more? Read on Flashback

Flashback

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Meanings of Literary Device of Flashback

Etymologically, flashback, a cultural term, is a combination of two terms, flash and back. It originated from fires in engines around the beginning of the 20th century. Later, it came into use in cinematic techniques in 1916. In grammar, it is a noun with plural, flashbacks.

As a literary term, it is mostly used in narratives, movies, and films. This term makes the audiences and readers see an event happening before them after it is inserted into a narrative. It happens in chronological order before its time.

In psychology, it means hallucinations about past events triggered by some traumatic event.

Definition of Literary Device of Flashback

A flashback takes the story back into the past. It is a scene inserted in the present time but shows the past. Therefore, flashbacks make up the back story of the narrative. It is also called analepsis.

Types of Flashbacks
  1. Internal Analepsis: It points to an earlier event that happened in the narrative.
  2. External Analepsis: This flashback refers to the time that happened before the narrative has come.
Elements of Flashback

A flashback has four integral elements.

  1. Movement: It means how much time and space a flashback has taken in bringing changes or a change.
  2. Degree: It means the time that a flashback takes in creating a break.
  3. Level of Specification: It means whether it is specific or general and has been used to generalize some past event.
  4. Vividness: It means the type of frame and the ways it is shown happening before the audiences or readers.
Examples of Flashback in Literature
Example # 1

The Odyssey by Homer

Homer has used the technique of flashback in his poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus is shown in the Phaeacian court when he recounts the journeys that he has taken so far. These journeys make up the story of books 5-12. It means when the story opens the readers find Odysseus in the seventh year after he departs on these journeys. However, Odysseus has left these seven years when he recounts his tales to Alcinous.

Example # 2

From The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

Now in his mind he saw a railway station at Karagatch and he was standing with his pack and that was the headlight of the Simplon-Orient cutting the dark now and he was leaving Thrace then after the retreat. That was one of the things he had saved to write, with, in the morning at break-fast, looking out the window and seeing snow on the mountains in Bulgaria and Nansen’s Secretary asking the old man if it were snow and the old man looking at it and saying, No, that’s not snow. It’s too early for snow. And the Secretary repeating to the other girls, No, you see. It’s not snow and them all saying, It’s not snow we were mistaken. But it was the snow all right and he sent them on into it when he evolved exchange of populations. And it was snow they tramped along in until they died that winter.

This passage occurs in the short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” written by Ernest Hemingway. He has beautifully inserted several flashbacks in the story at different places and almost all of them are without any sequence or chronological order. This one, too, shows Harry ruminating over his past when he is at the Karagatch railway station and recalling what happened to him in Bulgaria.

Example # 3

From The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood

But that’s where I am, there’s no escaping it. Time’s a trap, I’m caught in it. I must forget about my secret name and all ways back. My name is Offred now, and here is where I live. Live in the present, make the most of it, it’s all you’ve got. Time to take stock. I am thirty-three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five seven without shoes. I have trouble remembering what I used to look like. I have viable ovaries. I have one more chance.

This passage occurs in the novel of Margret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. This postmodern presentation of the futuristic ontology is replete with various flashbacks. Here Offred thinks about herself and introduces her persona in a flashback, including her physical features and age.

Example # 4

From Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut

Speaking of people from Poland: Billy Pilgrim accidentally saw a Pole hanged in public, about three days after Billy got to Dresden. Billy just happened to be walking to work with some others shortly after sunrise, and they came to a gallows and a small crowd in front of a soccer stadium. The Pole was a farm laborer who was being hanged for having had sexual intercourse with a German woman. So it goes. (Chapter-7)

This passage occurs in the seventh chapter of the novel of Kurt Vonnegut. Although it is, somewhat, semi-autobiographical, it shows his deep observation regarding the character of Billy Pilgrim and his flashbacks about the past and the present. This passage shows Billy reaching Poland and thinking about the German bombing of Dresden.

Example # 5

Flashback in Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump presents examples of flashbacks in the movies. It opens with the protagonist, Forrest Gump, thinking about his life and telling the stories to different audiences who share a bench with him on the road. His recruitment in the army, his visit to Vietnam, his business, and his love all pass on the screen in his flashbacks and narrates his story.

How to Create Flashback

  1. Learn using in media res or start a narrative from the middle and then move to childhood including significant events.
  2. Plan before narrating a story.
  3. Pick the event that becomes a hook. Check that it really hooks the readers or the audiences into the narrative.
  4. Try less significant events after the hook and move to the more significant events.
  5. End the story on a more significant event, and tie it to the hook.
Benefits of Using Flashback
  1. It captures the imagination of the readers.
  2. It makes readers and audiences play with their imagination and understand the story in sequence.
  3. It jolts the readers into surprise and they stay hooked to the story or the movie.
  4. It creates a sense of reality before the audience or the readers.
  5. It makes the readers and the audiences construct events in their imagination and feel empathetic to the protagonist after he/she undergoes suffering.
Flashback in Literary Theory
  1. As flashback is a frame, it has often been mentioned with reference to contextual frame theory. Other than this, it is an important part of the narrative technique used in cultural theoretical concepts, narratology, cinematography, and postmodernism.
  2. It is specifically in indigenous narratives where memory plays an important role in showing colonialism, its retreat, and its aftershocks on the indigenous population.
  3. Flashback is also an important feature of postcolonial literature where indigenous, local, or native writers recall the memories of colonial torture, colonial ravages, and colonial devastation and its impacts on the natives.
Suggested Readings

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction To Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, 2020. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Hemingway Library Edition. Simon and Schuster, 2017. Print.

Roth, Eric, and Winston Groom. Forrest Gump. Paramount Pictures, 1994.

Sculley, John, and John A. Byrne. Odyssey. Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1987. Print. Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural theory. Routledge, 2018. Print.

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Dramatic Poetry

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Dramatic Poetry

The literary device dramatic poetry comprises two different words. The first one is related to drama, while the second is related to poetry. Interestingly, in the pre-Elizabethan, Elizabethan, and even the Restoration period, the playwrights used blank verses or poetic diction for plays. Therefore, this type of poetry was called dramatic poetry.

In literary terms, dramatic poetry is also called verse drama or dramatic verse. Such a poetic work also tells a story. Most of the folk tales of almost every other culture use dramatic poetry to relate the folk stories specifically associated with that culture. Such poetic works stay alive through oral singing. Today, Opera is the form of the same cultural tradition.

Definition of Literary Device of Dramatic Poetry

In literary terms, a poetic form that presents a character, a story or an event in verse form is a type of dramatic poetry.

Types of Dramatic Poetry

Generally, dramatic poems or dramatic poetry comprises four forms;

  1. Soliloquy
  2. Dramatic Monologue
  3. Character
  4. Dialogue
Literary Examples of Dramatic Poetry

Example # 1

From Macbeth by William Shakespeare

“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it,….”  ( Act-I, Scene-V)

This passage occurs in Macbeth, a popular play by William Shakespeare. It is an example of soliloquy, a type of dramatic poetry. It shows that although it is not properly rhymed, it has a proper metrical pattern, a hallmark of such blank verse poetry.

Example # 2

From “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

These lines occur in the popular poem of Robert Browning “My Last Duchess.” It has all the ingredients of dramatic poetry as it is a monologue, has a character who speaks to his audience, and has a purpose to speak in such a way.

Example # 3

From “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” by Elizabeth Barrent Browning

I stand on the mark beside the shore

Of the first white pilgrim’s bended knee,

Where exile turned to ancestor,

And God was thanked for liberty.

I have run through the night, my skin is dark,

I bend my knee down on this mark:

I look on the sky and the sea.

This first-person account of a slave in dramatic form presents a beautiful example of dramatic poetry used in the poem. It presents him speaking about his pilgrim, his family, and the gratitude he expresses for God. However, it has not the dramatic quality such as in “My Duchess” by Robert Browning.

Example # 4

From “Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.

This metaphorical poem presents the hawk speaking to his unknown interlocutors. These two stanzas not only present a character but also show his inner intentions and his would-be actions toward his audiences. This is a good example of dramatic poetry in poetic form.

Example # 5

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month—
Let me not think on’t—Frailty, thy name is woman!—

These comments by Hamlet in Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare, present a beautiful example of dramatic poetry and how rhetorical strategies could be applied to it. Shakespeare has not only used a rhetorical question but also generalized a common perception about women.

How to Create Dramatic Poetry

When creating a type of dramatic poetry, think about these steps.

  1. Type or form: What is the type of writing you are going to start? What is the shape and genre of this piece? Is it literary or scientic?
  2. Think about the character, situation, audiences, and readers.
  3. Decide whether your presentation in poetic or blank verse format.
  4. Complete what you have written and read it to evaluate its impacts.

Benefits of Using Dramatic Poetry

  1. It helps understand characters, situations, language, and audiences.
  2. Dramatic poetry makes it easy to arouse emotions, passions, and excitement.
  3. It makes writings effective and impactful.
  4. Dramatic poetry helps writers and poets to achieve their objectives easily.

Dramatic Poetry in Literary Theory

  1. Although dramatic poetry is not of any relevance in any literary theory, it helps in critiquing from a formalist perspective in formalism literary theory. It helps evaluate conflict and tension in poems or dramatic stories.
  2. In other literary theories, it helps understand characters and their psychologies, identities, and intentions. Therefore, it could be applied to literary pieces when critiquing from the psychoanalytic approach, Marxist theoretical perspective, or even the indigenous critical theory.
  3. Furthermore, dramatic poetry, as is related to drama, has relevance in simple critiques as Eliot and Dryden have stressed upon its significance.
Suggesting Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Césaire, Aimé. Lyric and Dramatic Poetry, 1946-82. University of Virginia Press, 1990. Trowbridge, Hoyt. “Dryden’s Essay on the Dramatic Poetry of the Last Age.” Philological Quarterly 22 (1943): 240.

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Metaphor

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Metaphor

The term metaphor originated from the French term metaphor. However, in French, it has arrived from the Greek term, metaphora, which means to transfer.

Grammatically, it is a noun with plural metaphors.

In literature, it is a figure of speech. It makes the major element of figurative language. In this figure, a word or a phrase representing a thing, or an idea, demonstrates its application to what it is not applicable.

Definition of Literary Device of Metaphor

To define it in literary devices/terms, it means a figure of speech that presents an idea, action, or object in a way that it is compared to a thing/idea/object to which it is incomparable. Literally, such comparisons do not happen. Yet, this comparison helps in clarifying meanings.

Common Examples of Metaphors

  1. Journey of love
  2. Blindness of mind
  3. Stupidity of the age
  4. Crime of love
  5. Garden of solitude
  6. Battle of wits
  7. Climb a bandwagon
  8. Making a beeline
  9. Put on auto-pilot
  10. Finger in the pie
  11. A sitting duck

Shakespearean Metaphors

  1. Abraham’s bosom
  2. Beauty’s field
  3. Beauty’s legacy
  4. Barbary horse
  5. Bleeding rings
  6. Dove feathered raven
  7. Drunken desire
  8. Knit your hearts
  9. Lady Tongue
  10. Love’s picture, love’s sweet bait, love’s eyes

Literary Examples of Metaphors

Example # 1

From King Lear by William Shakespeare

The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long. (Act-5, Lines 322-325)

This passage occurs in the popular play of William Shakespeare, King Lear. Here Shakespeare presents time as if it is a human being, or something very heavy, having great weight. Yet time never has a weight. This is an exceptionally good metaphor Shakespeare has used to make his audience understand the importance of time.

Example # 2

From The Jungle by Upton Sinclaire

The occasion rested heavily upon Marija’s broad shoulders—it was her task to see that all things went in due form, and after the best home traditions; and, flying wildly hither and thither, bowling every one out of the way, and scolding and exhorting all day with her tremendous voice.

This passage occurs in the novel, the Jungle, by Upton Sinclaire. Sinclair has presented an abstract idea of the occasion as if it is a very heavy responsibility that Marija cannot take up. Yet, she seems as light as a feather. It has rather reduced the heaviness of this responsibility. This is an incredibly good metaphor used to show how the occasion is heralding something grave for Marija and yet she is not realizing it.

Example # 3

From “Dream Land” by Christina Rossetti

Where sunless rivers weep
Their waves into the deep,
She sleeps a charmèd sleep:
Awake her not.
Led by a single star,
She came from very far
To seek where shadows are
Her pleasant lot.

Christian Rossetti in her poem “Dream Land” has presented rivers as if they are human beings. She compares the rivers to human beings as they show their sorrow by weeping. This metaphorical language has rather personified the rivers, making the audiences feel an emotional attachment to the poetic idea.

Example # 4

From Hard Times by Charles Dickens

For, the boys and girls sat on the face of the inclined plane in two compact bodies, divided up the centre by a narrow interval; and Sissy, being at the corner of a row on the sunny side, came in for the beginning of a sunbeam, of which Bitzer, being at the corner of a row on the other side, a few rows in advance, caught the end. But, whereas the girl was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to receive a deeper and more lustrous colour from the sun, when it shone upon her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the self-same rays appeared to draw out of him what little colour he ever possessed.

This passage from Hard Times shows many metaphors at work. The face of the inclined plane having two compact bodies show how a metaphor works in a narrative. It shows as if it is another body having its own face. It shows how Dickens compares things and how he uses unique metaphors.

Example # 5

From Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing, the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space, the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness.

This passage occurs in Heart of Darkness byJoseph Conrad. First Conrad shows the Thames stretching which is a direct metaphor. The next sentence shows several metaphors such as the welding of the sea and the sky, the sails of the barges having peaks and haze that is taking rest. Only Conrad could have used so many metaphors in just a few sentences.

Types of Metaphor

There are several types of metaphors. Some of the important terms are as follows.

  1. Absolute Metaphor
  2. Complex Metaphor
  3. Conceptual Metaphor
  4. Conventional Metaphor
  5. Extended Metaphor
  6. Dead Metaphor

How to Create Metaphors

  1. Make a plan and choose a thing, a concept or idea, a character, a person or anything you want to compare.
  2. Focus on what you are comparing that thing, person or idea with.
  3. Observe similarities and differences.
  4. Compare it directly.

Benefits of Using Metaphors

  1. Metaphors help make language easy, understandable and descriptive.
  2. They help writers to convey their messages easily.
  3. They help writers to create new linguistic structures and a unique style in writing.
  4. They help readers stretch their imaginations and understand difficult concepts.
  5. They also help readers understand things easily and appreciate the literary qualities of a piece of writing.
  6. They are a powerful tool for communication, making connections, appreciating things and understanding abstract ideas.

Literary Device of Metaphor in Literary Theory

  1. Metaphors are very important in literary theory. Specifically, in formalism or Russian Formalism, metaphor is the primary literary term used to make ideas clear and appreciate the literariness of a poetic piece.
  2. They are significant in readers’ response theory in that they help readers understand different cultural ideas and social abstractions.
  3. They are used in structuralism and post-structuralism in clarifying abstractions and social constructions.
  4. Some of the titles used in different other literary theories such as critical race theory, critical indigenous or indigenous critical theory, queer theory and post-colonialism are also metaphorical in that they signify several abstract ideas.
  5. Capitalism and Marxism, too, utilize metaphors extensively to signify identity, sexuality, gender, norms, mores and conventions.

Suggested Readings

Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism and Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004. Print.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary And Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, 2020. Print.

Goatly, Andrew. The Language of Metaphors. Routledge, 1997. Print. Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural Theory. Routledge, 2018. Print.

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Irony

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Etymology, Meanings of Literary Device Irony

The term irony seems to have occurred in the Grecian language first as eiron which means dissembler. It was used as a verb as eironeia to show simulated ignorance. However, after entering the English language in the early period of the 16th century, it turned into irony which means Socratic irony that has widened its meanings with time. The word Socratic finds its roots in the name of the Grecian sage, Socrates. This is a type of irony that shows the use of a method to expose the ignorance of the antagonist. Literally, it is considered part of humor or a type of humor to create amusement.

Grammatically, it is used as a noun that means to use something or show something to affect ignorance, while its verb is ironize which is rarely used in everyday writing. It means to speak ironically.

Definition of Literary Device Irony

In literature, irony is a term or a technique in which something or its meanings appear entirely different from what it appears at the surface level. Apart from literature and literary pieces, it appears in rhetoric, too.

Categories :

There are several categories of ironies such as;

  1. Classical Irony: This type of irony refers to the irony occurring in the classical Greek plays as used by the original rhetoricians. It is also called Socratic irony.
  2. Romantic Irony: This type of irony is used in fiction presenting self-criticism.
  3. Cosmic Irony: This type of irony is used in generalization. However, it is not cosmetic irony.
  4. Situational Irony: This type of irony appears in actions whose results are contrary to expectations.
  5. Verbal Irony: This irony occurs in statements whose meanings are contradictory to what is said.
  6. Dramatic Irony: This type of irony is what an actor says or does and knows about it as compared to the audience who knows the reality but the actor does not.
  7. Meta Irony: This is not the type of irony that is about the irony and its studies about/over/against irony.

Common Examples

  1. The West takes care of human rights by deploying armed forces around the world and bombing human rights violators.
  2. This democracy asks the people to responsibly cast their votes or pay for not casting them.

Literary Examples :

Example # 1

From Oedipus The King by Sophocles (translated by David Grene)

Children, young sons and daughters of old Cadmus,
why do you sit here with your suppliant crowns?
The town is heavy with a mingled burden
of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense; 5
I did not think it fit that I should hear
of this from messengers but came myself,—
I Oedipus whom all men call the Great.

These are the first few lines of the play, Oedipus The King. These lines show how Oedipus is speaking from his heart, yet it seems ironic to the audiences and readers. The logic of its being ironic is that as a king it is his duty to take care of the city and yet he is unaware of the plague befallen upon the city. This irony is obvious in the last line that he is “the Great” and yet he is asking the people about the problem.

Example # 2

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

I’ll have grounds

More relative than this. The play’s the thing

Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.

These lines occur in Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Prince Hamlet speaks these lines in an aside when he comes to know that a play is going to be staged in the palace and that his childhood friends are eager to watch the play with him. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are happy that they are going to pacify Hamlet, while Hamlet is planning to catch the king through the actors. This is quite an ironic if seen from the perspective of Hamlet.

Example # 3

Irony in The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The dramatic irony occurs when Santiago comes to know that the marlin is huge and that he might have to stay with him at the sea. Despite knowing his fragile physical condition, he vows to kill the marlin and also talks as if he has good physical strength and stamina required for the rigors of fishing. He even generalizes some arguments such as a man can be destroyed by not defeat which are a good example of cosmic irony.

Example # 4

From Macbeth by William Shakespeare

This castle hath a pleasant sea; the air

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle senses.

These verses from Macbeth demonstrate the use of dramatic irony. What King Duncan does not know is that he is going to be killed and the readers and the audiences know it. Even Banquo who does not know it, and responds to him by saying that “The air is delicate” to prove and adds “I have observed” it. This dramatic irony is the crux of the entire play after which Lady Macbeth enters the stage to prove it.

Example # 5

From “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe

“Be it so,” I said, replacing the tool beneath the cloak, and again offering him my arm. He leaned upon it heavily. We continued our route in search of the Amontillado. We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame.

This short passage occurs in the story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. This passage shows the true thinking of Montresor. He is clearly taking Fortunato to his death chamber but in the guise of his friend who needs him to check the cask of amontillado that he has got as a gift from somebody. He has already hooked him to do this. The latent in his words is clear that he has offered him his shoulder to support him, while he is going to kill him later.

Example # 6

Title of the story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy

The title of the story is ironic in that it shows that a man wants a huge tract of land as shown through the character of Pahom and yet when he runs to cover a lot of fields in one go, he arrives at the point when death takes him into its fold. He dies and it just takes a few yards of land where he goes to be buried as a dead man. This shows the ironic title of the story.

How to Create Irony

  1. Think about whether you are writing a story, poem, or play.
  2. Think about the situation and its verbal representation.
  3. Create its contradiction or opposite situation.
  4. Write that opposite situation and think whether it truly represents the opposite of that situation or event.
  5. Also, try to think about what type of irony you are going to employ.
  6. Evaluate its impact in a real-life situation.

Benefits of Using Irony

  1. Irony helps to differentiate characters, situations, and events.
  2. It makes audiences and readers think deeply about what it said or acted in front of them.
  3. It helps the readers to understand the real meanings behind different words and sentences.
  4. It helps writers and authors to create conflict, suspension, empathy, or comedy in their writings.

Literary Device of Irony in Literary Theory and Theories of Irony

  1. The irony is an integral part of figurative language. Therefore, it helps in the formalistic analysis of a literary text to evaluate the effectiveness of the scenes, events, and incidents or characters as well as the overall message that it conveys. When analyzing a thematic strand, irony emerges as the most important element.
  2. Iron is also important in feminism when attacking the oppressive patriarchy, and in indigenous critical and critical race theory when attacking the established hegemony against the indigenous culture such as the Kashmiri narratives or American Indian narratives do against the Indian culture or American culture.
  3. Irony and its different categories are important in postmodernism and posthumanism to show different thematic strands lying uncovered in the existing and contemporary political and social-cultural situations.
  4. Irony also helps understand real-life situations when authors feel fed up with using realism to convey their messages to their readers. Specifically, its role in the theory of meaning, interpretative form, and aestheticsn is important. It is also included in theoretical perspectives as a theory of irony and even theories of irony in media and cultural studies.

Suggested Readings

Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism, and Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004. Print.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary And Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, 2020. Print.

Colebrook, Claire. Irony. Psychology Press, 2004. Print.

Gibbs Jr, Raymond W., Raymond W. Gibbs, and Herbert L. Colston, eds. Irony in Language and Thought: A Cognitive Science Reader. Psychology Press, 2007. Print. Winner, Ellen, and Howard Gardner. “Metaphor and Irony: Two Levels of Understanding.” Metaphor and Thought 2 (1993): 425-443.

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Consonance:

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Consonance

Etymologically, the literary device of consonance is a derivative of a Latin term, consonantia, which means harmony or agreement. It has been derived from consonantem which is an agreement of sounds. It entered the old English in or around the 15th century and has been in common usage since then.

Semantically, it means a combination of sounds that create harmony, or a pleasant combination of sounds, or harmony in tones.

Grammatically, it is a noun with plural consonances.

Definition of Literary Device of Consonance

In literary terms, it falls under stylistics. It is identified as a repetition of similar consonant sounds in words occurring close to each other. It is also considered an antonym of assonance, a repetition of vowel sounds in a similar fashion.

Consonance and Alliteration

Although it seems that alliteration and consonance are similar in some ways, they are entirely different. A consonance shows only the repetition of consonant sounds, while an alliteration shows the initial sounds of neighboring words as consonants. The similarity is only in that both show the repetition of consonant sounds that create perfect notes. For example, he fries frogs show the use of /f/ sound as an alliterate, while “He fries many of those frogs on the fire” shows the use of consonance as there are intervening sounds.

Literary Examples of Consonance

Example # 1

“The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate

      When Frost was spectre-grey,

And Winter’s dregs made desolate

      The weakening eye of day.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky

      Like strings of broken lyres,

And all mankind that haunted nigh

      Had sought their household fires.

Read this stanza from the poem of Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush,” and see that he has used consonants of different sounds. The first line shows the sound of /p/, the second of /w/, the third of /d/, and the last one of /h/. All these are beautiful uses of consonants that have created a rhythm in the poem.

Example # 2

“Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska

I prefer movies.

I prefer cats.

I prefer the oaks along the Warta.

I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.

I prefer myself liking people

to myself loving mankind.

I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.

I prefer the color green.

These lines from “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska show the use of consonants in different lines such as the sound of /r/ in the first three lines, and then /d/ in the second last and again /r/ in the last line.

Example # 3

“The Secret of the Machines” by Rudyard Kipling

We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,  

   We were melted in the furnace and the pit—  

We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,  

   We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.  

These four lines occur in the poem of Kipling “The Secret of Machines.” He has beautifully used the sound of /w/ in almost all four lines successively, and also has used anaphora as “We were” which is an alliteration, too. This combination of consonants, anaphora, and alliteration has created a beautiful rhythm.

Example # 4

“The Carpenter’s Son” by Alfred Edward Houseman

“Here the hangman stops his cart:
Now the best of friends must part.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live, lads, and I will die.

“Oh, at home had I but stayed
‘Prenticed to my father’s trade,
Had I stuck to plane and adze,
I had not been lost, my lads.

There are several consonances in “The Carpenter’s Son” by A. E. Houseman. Just try to spot /t/ in the first line, /h/ in the first line of the second stanza which is also an alliteration, and then /l/ in the last line of the second stanza. They make a perfect combination to give a rhythmic touch to the poem.

Example # 5

“The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

Sails the unshadowed main,—

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

There are several consonances and a beautiful alliteration of /s/. The first line shows the sound of /p/, while the second shows the sound of /s/ repeated several times. The sound of /s/ in the fourth line also shows an alliteration with /w/ as a consonance. All these sounds have created a perfect rhythmic pattern in this stanza from “The Chambered Nautilus.”

How to Create Consonance

Consonances occur in poetry as well as prose. You can create consonances in either poetry or prose. Just pick up words that sound similar such as this combination shows “sound similar” which is also a good alliteration. When writing a poem, get help from your thesaurus to create similar-sounding word clusters. This could be done in the following steps.

  1. Write your ideas on a piece of paper.
  2. Create verses or a paragraph in prose.
  3. Now replace words that do not sound similar and insert similar-sounding words.
  4. Read it to feel the rhythm of the words and read it aloud to feel it better.

Benefits of Using Consonance

  1. A consonance creates high sounding rhythm.
  2. It creates beautiful notes suitable for lyrics.
  3. It creates a suitable metrical pattern.
  4. It helps poets and writers to win readers through rhythm and melody created with consonances.

Literary Device of Consonance in Literary Theory

  1. In literary theory, consonance is not of much help in interpreting literature. However, when it comes to formalism to observe tension and conflict in a poem, consonances help evaluate the rhythm, melody, and metrical pattern to reach the thematic strand that the poet wants to convey to the readers.
  2. Besides this, it also helps indigenous literary writers to create indigenous or native rhythmic patterns.
  3. It helps students theorize the poetic or prose structure of the writing.

Suggested Readings

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary And Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, 2020. Print.

Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism, and Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004. Print. Terhardt, Ernst. “Pitch, Consonance, and Harmony.” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 55.5 (1974): 1061-1069.

Conflict

Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Conflict

Etymologically, the term conflict is stated to have emerged out of a Latin term, conflictus. It means to strike together, or be against the other thing. Later, in 1640, it entered the French language as a conflict and then in English with the meanings changing to struggle or contest. The word conflict is in use in psychological, international relations, and strategic studies along with literature.

In grammar, conflict is a noun. Its plural is conflicts which could be changed according to its role in a sentence such as conflictual, conflicting, conflictive, and conflicts.

Definition of Literary Device of Conflict

As a literary term, conflict means a struggle, a contest, or contention between two characters, opposite parties, two natural events, or even two human-induced issues. It leads to tension in the story or the literary piece, creating suspense for the readers until the resolution arrives.

Types of Conflicts as Literary Device

There are five major types of conflicts.

  1. Man against man
  2. Man against nature
  3. Man against objects or animals
  4. Man against himself
  5. Main against social forces

Literary Examples of Conflict

Example # 1

From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

“Who are the wizards?” asked Dorothy. “Oz himself is the Great Wizard,” answered the Witch, sinking her voice to a whisper. “He is more powerful than all the rest of us together. He lives in the City of Emeralds.” Dorothy was going to ask another question, but just then the Munchkins, who had been standing silently by, gave a loud shout and pointed to the corner of the house where the Wicked Witch had been lying.

Although this is a short extract from a popular novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it shows the emergence of tension. The conversation of Dorothy with the Witch shows that Dorothy wants to confront Oz yet she does not know how. This creates a conflict in her mind about her power and the power of the Witch. Although she gets involved in this conflict in the novel, this passage shows how it emerges from the simple conversation into the physical world. This is a type of man-against-supernatural conflict.

Example # 2

From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

“All right, I’ll keep still. Now they’re stuck. Can’t find it. Here they come again. Now they’re hot. Cold again. Hot again. Red hot! They’re p’inted right, this time. Say Huck, I know another o’ them voices; it’s Injun Joe.” “That’s so –– that murderin’ half-breed! I’d druther they was devils a dern sight. What kin they be up to?” The whispers died wholly out, now, for the three men had reached the grave and stood within a few feet of the boys’ hiding-place.”

Although this short conversation between Injun Joe and Huck takes place in a tight place, it shows how the conflict is going to ensue between them. Injun Joe wants to keep his crime under the carpet, while he also fears that Huck would disclose it to the law enforcement agencies. This creates a conflict between them which also is a theme of the novel. This is a type of man-again-man conflict.

Example # 3

From The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

This passage occurs in The Old Man and the Sea. This is a classic of Hemingway that presents an old man, Santiago, struggling alone against the marlin as well as the world. This passage, however, presents his conflict with the sea. It means that this is a type of man-versus-nature conflict.

Example # 4

From All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Kantorek would say that we stood on the threshold of life. And so it would seem. We had yet taken no root. The war swept us away. For the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. They are able to think beyond it. We, however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a wasteland. All the same, we are not often sad.

This passage occurs in the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, an anti-war story by a German writer, Erich Maria Remarque. This passage shows clearly that Paul Baumer knows that he is against war. This creates a conflict in him that lasts until he is dead by the end of the novel. This is a man-versus-society as the war ensues due to animosity between two social structures.

Example # 5

From The Black Boy by Richard Wright

It was in this tenement that the personality of my father first came fully into the orbit of my concern. He worked as a night porter in a Beale Street drugstore and he became important and forbidding to me only when I learned that I could not make noise when he was asleep in the daytime. He was the lawgiver in our family and I never laughed in his presence. I used
to lurk timidly in the kitchen doorway and watch his huge body sitting slumped at the table. I stared at him with awe as he gulped his beer from a tin bucket, as he ate long and heavily, sighed, belched, closed his eyes to nod on a stuffed belly. He was quite fat and his bloated stomach always lapped over his belt. He was always a stranger to me, always somehow
alien and remote.

Although this short passage from The Black Boy, a memoir of Richard Wright, shows his feelings toward his father, it also shows that he is in conflict with his father which is man-versus-man conflict. He sees his father struggling and ruling the household at the same time.

Example # 6

From Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

George stared morosely at the water. The rims of his eyes were red with sun glare. He said angrily, “We could just as well of rode clear to the ranch if that bastard bus driver knew what he was talkin’ about. ‘Jes’ a little stretch down the highway,’ he says. ‘Jes’a little stretch.’ God damn near four miles, that’s what it was! Didn’t wanta stop at the ranch gate, that’s what. Too God damn lazy to pull up. Wonder he isn’t too damn good to stop in Soledad
at all. Kicks us out and says ‘Jes’ a little stretch down the road.’ I bet it was more than four miles. Damn hot day.

This passage shows George and Lennie facing the world. They are against the entire social fabric of their time. First, George spoke against the drive, then against God, and then against the hot day. This shows that everything is in conflict with them as they are facing hardships not knowing from whom. This shows man-versus-nature and man-versus-man conflict simultaneously.

How to Create a Conflict

  1. Plan ahead your storyline and decide what type of conflict you want to insert in it.
  2. After deciding the conflict, place that man with his desires, hopes, and ambitions and create obstructions on his way through the agent that is going against him in conflict.
  3. Create a situation showing suspense, and decide how you want to resolve that conflict.
  4. Present various types of conflicts simultaneously like that of The Old Man and the Sea and Of Mice and Men as shown in examples.

Benefits of Using Conflict

  1. It creates suspense, curiosity, and thirst in the readers to read the fiction or poem until the end.
  2. It makes the readers demonstrate empathy, or sympathy, or catharsis in Grecian terms.
  3. It makes readers aware of how to deal with conflicts and resolve them in real life.
  4. It makes the readers to thinking critically and find solutions to problems.

Literary Device of Conflict in Literary Theory

  1. As a literary term, conflict is an integral part of every other literary theory. However, in formalism, it is necessary as it is part of narratology and characterization.
  2. It is important in postmodernism, indigenous critical studies, and critical race theory due to its association with identity, personality clash, and sovereignty and now they come into conflict with each other.
  3. It is an integral part of psychoanalytic literary theory as it creates conflicts based on the psychology of conflicts among different characters.
  4. It is also used in postcolonialism on account of its usage in power struggles and in readers response theory due to the involvement of the reader with the characters.
  5. It is also used in indigenous critical theory because it creates conflicts between the indigenous population and characters and the outsiders and demonstrates it through different ways.

Suggested Readings

Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.

Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism, and Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004. Print,. Al-Lehaibi, Majed S. “Conflict: A Cultural Theme in the Modern American Novel.” English Language and Literature Studies 3.2 (2013): 93.