Personification: Using and Critiquing

Introduction to Personification

Personification is a literary device where human qualities or characteristics are attributed to non-human entities or objects.

Literary Examples of Personification

Reference	Extract	Explanation of Personification
1. “The Sun Rising” by John Donne	“Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains call on us?”	The Sun is personified as a “busy old fool” interrupting lovers, as if it were a nosy person disturbing their privacy.
2. “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe	“And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door.”	The Raven is personified as a persistent, ominous visitor, sitting as if it were a mournful presence.
3. “The Wind” by Christina Rossetti	“Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through.”	The wind is personified as an unseen, mysterious force, perceived only through its effects on the trembling leaves.
4. Macbeth by William Shakespeare	“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty.”	Lady Macbeth personifies “spirits” that influence her thoughts, asking them to change her nature, highlighting her ambition.
5. “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein	“And the tree was happy. But not really.”	The tree is personified as capable of happiness but ultimately feeling unfulfilled after giving everything to the boy.
6. “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot	“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water.”	The dead tree and cricket are personified as experiencing discomfort in the desolate landscape, mirroring the speaker’s suffering.

These examples illustrate the diverse ways in which personification is used in literature to attribute human qualities and emotions to non-human entities, enhancing the depth and meaning of the text.

How to Create Personification

Creating personification is a fun and creative way to add depth and meaning to your writing. Here are some steps to follow to create personification:

1. Identify Objective or Idea: Choose an object or idea that you want to give human-like qualities to.
2. Determine Qualities of Object or Idea: Decide what specific human-like qualities you want to give to the object or idea.
3. Use Descriptive Language: Use descriptive language to create an image in the reader’s mind. Utilize sensory details like sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste to make the personification more vivid.
4. Be consistent: Once you have created the personification, be consistent in using it throughout your writing. This will help your readers understand and connect with the object or idea you have personified.
5. Edit and revise: After you have written it, read it over and make sure it flows well with the rest of your writing. Revise as needed to ensure that the personification enhances your writing and adds meaning.
6. Remember, personification is a literary device that can be used to add depth and meaning to your writing, so have fun with it and experiment with different ideas and descriptions.

Benefits of Personification

There are several benefits of using it in writing, including:

1. Breathe Life into Words: Unleashing Creativity: Transform your writing from mundane to magical as personification grants you the power to infuse non-human entities with vitality and charm, making your compositions a captivating voyage of imaginative expression.
2. Unveiling the Veiled: Illuminating Complex Ideas: Embrace the allure of personification as it unveils a gateway to comprehension, rendering intricate and abstract concepts relatable, enabling readers to grasp profound ideas with ease.
3. Unveiling Depth: Unleashing Profound Narratives: Embark on a literary adventure of profound proportions, for personification bestows inanimate objects and abstract notions with human-like attributes, breathing an unprecedented dimension of intrigue and contemplation into your prose.
4. The Artistry of Personification: Painting Pictures of Imagination: Master the art of literary imagery using this device, skillfully crafting vibrant and indelible mental pictures by endowing objects and ideas with human characteristics that resonate within the reader’s mind.
5. Forging Emotional Bonds: Empowering Words: Experience the emotional alchemy of personification, forging powerful connections between readers and the personified elements, evoking empathy and understanding that lingers long after the last word is read.

In short, it is a powerful literary device that enhances the impact of your writing in many ways, making it more creative, engaging, and memorable.

Personification and Literary Theory

Literary Theory	Critique of Personification	Example
New Criticism	Personification contributes to the overall meaning of the work by developing themes and motifs.	Example: In “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, the personification of the Raven as a harbinger of death intensifies the theme of grief and loss throughout the poem.
Psychoanalytic Criticism	Personification reflects the author’s unconscious desires or characters’ psychological states.	Example: In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the personification of Mr. Hyde represents the repressed dark desires of Dr. Jekyll’s subconscious mind.
Marxist Criticism	Personification reinforces or critiques dominant social hierarchies.	Example: In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the personification of the ruling pigs as oppressive leaders represents the exploitation of power in a totalitarian society, reflecting Marxist critique of the ruling class.
Feminist Criticism	Personification reinforces or challenges traditional gender roles and reflects the author’s attitudes towards women.	Example: In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, here this device shown as a wallpaper as a woman trapped behind bars symbolizes the narrator’s confinement and challenges the patriarchal norms of the time.
Postcolonial Criticism	Personification reflects the colonized culture’s relationship with the colonizer and the author’s attitudes towards colonization.	Example: In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart the personification of the colonial government as a destructive force portrays the impact of colonialism on traditional African societies and critiques the colonial power structure.

Note: The examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and may not cover the entirety of the literary works’ complexities in each theoretical analysis. The interpretations may vary based on the critic’s individual perspectives and the specific literary elements being examined.

Suggested Readings

1. Attridge, Derek, and Henry Staten. The Craft of Poetry: Dialogues on Minimal Interpretation. Routledge, 2015.
2. Brooks, Cleanth. The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1947.
3. De Mul, Jos. The Tragedy of Finitude: Dilthey’s Hermeneutics of Life. Yale University Press, 2004.
4. Johnson, Mark. The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
5. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press, 2003.
6. Sternberg, Meir. The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading. Indiana University Press, 1985.
7. Turner, Mark. The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language. Oxford University Press, 1996.

You may read more on Literary Devices below:

• Prose: A Literary Genre
• Writing Prose; Critiquing Prose
• Propaganda: A Literary Device
• Propaganda: Creating and Critiquing It
• Protagonist: Creating and Critiquing