Literary Devices

Dramatic irony The reader or audience knows something the character does not, so that the character's words and deeds take on a meaning he himself does not perceive. Comparison Bringing two different things together with an explicit word, such as "like," "as," or "seems." Unlike a metaphor, a comparison makes it plain that there are two things. Sensory imagery A description that appeals to the senses (what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched) and makes the reader perceive the scene, not merely understand it. Foreshadowing A sign, saying, or image that anticipates, sometimes only for the rereader, something that will happen later in the work. Leitmotiv A word, phrase, or image that returns several times throughout the work, tied to a character or an idea, and gains meaning with each return. Antithesis Placing opposing ideas or words side by side, so that one lights up the other through contrast. Apostrophe The speaker addresses someone absent or dead, a thing, a place, or an idea, as if they could hear. Metaphor Saying one thing by means of another, without a word of comparison: instead of saying that something is like another thing, one says that it is. The image transfers to the subject the qualities of the thing it has been identified with. Hyperbole A deliberate exaggeration, which no one takes literally, used to emphasize a feeling or a situation. Rhetorical question A question asked without expecting an answer, either because the answer is already implied or because what matters is the doubt it exposes. Situational irony What happens is the reverse of what was expected, or of what someone planned, in a way that reveals something about the characters or about the world of the work. Paradox A statement that seems to contradict itself or common sense, but which, once thought through, reveals a truth. Pun A play on words with similar sounds or with the several meanings of a single word, to be funny or to say two things at once. Repetition Returning to the same word, the same phrase, or the same construction, at the beginning of successive verses or sentences (anaphora) or throughout the text, to give rhythm, emphasis, or insistence. Metonymy Naming one thing by another that is connected to it: the part for the whole, the object for its owner, the place for the people, the cause for the effect. Story within a story A story told, staged, or written within the work itself, which mirrors or comments on the main story.