Literary Devices

Metaphor Saying one thing through 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 is identified with. Antithesis Placing opposed ideas or words side by side, so that one lights up the other through contrast. Comparison Bringing two things together with an explicit word, such as "like", "just as", or "seems". Unlike the metaphor, the comparison leaves visible that they are two things. Irony Saying one thing while meaning another, often the opposite. The true meaning is left to whoever reads or hears. Sensory imagery Description that appeals to the senses (what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched) and makes the reader perceive the scene, not only understand it. Personification Giving a thing, an animal, or an abstract idea actions, feelings, or speech proper to a person. Intrusive narrator The narrator interrupts the story to comment, judge, give an opinion, or speak directly to the reader. Parallelism Phrases or verses following the same construction, so that the reader compares what changes from one to the other. Hyperbole Deliberate exaggeration, which no one takes literally, to give emphasis to a feeling or a situation. Dramatic irony The reader or audience knows something the character ignores, so the character's words and actions take on a meaning he himself does not perceive. Situational irony What happens is the opposite 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. Allusion A brief reference, without explanation, to a person, a text, a myth or a fact known outside the work, which carries with it the meaning of that other story. Free indirect discourse The narrator tells the story in the third person, but with a character's words, tone and way of thinking, without quotation marks or "he thought": the voice of the narrator and that of the character blend together. Satire Criticism of people, customs or institutions through ridicule, exaggeration or irony. Repetition Returning to the same word, phrase or construction, at the start of verses or of successive sentences (anaphora) or throughout the text, to give rhythm, emphasis or insistence.