Literary Devices

Metaphor Saying one thing by means of another, with no 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 was identified with. Repetition Returning to the same word, the same phrase or the same construction, at the start of successive verses or sentences (anaphora) or throughout the text, to give rhythm, emphasis or insistence. Antithesis Setting opposite ideas or words side by side, so that one lights up the other through contrast. Rhetorical question A question asked without expecting an answer, because the answer is already implied, or because what matters is the doubt it exposes. Dramatic irony The reader or audience knows something the character does not, so the character's words and deeds take on a meaning he himself does not perceive. Apostrophe The speaker addresses someone absent or dead, a thing, a place or an idea, as if they could hear. Parallelism Sentences or verses in sequence with the same construction, so that the reader compares what changes from one to the next. Hyperbole Deliberate exaggeration, which no one takes literally, to emphasize a feeling or a situation. Paradox A statement that seems to contradict itself or common sense, but which, on reflection, reveals a truth. 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. Personification Giving a thing, an animal or an abstract idea the actions, feelings or speech of a person. Foreshadowing A sign, saying or image that anticipates, sometimes only for the rereader, something that will happen later in the work. 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. 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.