Literary Terms Project

1. Literary Terms Project By Eric Getz

2. Figurative Language

3. Imagery Vivid and descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste)

4. In Hamlet • Ophelia’s description of Hamlet in Act II, Scene 1, lines 87-94 “My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.”

5. In George Orwell’s 1984 • “The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features.”

6. Simile A figure of thought involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, explicitly using the word “like” or “as”

7. In Hamlet • “The knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand an end, Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.” (Act 1. sc. 5. ll 24-26)

8. In Forrest Gump • In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest uses a simile when he says," Life is a like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”

9. Metaphor A figure of thought in which a word or phrase is applied to another object or action to which it is not literally applicable, without asserting an explicit comparison

10. In Hamlet • In Act I, Scene 2, Line 146, Hamlet says, “Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature” • Hamlet compares the world to an unweeded garden that produces things "rank and gross in nature.”

11. In The Kite Runner • The line “eyes are windows to the soul” from KhaledHosseini’s novel The Kite Runner is clearly a metaphor.

12. Personification A figure of thought in which a personal nature or human characteristics are attributed to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form

13. In Hamlet • In Act 1, Scene 1, Line 166, Horatio says, "But look the morn in russet mantle clad / Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill."

14. In Ender’s Game • "He imagined the ship dangling upside down on the undersurface of the Earth, the giant fingers of gravity holding them firmly in place."

15. Apostrophe An address to a dead or absent person or to an inanimate object or abstract concept.

16. In Hamlet • In Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 135-136, Hamlet uses an apostrophe, speaking directly to "frailty.” • “ Let me not think on't—Frailty, thy name is woman!”

17. In Star Trek • In Star Trek, Captain Kirk uses an apostrophe when he, frustrated because of the work of his arch nemesis Khan, shakes his fist at the air and screams, "KHAAAAAN!"

18. Symbol An object, action, or event that represents something, or creates a range of associations beyond itself

19. In Hamlet • When Ophelia loses her mind in Act IV, Scene V , she directly discusses the symbolic meaning of many of the flowers she hands out • “There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
love, remember, and there is pansies. That's for thoughts […]. There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue 
for you; and here's some for me: we may call it 
herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with 
a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you 
some violets, but they withered all when my father died.”

20. In The Kite Runner • In The Kite Runner, a kite symbolizes Amir’s happiness as well as his guilt over what happened to Hassan.

21. Allegory A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning

22. In Hamlet • A cosmic allegory? • Some scholars speculate that Hamlet can be viewed as cosmic allegory with different characters representing different views of the solar system with Copernicus’ Heliocentric theory eventually triumphing over the competing geocentric models • This allegory is reinforced by the theme of the way things seem versus the way they really are

23. In Animal Farm • George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a powerful allegory of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Stalinist totalitarian regime.

24. Paradox A trope in which a statement that appears on the surface to be contradictory or impossible turns out to express an often striking truth

25. In Hamlet • Hamlet, in Act 3, Scene 4, Line 181, says “I must be cruel only to be kind.”

26. George Orwell’s Animal Farm • A common paradoxical phrase used in the novella is “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.”

27. Hyperbole A trope in which a point is stated in a way that is greatly exaggerated

28. In Hamlet • In Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 589-590, Hamlet uses hyperbole in his second soliloquy • “He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech….”

29. In The Sandlot • In the movie The Sandlot Ham Porter clearly uses hyperbole when he says," You're killing me smalls!”

30. Understatement A form of irony in which a point is deliberately expressed as less, in magnitude value or importance, than it actually is.

31. In Hamlet • In Act I, Scene 2, Line 158, Hamlet uses understatement, to end his soliloquy, stating that “It is not nor it cannot come to good” • This is quite mild compared with the rest of his speech.

32. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet • In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio refers to his fatal wound as “a scratch.”

33. Irony A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen in life and in literature. In verbal irony, characters say the opposite of what they mean. In irony of circumstance or situation, the opposite of what is expected occurs. In dramatic irony, a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to the other characters.

34. In Hamlet • A great example of dramatic irony in Hamlet is when Hamlet is right behind Claudius as Claudius, thinking he is alone, confesses his crimes in Act 3 Scene 3. • Indeed, at the end of the scene Claudius admits that he, despite what Hamlet thought (Hamlet did not kill him because he wanted him to die unholy), never actually prayed, which is another example of dramatic irony as Hamlet was wrong and only the audience knew.

35. In Final Destination • The plot of the movie series Final Destination revolves around irony because the characters in trying to avoid death end up dying an even worse death they had originally imagined.

36. Chiasmus A rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect

37. In Hamlet • Polonius uses chiasmus with the line “'tis true 'tis pity, And pity 'tis, 'tis true-a foolish figure.” (Hamlet 2.2.98-99)

38. In Voltaire’s Writings • “The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursues him.”  (Voltaire)

39. Metonymy A trope which substitutes the name of an entity with something else closely associated with it.

40. In Hamlet • In Hamlet, Old Fortinbras, the King of Norway, is often referred to as just Norway such as in Act 1 Scene 1 Line 61, “When he the ambitious Norway combated.” (Below is Young Fortinbras)

41. In White Collar • In the television show White Collar,Mozzi often refers to Peter, an FBI agent, simply as “suit”.

42. Synecdoche A figure of speech in which the term for part of something is used to represent the whole, or vice versa

43. In Hamlet • Hamlet says in Act 1, Scene 2, Line 129 ,“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt” • In this synecdoche flesh represents Hamlet’s physical life.

44. In Percy Shelley’s poem Ozymandias • “Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them.” • The “hand” refers to the sculptor

45. Repartee A conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies. A repartee is like a verbal fencing match.

46. In Hamlet • In Act 5, Scene 1, Hamlet engages in repartee with the grave digger HAMLET I think it be thine, indeed, for thou liest in ’t. GRAVEDIGGER You lie out on ’t, sir, and therefore it is not yours. For my part, I do not lie in ’t, and yet it is min HAMLET Thou dost lie in ’t, to be in ’t and say it is thine. 'Tis for the dead, not for the quick. Therefore thou liest. GRAVEDIGGER ’Tis a quick lie, sir. 'Twill away gain from me to you. HAMLET What man dost thou dig it for? GRAVEDIGGER For no man, sir. HAMLET What woman, then? GRAVEDIGGER For none, neither. HAMLET Who is to be buried in ’t? GRAVEDIGGER One that was a woman, sir, but, rest her soul, she is dead.

47. In Good Will Hunting • A great example of repartee is in the movie Good Will Hunting during the scene at the bar across from Harvard where Will engages in a witty argument with a student at the bar.

48. Stichomythia A technique in drama or poetry, in which alternating lines, or half-lines, are given to alternating characters, voices, or entities

49. In Hamlet • In Act 3 Scene 4 the back and forth dialogue between Hamlet and his mother is an example of stichomythia. QUEEN: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET: Mother, you have my father much offended.
QUEEN: Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET: Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN: Why, how now, Hamlet? HAMLET: What’s the matter now?

50. In Richard III • Shakespeare also uses stichomythia in Richard III • LADY ANNE: I would I knew thy heart.
GLOUCESTER: 'Tis figured in my tongue.
LADY ANNE: I fear me both are false.
GLOUCESTER: Then never man was true.
LADY ANNE: Well, well, put up your sword.
GLOUCESTER: Say, then, my peace is made.
LADY ANNE: That shall you know hereafter.
GLOUCESTER: But shall I live in hope?
LADY ANNE: All men, I hope, live so.
GLOUCESTER: Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
LADY ANNE: To take is not to give.