1.

LITERATURE AND LINGUISTICS

I. STYLE

iv. RHETORIC:

History: During the 4th century B.C., Aristotle wrote the Rhetoric in which he defined
rhetoric as discovering all available means of persuasion on a topic. Thus, for Aristotle,
rhetoric has a clear persuasive function, but also an epistemic function. It serves as a
way to discover what is known and what can be known about a subject.

Rhetoric – In Speech:

 In rhetoric, a formal address delivered to an audience.

 It is an oration or oral presentation.
 Classical rhetoric recognized three main type or genres of speech which are
deliberative, judicial, and epideictic.
 There are Three major parts to every speech which are introduction, body, and,
conclusion.

Subject

Factors in
a
Aim Rhetorical
Audience
Context

Medium

Type – Rhetorical Devices In Writing

1. Allegory:
An allegory uses symbols to compare persons or things to represent abstract ideas or
events. The comparison in allegory is implicit.
Example: “Animal Farm”, written by George Orwell, is an allegory that compares
animals on a farm to the Communist Revolution in Russia before WW II.

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2. Alliteration:
It is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant
sound, occur close together in a series
Example: From William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes;
This is an example of alliteration with the “f” in words “forth, fatal, foes”.
3. Allusion:
Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical,
cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing
to which it refers.
Example: In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, “the two knitting women” whom
Marlow sees alludes to “Moirae” or Fates as visualized in Greek Mythology:
4. Ambiguity:
Ambiguity or fallacy of ambiguity is a word, phrase, or statement which contains more
than one meaning. Ambiguous words or statements lead to vagueness and confusion,
and shape the basis for instances of unintentional humor.
Example: We find ambiguity in the first line of Keats’s “Ode to a Grecian Urn”:
“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,”
The use of word “still” is ambiguous in nature. “Still” here may mean “an unmoving
object” or it may be interpreted as “yet unchanged”.
5. Analogy:
An analogy aims at explaining an unfamiliar idea or a thing by comparing it to something
that is familiar.
Example: Analyze the following examples: These lines are from Woman Work by
Maya Angelou:
Fall gently, snow flakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight
Maya constructs an analogy between her tiredness and natural elements like
snowflakes.

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6. Anaphora:
In writing or speech, the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to
achieve an artistic effect is known as Anaphora.
Example: “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens starts with following lines:
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”
7. Anecdote:
Anecdote is defined as a short and interesting story or an amusing event often
proposed to support or demonstrate some point and make readers and listeners laugh.
Anecdotes can include an extensive range of tales and stories
Amusing anecdotes are often used in literature, family reunions, wedding receptions
and other get-togethers. Teachers tell anecdotes to their students in classrooms about
eminent people and celebrities. Writers and poets use them in their literary works.
Example: “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams chanting and dancing in the
woods along with the native village girls. Parris suspects them of magic and witchcraft.
However, she does not accept any of the accusations of Parris and starts narrating
fanciful stories to justify her actions.
8. Antanaclasis:
Antanaclasis is a rhetorical device in which a phrase or word is repeatedly used.
However, the meaning of a word changes in each case, or a word is repeated in two or
more than two different senses.
Example: Shakespeare’s literary pieces contain examples of antanaclasis. Like in these
lines, from Othello
“Put out the light, then put out the light”
In Epizeuxis the words or phrases are repeated in a succession in the same sentence
or line. Like, “Alone, alone, all all alone, but in Antanaclasis the words or phrases are
repeated in a sentence or passage with different meanings.
9. Anthropomorphism:
Anthropomorphism is a literary device that can be defined as a technique in which a
writer ascribes human traits, ambitions, emotions or entire behaviour to animals, non-
human beings, natural phenomena or objects.
Personification is an act of giving human characteristics to animals or objects to create
imagery, while anthropomorphism aims to make an animal or object behave and
appear like they are human beings.
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell is one of the perfect examples of
anthropomorphism.

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10. Anti-Climax:
Anti-climax is a rhetorical device which can be defined as a disappointing situation or a
sudden transition in discourse from an important idea to trivial one. It is when at a
specific point, expectations are raised, everything is built-up and then suddenly
something boring or disappointing happens; this is an anti-climax. Besides that, the
order of statements gradually descends in anti-climax.
There are two types of anti-climax. The first is used in narrations such as the anti-climax
about the overall plot of the story. However, the second one is a figure of speech which
could occur anywhere in the story.
Example: The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
Pope is drawing the attention of the readers to the falseness. Anna is Queen of
England, who holds meetings and indulges also in afternoon tea customs.
11. Anti-Hero:
Anti-hero is a literary device used by writers for a prominent character in a play or book
that has characteristics opposite to that of a conventional hero. The protagonist is
generally admired for his bravery, strength, charm, ingenuity etc. while an anti-hero is
typically clumsy, unsolicited, and unskilled and has both good and bad qualities.
Example: In Lord of the Rings series J. R. R. Tolkien. The good side of him that
occasionally surfaces makes him a loyal servant. The dark side of him that is infected
by the greed to have the ring makes him do evil things which eventually lead to his
death. Thus, Gollum can justly be called an anti-hero of the novel.
12. Antiphrasis:
Antiphrasis is a figurative speech in which a phrase or word is employed in a way that is
opposite to its literal meaning in order to create an ironic or comic effect. In simple
words, it is the use of phrases or words in their opposite sense than the real meaning.
Example: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Cassius, in spite of knowing the
worldly flaws of Caesar, makes an ironic remark and calls him “this god” for comic
13. Antistrophe:
It is rhetorical device that involves the repetition of the same words at the end of
consecutive phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs.
Example: The Tempest by William Shakespeare
“Hourly joys be still upon you! Juno sings her blessings on you”
14. Antithesis:

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Antithesis, literal meaning opposite, is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas
are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect. Antithesis emphasizes the
idea of contrast by parallel structures of the contrasted
Example: John Milton’s Paradise Lost. In which the contrasting ideas of “reign”/
“serve” and “Hell”/ “Heav’n” are placed in a sentence to achieve an antithetical effect.
15. Aphorism:
Aphorism is a statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner.
The term is often applied to philosophical, moral and literary principles.
Example: “Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability.” In the essay Of
Studies by Bacon.
16. Apostrophe:
In literature, apostrophe is a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation
“O”. A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and
addresses an imaginary character in his speech.
Example: John Donne uses apostrophe in his poem “The Sun Rising”:
17. Archaism:
It is a figure of speech in which a used phrase or word is considered very old fashioned
and outdated. It can be a word, a phrase, a group of letters, spellings and syntax..
Example: John Keats has used archaism frequently in his poems. This example is also
based on old fashioned words. Like, “hath” is an older version of has.
18. Archetype:
In literature, an archetype is a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to
represent such universal patterns of human nature. An archetype, also known as
universal symbol, may be a character, a theme, a symbol or even a setting.
i. The Hero: He or she is a character who predominantly exhibits goodness and
struggles against evil in order to restore harmony and justice to society e.g. Beowulf,
Hercules, D’artagnan from “The Three Musketeers” etc.
ii. The Mother Figure: Such a character may be represented as Fairy Mother who
guides and directs a child, Mother Earth who contacts people and offers spiritual and
emotional nourishment, and Stepmother who treats their stepchildren roughly.
iii. The Innocent Youth: He or she is inexperienced with many weaknesses and seeks
safety with others but others like him/her because of the trust he or she shows in other
people. Usually, the experience of coming of age comes in the later parts of the
narratives such as Joseph from Fielding’s “Joseph Andrews” etc.

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iv. The Mentor: His or her task is to protect the main character. It is through the wise
advice and training of a mentor that the main character achieves success in the world
e.g. Parson Adams in Fielding’s “Joseph Andrews”.
v. Doppelganger: It is a duplicate or shadow of a character that represents the evil side
of his personality. Examples are in popular literary works such as Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
vi. The Scapegoat: A character that takes the blame of everything bad that happens
e.g. Snowball in Orwell’s “Animal Farm” etc.
vii. The Villain: A character whose main function is to go to any extent to oppose the
hero or whom the hero must annihilate in order to bring justice e.g. Long John Silver
from Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”” etc
19. Argument:
An argument is the main statement of a poem, an essay, a short story, or a novel that
usually appears as an introduction or a point on which the writer will develop his work in
order to convince his readers.
Example: The opening lines of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” give a suitable
example of argument:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune
must be in want of a wife.”
20. Aside:
It is a short comment or speech that a character delivers directly to the audience or to
himself, while other actors on the stage cannot listen. Only the audience can realize that
an actor has expressed speech for them. Difference between Aside and Soliloquy
Example: Arthur Miller, in his play, The Crucible, uses aside through last words of
Elizabeth towards the conclusion of the play when she says, “He have his goodness
now. God forbid I take it from him.”
21. Assonance:
Assonance takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the same
vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds.
Example: In Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”:
“He gives his harness bells a shake”

The bold letters in the above extract are vowels that are repeated to create assonance.
Syndeton includes addition of multiple conjunctions such as in “He eats and sleeps and
drinks.” On the other hand, asyndeton is the elimination or leaving out of conjunctions
such as in “He eats, sleeps, drinks.”

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Example: In Rhetoric by Aristotle:
“This is the villain among you who deceived you, who cheated you, who meant to betray
you completely…”

22. Asyndeton:
It is a stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate conjunctions
between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical accuracy. One
type of asyndeton is used between words, phrases and a sentence. Second type is
used between sentences or clauses.
Example: Othello by William Shakespeare

IAGO: Call up her father. Rouse him. Make after him, Poison his delight,

In this extract, Shakespeare has eliminated conjunctions deliberately. There is shortage

of “and, for, or, but” which are required to join the sentences. Due to this, the words
have been emphasized and feelings of anger and jealousy are articulated explicitly.

23. Balanced Sentence:

A balanced sentence is made up of two segments which are equal not only in length,
but also in grammatical structure and meanings. It could be a periodic or cumulative
sentence.
Example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Austen is famous for using balanced sentences to illustrate contrast between things,
people or duality of situations. She does the same and compares Bennet sisters and
their mother.
24. Ballad:
It is a type of poetry or verse which was basically used in dance songs in the ancient
France, ballad all categories are primarily meant to convey popular messages, stories
or historical events to audiences in the form of songs and poetry.
Type: Stall ballads, Lyrical ballads, Popular ballads, Blue ballads, Bush Ballads, Fusion
ballads (pop and rock) / Modern ballads.
Example: “Tam Lin” and “Rime of an Ancient Mariner”
25. Bathos:
Bathos is when a writer or a poet falls into insignificant and absurd metaphors,
descriptions or ideas in an effort to be increasingly emotional or passionate.
Example: Mary: John – once we had something that was pure, and wonderful, and
good. What’s happened to it? John: You spent it all.

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When Mary says “something pure and wonderful”, she is actually referring to the deep,
sacred, noble form of love. However, the description is vague enough for John to
manipulate.
26. Bildungsroman:
It is a special kind of novel that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of its
main character from his or her youth to adulthood.
Example: “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” by Henry Fielding and “David
Copperfield”, a novel by Charles Dickens
27. Blank Verse:
It is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. It is also
known as un-rhymed iambic pentameter.
 Iamb pentameter blank verse (unstressed/stressed syllables)
 Trochee blank verse (stressed/unstressed syllables)
 Anapest blank verse (unstressed/unstressed/stressed syllables)
 Dactyl blank verse (stressed/unstressed/unstressed syllables)
Example: In Mending Walls by Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
28. Caesura:
It is a rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in the middle
(medial) of a line, or sometimes at the beginning (initial) and the end (terminal). At
times, it occurs with punctuation or a parallel symbol
Example: From “I’M Nobody! Who Are You?” by Emily Dickinson
I’m nobody! ||Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?

29. Caricature:
It is a device used in descriptive writing and visual arts where particular aspects of a
subject are exaggerated to create a silly or comic effect. In other words, portrayal based
on exaggeration of the natural features, which gives a humorous touch to the subject.
Example: One of the great examples of caricature from Charles Dickens has been
given below:
“Mr. Chadband is a large yellow man, with a fat smile, and a general appearance of
having a good deal of train oil in his system.”

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30. Catastrophe:
It is a final resolution that appears in a narrative plot or a long poem. It unravels the
mystery, and brings the story toward a logical end. In a tragedy, it could be the death of
a protagonist or other character; and in a comedy, it could be the union of major
characters. Catastrophe is a synonym of denouement.
Example: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
31. Catharsis:
Catharsis is a Greek word and it means cleansing. In literature it is used for the
cleansing of emotions of the characters, through which one can achieve a state of moral
or spiritual renewal.
Example: “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
“Here’s to my love! [Drinks] O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I
die. [Falls]”
32. Characterization:
It is a literary device that is used step by step in literature to highlight and explain the
details about a character in a story.
1. Direct / Explicit Characterization: This kind of characterization takes a direct
approach towards building the character. It uses another character, narrator or the
protagonist himself to tell the readers or audience about the subject.
2. Indirect / Implicit Characterization: This is a more subtle way of introducing the
character to the audience. The audience has to deduce for themselves the
characteristics of the character by observing his/her thought process, behavior, speech,
way of talking, appearance, and way of communication with other characters and also
by discerning the response of other characters.
33. Chiasmus:
It is 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.
Example: Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful? By Oscar Hammerstein,
“Do I love you because you’re beautiful? Or
Are you beautiful because I love you?”
34. Climax:
It is that particular point in a narrative at which the conflict or tension hits the highest
point.

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Example: In Joseph Conrad’s novel “The Heart of Darkness”, the narrative reaches
its climax when Marlowe starts his journey in his steam boat, in the direction of the inner
station and his final discovery upon reaching the station and meeting “Kurtz”.
35. Coherence:
In a composition, coherence is a literary technique that refers to logical connections,
unified and meaningful which listeners or readers perceive in an oral or written text.
1. Local Level Coherent Text: In this type of text, coherence occurs within small
portions of a passage or a text.
2. Global level Coherent Text: In this type of text, coherence takes place within the
whole text of a story or essay, rather than in its few parts.
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell
Through the speech of the Old Major, Orwell starts the passage about the miserable
nature of the life of animals on the animal farm, and then he inspires them to think about
how to safeguard their interests on the farm. The entire paragraph is an example of
coherent speech.
36. Colloquialism:
In literature, colloquialism is the use of informal words, phrases or even slang in a piece
of writing. Like wanna – want to and gonna – going to
Example: John Donne uses colloquialisms in his poem “The Sun Rising”:
“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,”
37. Comedy:
It is a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in its tone,
mostly having cheerful ending. The motif of this dramatic work is triumph over
unpleasant circumstance by which to create comic effects, resulting in happy or
successful conclusion.
Romantic Comedy: This type of drama involves the theme of love leading to happy
conclusion. We find romantic comedy in Shakespearean plays and some Elizabethan
contemporaries. These plays are concerned with idealized love affairs. It is a fact that
the true love never runs smooth; however, love overcomes the difficulties and ends in a
happy union. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.
Comedy of Humours: Ben Johnson is the first dramatist, who conceived and
popularized this dramatic genre. The term humor derives from Latin word ‘humor’ that
means liquid. It comes from a theory that human body has four liquids or humors, which
include phelgm, blood, yellow bile and black bile. It explains that when human beings
have balance of these humors in their bodies, they remain healthy. Like Every Man in
His Humor by Ben Johnson.

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Comedy of Manners: This form of dramatic genre deals with intrigues and relations of
ladies and gentlemen, living in a sophisticated society. This form relies upon high
comedy, derived from sparkle and wit of dialogues, violations of social traditions, and
good manners by nonsense characters like jealous husbands, wives and foppish
dandies. We find its use in Restoration dramatists, particularly in the works of
Wycherley and Congreve. She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith.
Sentimental Comedy: Sentimental drama contains both comedy and sentimental
tragedy. It appears in literary circle due to reaction of middle class against obscenity
and indecency of Restoration Comedy of Manners. This form gained popularity among
the middle class audiences in eighteenth century. This drama incorporates scenes with
extreme emotions evoking excessive pity. For example: Sir Richard Steele’s play, The
Conscious Lovers.
Tragicomedy: This dramatic genre contains both tragic and comedic elements. It
blends both elements to lighten an overall mood of the play. Often, tragicomedy is a
serious play ends happily. Shakespeare’s play, All’s Well that Ends Well.
38. Conceit:
Conceit is a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together
with the help of similes or metaphors.
Example: John Donne in his poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”:
“Twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show”
He compares his and his beloved souls with the two legs of a drafting compass.
39. Conflict:
In literature, a conflict is a literary element that involves a struggle between two
opposing forces usually a protagonist and an antagonist.
Internal Conflict: An internal or psychological conflict arises as soon as a character
experiences two opposite emotions or desires; usually virtue or vice, or good and evil
inside him. This disagreement causes a character to suffer mental agony. Internal
conflict develops a unique tension in a storyline marked by a lack of action. Like the
character of Doctor Faustus in Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus”
External Conflict: It is marked by a characteristic involvement of an action wherein a
character finds him in struggle with those outside forces, society that hamper his
progress.. Like Tess is in conflict with male society in Thomas Hardy Tess of the
D’Urbervilles.
40. Connotation:

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Connotation refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it
describes explicitly. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in
addition to their literal meanings or sense.
Positive and Negative Connotations: Words may have positive or negative
connotations that depend upon the social, cultural and personal experiences of
individuals. For example, the words childish, childlike and youthful have the same
denotative but different connotative meanings. Childish and childlike have a negative
connotation as they refer to immature behavior of a person. Whereas, youthful implies
that a person is lively and energetic.
Example: Here, the phrase “A Summer’s Day” by John Donne implies the fairness of
his beloved.
“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day”
41. Consonance:
Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or
phrase. This repetition often takes place in quick succession such as in pitter, patter.
In the case of rhyme, consonant sounds can be present at the beginning, middle, or end
of several successive words, rather than merely at the ends of words.

Example: Just like the poem “T was later when the summer went” by Emily Dickson
here we find the repetition of ‘m’.
‘Than when the winter came,
Yet that pathetic pendulum
Keeps esoteric time.
42. Context:
Context is the background, environment, setting, framework, or surroundings of events
or occurrences. Simply, context means circumstances forming a background of an
event, idea or statement, in such a way as to enable readers to understand the narrative
or a literary piece. It is necessary in writing to provide information, new concepts, and
words to develop thoughts.
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell was written in context of contrast between
capitalism and communism.
43. Couplet:
A couplet is a literary device which can be defined as having two successive rhyming
lines in a verse and has the same meter to form a complete thought. It is marked by a
usual rhythm and rhyme scheme.

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Types: Short Couplet, Split Couplet, Heroic Couplet (Closed and Open Couplets),
Shakespearean Couplet, Alexandrine Couplet, Qasida, Chinese Couplet
Example: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
“Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,”
44. Denouement:
The denouement is a literary device which can be defined as the resolution of the issue
of a complicated plot in fiction.
Example: In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles when the truth about Oedipus’s birth was
revealed. Denouement starts after climax.
45. Dialect:
The language used by the people of a specific area, class, district or any other group of
people. The term dialect involves the spelling, sounds, grammar and pronunciation used
by a particular group of people and it distinguishes them from other people around
them. Dialect is a very powerful and common way of characterization, which elaborates
the geographic and social background of any character.
Example: In Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn where he used exaggerated dialect to
distinguish between the characters:
46. Dialogue:
A dialogue is a literary technique in which writers employ two or more characters to be
engaged in conversation with each other. In literature, it is a conversational passage or
a spoken or written exchange of conversation in a group or between two persons
directed towards a particular subject.
There are two types of dialogues in literature:
 Inner Dialogue – In inner dialogue, the characters speak to themselves and
reveal their personalities. To use inner dialogue, writers employ literary
techniques like stream of consciousness or dramatic monologue. We often find
such dialogues in the works of James Joyce, Virginia Wolf and William
Faulkner.
 Outer Dialogue – It is a simple conversation between two characters used in
almost all types of fictional works.
Example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
“My dear Mr. Bennet, “replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know
that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”
47. Dichotomy:

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Dichotomy is a literary technique that divides a thing into two equal and contradictory
parts or between two opposing groups. In literary works, writers use this technique for
creating conflicts in the stories and plays. Like good and evil. Often, dichotomy appears
in a single character; however, sometimes writers use separate characters for
representing opposing ideas.
Example: Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Good Angel: Sweet Faustus, think of Heaven, and heavenly things.
Evil Angel: No, Faustus, think of honour and of wealth.
48. Diction:
Diction can be defined as style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words
by a speaker or a writer. It depends on a number of factors. Like the word has to be
right, accurate, appropriate to the context in which they are used and the listener or
readers understand easily. It may be formal, informal, colloquial and slang.
Example: Keats in his “Ode to the Grecian Urn”:
“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on”
Notice the use of formal “ye” instead of informal “you”. The formality here is due to the
respect the urn inspires in Keats.
49. Didacticism:
Didacticism is a term that refers to a particular philosophy in art and literature that
emphasizes the idea that different form of art and literature ought to convey information
and instructions along with pleasure and entertainment.
Example: George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is an allegory or a moral and didactic tale
“All animals are equal but a few are more equal than others.”
50. Digression:
A digression is a stylistic device authors employ to create a temporary departure from
the main subject of the narrative to focus on apparently unrelated topics, explaining
background details, establish interest, describe character’s motivation and build
suspense.
Example: Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding.
51. Discourse:
In literature discourse means speech or writing normally longer than a sentence which
deals with a certain subject formally in the form of writing or speech. In other words,

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discourse is the presentation of language in its whole while performing an intellectual
inquiry in a particular area or field i.e. theological discourse or cultural discourse.
General classification of discourse is Exposition, Narration, Description and
Argument.
And in literary discourses we find Poetic Discourse (poetry) Expressive Discourse
(emotions form expressions). Examples are academic essays and diaries and
Transactional Discourse (convey the message without confusion).
52. Dissonance:
Dissonance is the use of impolite, harsh-sounding, and unusual words in poetry. In
other words, it is a deliberate use of inharmonious words, phrases, or syllables intended
to create harsh sounding effects. Dissonance is opposite of assonance, and similar to
cacophony, which is also a use of inharmonious sounds.
Example: Macbeth by William Shakespeare
“Of all men else I have avoided thee.
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.”
In the above lines, Shakespeare has used blank verse and variant vowel sounds to
create unpleasant effects.
53. Drama:
Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It is one
of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type of a
play written for theaters, televisions, radios and films.
Comedy – Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary writers, and provide a happy
conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience laugh.
Hence, they use quaint circumstances, unusual characters and witty remarks. Much
Ado About Nothing is the most frequently performed Shakespearian comedy.
Tragedy – Tragic dramas use darker themes such as disaster, pain and death.
Protagonists often have a tragic flaw—a characteristic that leads them to their downfall.
For example: Sophocles mythical and immortal drama, Oedipus Rex.
Farce – Generally, a farce is when humor is aroused through situation. For Example:
Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a very popular example
Melodrama – Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is sensational and appeals
directly to the senses of audience. Just like the farce, the characters are of single
dimension and simple, or may be stereotyped. Like Marlowe Jew of Malta.
Musical Drama – In musical drama, the dramatists not only tell their story through
acting and dialogue, but through dance as well as music. Often the story may be comic,
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though it may also involve serious subjects. For example: Wicked and Fiddler on the
Roof.
54. Dramatic Irony:
Storytellers use this irony as a useful plot device for creating situations where audience
knows more about the situations, the causes of conflicts and their resolutions before
leading characters or actors.
Example: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Oedipus Rex presents one of the best examples of dramatic irony of all times. In the
play, Oedipus seeks to expose the murderer of King Laius to solve the riddle;
nonetheless, he himself is murderer.
55. Dysphemism:
It is the use of negative expressions instead of positive ones. A speaker uses them to
humiliate or degrade the disapproved person or character.
 Synecdoche – It is used to describe something as a whole like, “she is a prick.”
 Dysphemistic Epithets – Animal names are used, like “pig, bitch, rat, dog or
snake”.
 Euphemistic Dysphemism – This is when a soft expression is used without
offending.
 Dysphemistic Euphemism – It is used as a mockery between close friends
without any animosity.
 Name Dysphemism – It is used when someone is called by his name rather
than by using his proper title such as “How are you Bill?” (Instead of Uncle Bill)
 Non-verbal Dysphemism – It is used when offending someone with gestures.
 Cross-cultural Dysphemism – Different slang terms are used as dysphemistic
in one culture; on the other hand, they might have a totally different meaning in
other cultures. For instance, “fag” is a slur used for gay man in American English,
whereas, in British English it used for a cigarette.
Example: Othello by William Shakespeare
Othello: By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in ’s hand.
O perjured woman, thou dost stone my heart….
Here Shakespeare uses first type of dysphemism which is Synecdoche that means he
describes the character of Desdemona as a sinful person by calling her a “perjured
woman”.
56. Dystopia:
It is a world in which everything is imperfect and everything goes terribly wrong.
Dystopian literature shows us a terrible image about what might happen in the near

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future. Usually the main themes of dystopian works are rebellion, oppression,
revolutions, wars, overpopulation and disasters.
Example: In his classic novel, 1984, George Orwell shows a dystopian society.
57. Elegy: It is a form of literature which can be defined as a poem or song in the form
of elegiac couplets, written in honor of someone deceased. It typically mourns the death
of the individual.
Example: O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman:
“O CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
Whitman wrote this elegy for President Abraham Lincoln.
58. Elements Of An Essay:
An essay is a piece of composition that discusses a thing, a person, a problem, or an
issue in a way that the writer demonstrates his knowledge by offering a new
perspective, a new opinion, a solution, or new suggestions or recommendations. It
includes: Introduction, Body Paragraph and Conclusion

59. Elision:
An elision is the removal of an unstressed syllable, consonants, or letters from a word or
phrase to decrease the number of letters or syllables in order to mix words together.
The missing letter is replaced by an apostrophe. Generally, the middle or end letter or
syllable is eliminated or two words are blended together and an apostrophe is inserted.
Whereas Contraction is the combination of two words to form a shorter word. For
instance, “can’t” is a contraction of can + not, which is a combination of two words. On
the other hand, elision is the omission of sounds, syllables, or phrases and replacing it
with an apostrophe. For instance, “ne’er” is elided form of “never” and similarly, “gonna”
is an elision of the phrase “going to.”
Example: Rape of Lock by Alexander Pope
What dire offence from am’rous causes springs,
In this example amorous is elided into “am’rous”
60. Ellipsis:
Ellipsis is a literary device that is used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or
event, which gives the reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out. It is
usually written between the sentences as “…”.
Example: Among the famous examples of ellipsis in literature, the best would be
Virginia Woolf’s novel, To the Lighthouse.

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61. Enjambment:
In poetry it means moving over from one line to another without a terminating
punctuation mark. It can be defined as a thought or sense, phrase or clause in a line of
poetry that does not come to an end at the line break but moves over to the next line.
Example: Endymion by John Keats
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never

Second line is the example of enjambment.

62. Epic:
In literature, an epic is a long narrative poem, which is usually related to heroic deeds of
a person of an unusual courage and unparalleled bravery. Therefore, certain
supernatural forces, deus ex machina, help the hero, who comes out victor at the end.
An epic usually starts with an invocation to muse, but then picks up the threads of the
story from the middle and moves on to the end. In order to depict this bravery and
courage, the epic uses grandiose style.
A ballad and an epic both are poems, which narrate stories. However, a ballad is
shorter in length than an epic, while it is composed to be sung on some occasions, and
not narrated.
Example: The Iliad; Iliad is another example of an epic. It was written by the popular
Greek poet, Homer.
63. Epigram:
Epigram is a rhetorical device that is a memorable, brief, witty, interesting and surprising
satirical statement.
Example: “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” – John
F. Kennedy
64. Epigraph:
An epigraph is a literary device in the form of a poem, quotation or sentence usually
placed at the beginning of a document or a simple piece having a few sentences but
which belongs to another writer. It can be used as a summary, introduction, an example,
to draw comparison or to generate a specific context.
Example: Many famous poems are good sources of examples of epigraph. “Mistah
Kurtz, he dead” is a line from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which was used in
the famous poem The Hollow Men by T.S Eliot to describe how modern people have
dead souls like Kurtz of Heart of Darkness.
65. Epilogue:

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An epilogue or epilog is a chapter at the end of a work of literature which concludes the
work.
Example: George Orwell adds an epilogue to his novel “Animal Farm”. He, in his
epilogue, presents the situation of the Manor Farm after many years have passed,
describing the fate of the characters who participated in the revolution.
66. Epiphany:
An epiphany is that moment in the story where a character achieves realization,
awareness or a feeling of knowledge after which events are seen through the prism of
this new light in the story.
James Joyce’s novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” show example of
epiphany. Stephen Dedalus, the main character, experienced his epiphany when he
was sixteen and in a boarding school. One day he goes back to his room. Depressed by
his sins, he falls ill and makes a decision to reform himself. He goes to church for
confession where the priest is very kind. So, Stephen finds a new course in life – he
becomes a priest.
67. Epiphora:
Epiphora, also known as epistrophe, is a stylistic device in which a word or a phrase is
repeated at the end of successive clauses.
Example: The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare:
Bassanio: “Sweet Portia,
If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
If you did know for whom I gave the ring
Shakespeare played with the phrase “the ring”.
68. Epistolary:
Epistolary is a literary genre pertaining to letters, in which writers use letters, journals
and diary entries in their works, or they tell their stories or deliver messages through a
series of letters.
Example: Like Samuel Richardson’ novel, Pamela.
69. Epistrophe:
It is a stylistic device that can be defined as the repetition of phrases or words at the
end of the clauses or sentences. It is also called epiphora.
Example: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare)

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Brutus: “Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I
offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him
have I offended.”
The repeated phrases at the end of sentences are: “for him have I offended.” this shows
the importance of the phrase.
70. Epitaph:
Epitaph is a dedication written on a grave. Generally, it is a brief composition, having
figurative sense in a verse or in prose form, written to pay tribute to a deceased person,
or to remember a past event.
An epitaph and a eulogy have a similar function that is to pay tribute to dead persons.
Epitaph is a brief and concise tribute inscription engraved on the tombstone of a dead
person, while a eulogy is a spoken or written piece of writing in praise of a dead person,
and it is usually made at the funeral. Besides, a eulogy can also be used for a living
person.
Example: Many poets and authors have written their epitaphs prior to their death, such
as William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath and Oscar Wilde and John Keats.
71. Epithet:
Epithet is a descriptive literary device that describes a place, a thing or a person in such
a way that it helps in making the characteristics of a person, thing or place more
prominent than they actually are. Also, it is known as a by-name or descriptive title.
Example: Ulysses by James Joyce
Joyce uses several epithets to describe the sea. These epithets include a great sweet
mother, snot-green sea and scrotum-tightening sea.
72. Epizeuxis:
It is defined as a rhetorical device in which the words or phrases are repeated in a quick
succession after each other for emphasis. It is also called diacope.
Example: King Lear by William Shakespeare
And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never!
Shakespeare has beautifully used this device in this paragraph. In the first line, he has
emphasized “no” and repeated it thrice. Similarly, he has repeated “never” four times in
quick succession without using any other word.

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73. Essay:
Essay is derived from a French word essayer, which means to attempt, or to try. An
essay is a short form of literary composition based on a single subject matter, and often
gives personal opinion of an author. There are two forms of essays; literary and non-
literary. Literary essays are of four types:
Expository Essay – In an expository essay, the writers give explanation of an idea,
theme or issue to the audience by giving their personal opinions. This essay is
presented through examples, definitions, comparison, and contrast.
Descriptive Essay – As it sounds like, it gives description about a particular topic or
describes the traits and characteristics of something or a person in details. It allows
artistic freedom and creates images in the minds of readers through the use of five
senses.
Narrative Essay – Narrative essay is non-fiction, but describes a story with sensory
descriptions. The writers not only tell story, but also make a point by giving reasons.
Persuasive Essay – In this type of essay, a writer tries to convince his readers to adopt
his position on a point of view or issue after he provides them solid reasoning in this
connection. It requires a lot of research to claim and defend an idea. It is also called an
argumentative essay.
Example: Of Love by Francis Bacon
74. Ethos:
In rhetoric, ethos represents credibility or an ethical appeal which involves persuasion
by the character involved. Ethos divides means of persuasion into three distinct
categories: ethos, pathos and logos.
Example: “Doctors all over the world recommend this type of treatment.”
People tend to believe the opinions of doctors in the matter of medical treatments.
75. Euphemism:
The term euphemism refers to polite, indirect expressions which replace words and
phrases considered harsh and impolite or which suggest something unpleasant.
Example: In William Shakespeare’s “Othello” Iago tells Brabantio: Where, the
expression “making the beast with two backs” refers to the act of having physical
relation.
76. Exaggeration:
Exaggeration is a statement that makes something worse, or better than it really is. In
literature and oral communication, writers and speakers use it as a literary technique for
extra stress and drama in a piece of work or speech.

21
Overstatement – It is a statement with slight exaggeration to convey the meaning
across such as from the poem Cole Porter’s poem, You’re the Top:
You’re the Tower of Pisa,

Here poet overstates the actual truth and calls his beloved, the tower of Pisa.
Hyperbole – It is an extreme, extravagant, and impossible exaggeration.
Example: Like “Go and catch a falling star,” John Donne uses exaggerated
expressions in this poem.
77. Extended Metaphor:
The term extended metaphor refers to a comparison between two unlike things that
continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. It is often
contained of more than one sentence and sometimes consists of a full paragraph.
Example: Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;”
Shakespeare has remarkably compared “earth” to a “stage” in the extract mentioned
above.
78. Fable:
Fable is a literary device which can be defined as a concise and brief story intended to
provide a moral lesson at the end.
Example: Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift
79. Farce:
A farce is a literary genre and the type of a comedy that makes the use of highly
exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining the audience
Example: Oscar Wilde’s novel, “The Importance of Being Earnest”
80. Fiction:
It is a literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events
and people.” In fact, it is one of the two branches of literature along with non-fiction. This
particular branch of literature consists of stories, novels, and dramas based on made up
and fabricated stories and characters.
Example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
81. Figurative Language:
Figurative language is using figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive and
impactful. Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, allusions go beyond the literal

22
meanings of the words to give the readers new insights. It covers a wide range of
literary devices and techniques, a few of them include: Simile, Metaphor,
Personification, Oxymoron, Hyperbole, Allusion, Imagery, Symbolism and Irony

82. Flashback:
Flashbacks are interruptions that writers do to insert past events in order to provide
background or context to the current events of a narrative. By using flashbacks, writers
allow their readers to gain insight into a character’s motivation and provide a
background to a current conflict. Dream sequences and memories are methods used to
present flashbacks.
Example: Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” uses flashback to narrate Willy
Loman’s memories of the past.
83. Foreshadowing:
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to
come later in the story. A writer may use dialogues of characters, any event or action in
the story chapter title can act as a clue to hint at what may occur in future.
Example: Charles Dickens in “Great Expectations” uses a description of weather to
foreshadow the significant changes in “Pip’s” life:
“Stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets.”
The above lines are Pip’s observation on the weather before Magwitch’s arrival.
84. Free Verse:
Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations
of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms. It is also called vers
libre which is a French word.
Example: A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

85. Haiku:
A haiku poem has three lines, where the first and last lines have five moras, while the
middle line has seven. The pattern in Japanese genre is 5-7-5. The mora is another
name of a sound unit, which is like a syllable, but it is different from a syllable. As the
moras cannot be translated into English, they are modified and syllables are used
instead. The lines of such poems rarely rhyme with each other.
Example: Below is a translation of one of the popular haiku Autumn Moonlight by
Basho:

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 Autumn moonlight-
A worm digs silently
In to the chestnut.
86. Half Rhyme:
It can be defined as a rhyme in which the stressed syllables of ending consonants
match, however the preceding vowel sounds do not match. It has a rhyme scheme of
ABA. It is also called an imperfect rhyme, slant rhyme, near rhyme or oblique rhyme.
Example: W. B. Yeats “Lines written in Dejection”
When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
Here in the first and third lines the half-rhyme is used in words on/moon.
87. Homograph:
It can be defined as words that are used in such a manner as to give two or more
different meanings where the words have the same spelling, but different meanings and
sometimes different pronunciation as well.
Homonym is a bigger category of which homographs are a part. All homograph
examples are also identified as homonym examples since a homograph is a specific
term, but a homonym is a generalized term. Difference between Homograph and
Homophone
Example: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
“They seemed to think the opportunity lost, if they failed to point the conversation to
me, every now and then, and stick the point into me”

88. Homophone:
A homophone can be defined as a word that when pronounced seems similar to
another word but has a different spelling, sometimes the words may have the same
spelling. In literature, homophones are used extensively in poetry and prose to make
rhythmic effects and to put emphasis on something. They are also used to create a
multiplicity of meanings in piece.
 Some homophones are similar in spelling, but different in meanings. They are
called homographs. For instance, hail vs. hail. One hail means ice storm and
the second means something that occurs in large numbers (e.g. a hail of bullets).
 Some of them have the same pronunciation but different meanings and these are
called homonyms. For instance, cite, sight and site.

24
  The homophones that have different spellings but are pronounced in the same
way are called heterographs. For instance, write vs. right.
 The homophones that have multiple words or phrases, having similar sounds,
are called oronyms. For instance, “ice cream” vs. “I scream”.
 Pseudo-homophones are homophones that are identical phonetically. However,
one of the pair of words is not a real word, such as groan / grone.
89. Hubris:
Hubris is extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings
about his downfall.
Example: In his famous epic “Paradise Lost”, Milton portrays “Satan” as a character
that suffers from Hubris.
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.”
90. Hyperbaton:
It can be defined as a rhetorical device in which the writers play with the normal position
of words, phrases and clauses in order to create differently arranged sentences, but
which still suggest a similar meaning. Hyperbaton is also known as a broader version of
hypallage.
Hyperbaton is similar to anastrophe, which is the reversal of the word arrangement in a
sentence with the aim to create rhetorical effects. Anastrophe is also regarded as a
simile of hyperbaton.
Example: Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare:
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall….
Here, he uses the unexpected word order, which is “some by virtue fall” instead of
“some fall by virtue”. This disordering of words helps in emphasizing the phrase “virtue
fall”.
91. Hyperbole:
It is a figure of speech, which involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of
emphasis. Therefore, a hyperbole is an unreal exaggeration to emphasize the real
situation.
It is important not to confuse hyperbole with simile and metaphor. It does make a
comparison but unlike simile and metaphor, hyperbole has a humorous effect created
by an overstatement.
Example: From Joseph Conrad’s novel “The Heart of Darkness”,
“I had to wait in the station for ten days-an eternity.”
The wait of ten days seemed to last forever and never end.

25
92. Hypophora:
Hypophora is a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question and then
immediately provides an answer to that question. Commonly, a question is asked in the
first paragraph and then the paragraph is used to answer the question. It is also known
as antipophora or anthypophora.
The basic difference between hypophora and a rhetorical question is that in a
rhetorical question the answer is not provided by the writer since it does not require an
answer.
Example: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett:
Estragon: Where do you come in?
Vladimer: On our hands and knees.
93. Intertextuality:
Intertextuality draws upon the concept, rhetoric or ideology from other texts to be
merged in the new text. It may be the retelling of an old story, or you may rewrite the
popular stories in modern context.
Example: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway
In the following example, Hemingway uses intertextuality for the title of his novel. He
takes the title of a poem, Meditation XVII written by John Donne. The extract of this
poem reads:
“No man is an island…and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it
tolls for thee.”
94. Inversion:
Inversion, also known as anastrophe, is a literary technique in which the normal order of
words is reversed in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter.
Example: Shelly describes his favorite literary and political personality Milton in the
following lines:
“Blind, old, and lonely, when his country’s pride,
The priest, the slave, and the liberticide,
95. Irony:
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended
meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. In simple words, it is a
difference between the appearance and the reality.
Example: In the Greek drama “Oedipus Rex” written by “Sophocles”,

26
 “Upon the murderer I invoke this curse – whether he is one man and all unknown,”
The above lines are an illustration of verbal and dramatic irony.
96. Juxtaposition:
Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and
their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of
developing comparisons and contrasts.
Example: Charles Dickens uses the technique in the opening line of his novel “A Tale
of Two Cities”:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness”
In order to give us an idea of the factors responsible for the French Revolution, Dickens
uses Juxtaposition throughout the novel.
97. Limerick:
Limerick is a comic verse, containing five anapestic (unstressed/unstressed/stressed)
lines in which the first, second and fifth lines are longer, rhyme together and follow three
metrical feet, while the third and fourth lines rhyme together, are shorter and follow two
metrical feet.
Though both of these are types of poems, having fixed structures, they may look similar.
However, both are different in their forms, as villanelle consists of 19 lines with
refraining rhyming sounds appear in the first and the third lines, while final quatrain have
a closing couplet, whereas limerick has five lines, having anapestic form with first,
second and fifth lines rhyming together but third and fourth are different and rhyme
together.
Example: From “Othello” by William Shakespeare
And let me the canakin clink, clink;
And let me the canakin clink
A soldier’s a man;
A life’s but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.
98. Litotes:
It is a figure of speech which employs an understatement by using double negatives or,
in other words, positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite expressions. It
is therefore, is an intentional use of understatement that renders an ironical effect. For
example, using the expression “not too bad” for “very good”

27
Example: Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub
“I am not unaware how the productions of the Grub Street brotherhood have of late
years fallen under many prejudices.”
Now just see how Swift has used double negatives to emphasize the point that he is
totally aware of it. The irony is that he is aware but he is saying it as if he is unaware
that he is not.
99. Malapropism:
The word malapropism comes from “Mrs. Malaprop”, a character in Sheridan’s comedy
“The Rivals”, who has a habit of replacing words with incorrect and absurd utterances
producing a humorous effect.
Example: Cheer up; I predicate (predict) final victory.
100. Maxim:
A literary device, maxim is a simple and memorable line, quote or rule for taking action
and leading a good life. It helps characterizing characters.
Example: Of Truth by Bacon:
“A mixture of lie doth ever add pleasure.”
101. Meiosis:
Meiosis can be defined as a witty understatement that belittles or dismisses something
or somebody, particularly by making use of terms that gives impression that something
is less important than it is or it should be.
Example: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare; when Mercutio is wounded
mortally and he says “ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch…” this is a form of meiosis
102. Metalepsis:
It is a figure of speech like metonymy or metaphor. However, it is an advanced form of
figurative speech in which one thing is referred to another thing that is only slightly
related to it.
Example: Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?
A reference is made here to a mythological figure called Helen of Troy.
103. Metaphor:
Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison
between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics.

28
Example: The Sun Rising, by John Donne:
“She is all states, and all princes, I.”

104. Meter:
Meter is a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a
poem. Stressed syllables tend to be longer and unstressed shorter. There is iambic
meter, trochaic meter, spondaic meter, anapestic meter and dactylic meter.
Qualitative Meter – It contains stressed syllables with regular intervals such as iambic
pentameter containing even numbered syllables.
Quantitative Meter – Quantitative meter, however, is based on syllabic weight, and not
stressed patterns such as dactylic hexameters of classical Greek and classical Latin.
Example: From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare:
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.
105. Metonymy:
It is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something
else with which it is closely associated.
Example: The given lines are from Shakespeare’s “Julies Caesar”.
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
Mark Anthony uses “ears” to say that he wants the people present there to listen to him
attentively.
106. Monologue:
It is a literary device, which is the speech or verbal presentation that a single character
presents in order to express his/her collection of thoughts and ideas aloud. Often this
character addresses directly to audience or another character.
Interior Monologue – In interior monologue, a character externalizes his thoughts, so
that audience could witness the occurrence.
Dramatic Monologue – In this type of monologue, a character speaks to the silent
listener. This type has theatrical qualities, and is frequently used in poetry.
In monologue, a speaker reveals his thoughts to the audience or any other character,
whereas in a soliloquy, the speaker expresses his thoughts to himself/herself, and it
does not involve any other characters.
Example: My Last Duchess by Robert Browning.
107. Narrative Essay:

29
A narrative essay is a type of essay that has a single motif, or a central point,
happenings, and characters revolve around which the whole narrative revolves. A
narrative essay is similar to a simple five-paragraph essay, in that it has the same
format. It is only different in that it is a narrative, having characters, incidents, and
dialogues. A narrative essay has three required elements: character, theme, and
dialogue.
Example: Saturday Evening Post by Russell Baker
In this the author has fully described the efforts of his mother by her dialogue. Both
character and dialogue are very clear.
108. Nemesis:
Nemesis is a literary device that refers to a situation of poetic justice where the good
characters are rewarded for their virtues and the evil characters are punished for their
vices.
Example: In Christopher Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus”, Faustus’ Nemesis was his
pride in his scholarship and his overambitious nature.
109. Nostalgia:
In literature, it is employed to discuss a general interest in the past, or the personalities
of the past and subsequent feelings of pleasure or pain that is caused by remembering
something from the past and wishing that you could experience it again.
Example: The Daffodils by William Wordsworth.
The poet has seen daffodils somewhere. Now when he sits alone on his couch, the
same scene comes to his mind. This is an apt example of pleasure in nostalgia.
110. Novella:
In literature, a novella is a type of prose fiction, which is shorter than full length novels
and longer than short stories. It usually focuses on one incident, or issue with one or
two main characters and takes place at a single location.
Example: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness is a strictly controlled novella, with a classic status, describing a story
of late nineteenth century about imperialistic and colonialist process.
111. Ode:
An ode is a form of poetry such as sonnet or elegy, etc. Ode is a literary technique that
is lyrical in nature, but not very lengthy. You have often read odes in which poets praise
people, natural scenes, and abstract ideas. It is highly solemn and serious in its tone
and subject matter, and usually is used with elaborate patterns of stanzas. However, the
tone is often formal.

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Pindar Ode:
This ode was named after an ancient Greek poet, Pindar, who began writing choral
poems that were meant to be sung at public events. It contains three triads; strophe,
antistrophe and final stanza as epode, with irregular rhyme patterns and lengths of
lines.
Horatian Ode: The name of this ode was taken from a Latin poet, Horace. Unlike heroic
odes of Pindar, Horatian ode is informal, meditative and intimate. Since Horatian odes
are informal in tone, they are devoid of any strict rules.
Example: Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood by William Wordsworth.
Irregular Ode: This type of ode is without any formal rhyme scheme and structure such
as Pindaric ode. William Wordsworth and John Keats were such poets who extensively
wrote irregular odes, taking advantage of this form.
112. Omniscient:
Omniscient is a literary technique of writing narrative in third person in which a narrator
knows the feelings and thoughts of every character in the story. Omniscient narrative
tells the story of every character by demonstrating that only the narrator possesses
information.
• Omniscient Points of View – When a narrator has knowledge about all the
characters in a narrative, it is omniscient or all-knowing point of view.
• Limited Omnscient Points of View – In limited omniscient point of view, a narrator
has limited knowledge of just one character, leaving other major or minor characters.
Example: The narrator in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, is an
omniscient one.
113. Onomatopoeia:
Onomatopoeia is defined as a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It
creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more
expressive and interesting.
Example: The buzzing bee flew away.
Onomatopoeia, in its more complicated use, takes the form of phanopoeia. Phanopoeia
is a form of onomatopoeia that describes the sense of things rather than their natural
sounds. D.H Lawrence in his poem “Snake” illustrates the use of this form:
114. Overstatement:
Overstatement is an act of stating something more than it actually is in order to make
the point more serious or important or beautiful. In literature, writers use it as a literary
technique for the sake of humor, and for laying emphasis on a certain point.
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Example: In poem “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” Wordsworth reports daffodils as,
“stretched in never-ending line.” In fact, he is not saying this statement literally; rather
he is merely using overstatement to add emphasis on the long line of daffodils.
115. Oxymoron:
Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an
effect. The common oxymoron phrase is a combination of an adjective proceeded by a
noun with contrasting meanings.
Example: “cruel kindness” or “living death.
116. Paradox:
It is a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but may include a hidden
truth. It is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional
ideas.
Example: Your enemy’s friend is your enemy, I am nobody or Wise fool
117. Parallelism:
Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or
similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. Parallelism examples are found
in literary works as well as in ordinary conversations.
Example: We see the repetition of parallel structures in the following lines from “A Tale
of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,
118. Parenthesis:
Parenthesis is a qualifying or explanatory sentence, clause or word that writers insert
into a paragraph or passage. If they leave it out even then grammatically then it does
not affect the text that is correct without it. Writers mark them by punctuation. This
verbal unit provides extra information, interrupts syntactic flow of words, and allows the
readers to pay attention on explanation. However, the overuse of parenthesis may
make sentences look ambiguous and poorly structured.
Example: From “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk.
“It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you
must sympathize with the reader’s plight (most readers are in trouble about half the
time)…”
119. Parody:
Parody is an imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately
to produce a comic effect. The humorous effect in parody is achieved by imitating and

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overstressing noticeable features of a famous piece of literature, as in caricatures,
where certain peculiarities of a person are highlighted to achieve a humorous effect.
Example: Shakespeare wrote “Sonnet 130” in parody of traditional love poems
common in his day. He presents an anti-love poem theme in a manner of a love poem
mocking the exaggerated comparisons they made:
120. Pathetic Fallacy:
Pathetic fallacy is a literary device that attributes human qualities and emotions to
inanimate objects of nature.
Pathetic fallacy is a kind of personification that gives human emotions to inanimate
objects of nature for example referring to weather features reflecting a mood.
Personification, on the other hand, is a broader term. It gives human attributes to
abstract ideas, animate objects of nature or inanimate non-natural objects.
The sentence “The somber clouds darkened our mood” is a pathetic fallacy as human
attributes are given to an inanimate object of nature reflecting a mood. But, “The
sparrow talked to us” is a personification because the animate object of nature
“sparrow” is given the human quality of “talking”.
Example: Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy in his play “Macbeth” to describe the
dark murder of “Duncan.
121. Pathos:
Pathos is a quality of an experience in life or a work of art that stirs up emotions of pity,
sympathy and sorrow. Pathos can be expressed through words, pictures or even with
gestures of the body.
Example: In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” Mr. Collins’ confession to Elizabeth
that he wants her to be his future partner evokes feelings of sympathy in readers as
they feel an emotional intensity in his proposal.
122. Periphrasis:
It is a stylistic device that can be defined as the use of excessive and longer words to
convey a meaning which could have been conveyed with a shorter expression or in a
few words. It is an indirect or roundabout way of writing about things.
Example: using “I am going to” instead of “I will” is periphrasis.
Example: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
“I was within a hair’s-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with
humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say”

In the above passage, periphrasis is employed to describe earnestness.

123. Personification:

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Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given
human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they
have the ability to act like human beings.
Example: Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn’t it so? or The wind whispered through
dry grass.
124. Plot:
Plot is a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part
of a story. These events relate to each other in a pattern or a sequence. The structure
of a novel depends on the organization of events in the plot of the story. There are five
main elements in a plot: Exposition or the introduction, Rising action, Climax, Falling
action and the resolution or the conclusion.
125. Poem:
A poem is a collection of spoken or written words that expresses ideas or emotions in a
powerfully vivid and imaginative style, comprising of a particular rhythmic and metrical
pattern.
Poem has many types, the most popular include:
• Haiku – It is a type of Japanese poem, consisting of three unrhymed lines with mostly
five, seven and five syllables in each line.
• Free Verse – It consists of non-rhyming lines, without any metrical pattern, but follows
a natural rhythm.
• Epic – It is a form of poem, often written in blank verse, lengthy in size in which poet
shows protagonist in action of historical significance or great mythic.
• Ballad – It is a type of narrative poem narrates a story, often talks about folk or
legendary tales. It may take a form of moral lesson or a song.
• Sonnet – It is a form of lyrical poem containing fourteen lines with iambic pentameter
and tone or mood changes after eighth line.
• Elegy – A melancholic poem in which poet laments the death of a subject, however,
consoles towards the end is called elegy.
• Epitaph – A small poem used as an inscription on tombstone of dead person.
• Hymn – This type of a poem praises spirituality or God’s splendor.
• Limerick – This is a type of humorous poem with five anapestic lines in which first,
second and fifth lines have three feet and third and fourth have two feet with a strict
rhyme scheme of AABBA.
• Villanelle – It is a French styled poem with nineteen lines contains three-line stanza
with five tercets and final quatrain. It uses refrain at first and third lines of each stanza.

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126. Poetic Justice:
In literature, poetic justice is an ideal form of justice in which the good characters are
rewarded and the bad characters are punished by an ironic twist of their fate.
Example: Greek tragedy “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles.
127. Point of View:

Point of view is the angle of considering things, which shows us the opinion, or feelings
of the individuals involved in a situation. Point of view is a reflection of the opinion an
individual from real life or fiction can have. Examples of point of view belong to one of
these three major kinds:

i. First person point of view involves the use of either of the two pronouns “I” and “we”.

“I felt like I was getting drowned with shame and disgrace.”

ii. Second person point of view employs the pronoun “you”.

“Sometimes you cannot clearly discern between anger and frustration.”

iii. Third person point of view uses pronouns like “he”, “she”, “it”, “they” or a name.

“Mr. Stewart is a principled man. He acts by the book and never lets you deceive him
easily.”

Example: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is written in third person narration.

128. Portmanteau:
Portmanteau is a literary device in which two or more words are joined together to coin
a new word. A portmanteau word is formed by blending parts of two or more words but
it always refers to a single concept.
Examples: education + entertainment = edutainment and sitcom, from situational and
comedy
129. Prologue:
It is an opening of a story that establishes the setting and gives background details.The
main function of a prologue tells some earlier story and connects it to the main story.
130. Prose:
Prose is a form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural
flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure rather than rhythmic structure, such
as in the case of traditional poetry. Some works of prose do have versification and a
blend of the two formats that is called prose poetry.

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i. Nonfictional Prose: A literary work that is mainly based on fact although it may
contain fictional elements in certain cases. Examples are biographies and essays.
ii. Fictional Prose: A literary work that is wholly or partly imagined or theoretical.
Examples are novels.
iii. Heroic Prose: A literary work that may be written down or recited and employs many
of the formulaic expressions found in oral tradition. Examples are legends and tales.
iv. Prose Poetry: A literary work which exhibits poetic quality using emotional effects
and heightened imagery but are written in prose instead of verse.
131. Prosody:
A literary technique, prosody is the study of meter, intonation and rhythm of a poetic
work. It is a phonetic term that uses meter, rhythm, tempo, pitch and loudness in a
speech for conveying information about the meanings and structure of an utterance. In
addition, prosody is an important element of language that contributes towards rhythmic
and acoustic effects in a piece of writing. It includes different elements such as
scansion, sound, pace and meaning. There are four distinguishable prosodic metrical
patterns which are:
• Syllabic Prosody – Syllabic prosody counts a fixed number of syllables in each line,
while accent, tone and quantity play a secondary role.
• Accentual Prosody – It measures only the accents or stresses in a line of verse,
while the overall number of syllables may vary in a line. It is very common in Germanic,
old English and in modern English verses.
• Accentual-syllabic Prosody – It counts both number of syllables and accents in each
line. We commonly find it in English poetry.
• Quantitative Prosody – It does not measure the number of syllables rather depends
upon duration of syllables, which we can determine by amount of time used on
pronunciation such as a free verse poem that consists of unmeasured lines. We find this
type of prosody in Roman and classical Greek poetry while we find very rarely it in
English poetry.
132. Pun:
A pun is a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that
suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different
meanings.
Example: Oscar Wilde employs puns in his play “Importance of being Earnest”. Jack
Earnest tells Aunt Augusta in Act III:
“On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital
Importance of Being Earnest”

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133. Refrain:
Refrain is a verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears at the end of
stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections. Refrain is a poetic
device that repeats at regular intervals in different stanzas. However, sometimes, this
repetition may involve only minor changes in its wording. It also contributes to the rhyme
of a poem and emphasizes an idea through repetition.
Refrain is repetition of usually a line, a phrase, two or three lines, or even words in a
poem but repetition, involves repetition of words, phrases, syllables, or even sounds in
a full piece. Another difference is that a refrain in a poem may appear at the end of a
stanza; however, this recurrence of words and phrases in repetition may occur in any
line of stanza.
Example: Frost has used refrain in only last stanza of Stopping by Woods On a
Snowy Evening that he repeats twice as “And miles to go before I sleep.” It gives
rhythm to the poem and lay emphasis on this idea of doing many things before dying.
134. Repetition:
Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to
make an idea clearer. The following examples of repetition are classified according to
the different types of repetition used both in literature and in daily conversations.
• Anadiplosis: Repetition of the last word in a line or clause.
• Anaphora: Repetition of words at the start of clauses or verses.
• Antistasis: Repetition of word s or phrases in opposite sense.
• Diacope: Repetition of words broken by some other words.
• Epanalepsis: Repetition of same words at the end and start of a sentence.
• Epimone: Repetition of a phrase (usually a question) to stress a point.
• Epiphora: Repetition of the same word at the end of each clause.
• Gradatio: A construction in poetry where the last word of one clause becomes the first
of the next and so on.
• Negative-Positive Restatement: Repetition of an idea first in negative terms and then
in positive terms.
• Polyptoton: Repetition of words of the same root with different endings.
• Symploce: It is a combination of anaphora and epiphora in which repetition is both at
the end and at the beginning.
135. Rhetoric:

37
Rhetoric is a technique of using language effectively and persuasively in spoken or
written form. It is an art of discourse, which studies and employs various methods to
convince, influence or please an audience. A situation where you make use of rhetoric
is called a “rhetorical situation”.
Rhetorical figures or devices are employed to achieve particular emphasis and effect.
Rhetorical devices, however, are different from “figures of speech”. Wherever and
whenever a figure of speech is used in written texts and speech, it alters meanings of
words.
Example: John Donne addresses death in his holy poem “Death, be not Proud”: The
rhetorical question “why swell’st thou then?” serves to play down the horrific nature of
death. He devalues death by calling it a “slave”, and that it keeps the despicable
company of “poison, war, sickness” and seeks their support.
136. Rhyme:
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounding words occurring at the end of lines in poems
or songs. A rhyme is a tool utilizing repeating patterns that brings rhythm or musicality in
poems
Perfect Rhyme: A perfect rhyme is a case in which two words rhyme in such a way that
their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical e.g. sight and light, right
and might, rose and dose etc.
General Rhyme: The term general rhyme refers to a variety of phonetic likeness
between words. Like Bottle and fiddle, cleaver and silver i.e. words having a similar
sounding last syllable but without a stressed vowel
Eye Rhymes: Eye Rhymes, also called sight or spelling rhymes, refer to words having
the same spelling but different sounds. In such case, the final syllables have the same
spellings but are pronounce differently e.g. cough and bough, love and move etc.
137. Rhyme Scheme:
Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each verse or line in
poetry. In other words, it is the structure the end words of a verse or line that a poet
needs to create when writing a poem. Several poems are written in free verse style.
Some other poems follow non-rhyming structures, paying attention only to number of
syllable. There are several types of rhyme schemes as given below.
• Alternate rhyme: It is also known as ABAB rhyme scheme, it rhymes as “ABAB
CDCD EFEF GHGH.”
• Ballade: It contains three stanzas with rhyme scheme of “ABABBCBC” followed by
“BCBC.”
• Monorhyme: It is a poem in which every line uses the same rhyme scheme.

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• Couplet: It contains two line stanzas with “A, A,” rhyme scheme that often appears as
“A, A, B, B, C, C and D, D…”
• Triplet: It often repeats like a couplet, uses rhyme scheme of “AAA.”
• Enclosed rhyme: It uses rhyme scheme of “ABBA”
• Terzarima rhyme scheme: It uses tercets, three lines stanzas. Its interlocking pattern
on end words follow: Aba bcbcdcded and so on…
• Keats Odes rhyme scheme: In his famous odes, Keats has used a specific rhyme
scheme, which is “ABABCDECDE.”
• Limerick: A poem uses five lines with rhyme scheme of “AABBA.”
• Villanelle: A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain is
villanelle and uses rhyme scheme of “A1bA2, abA1, abA2, abA1, abA2, abA1A2.”
Example: Twinkle, twinkle, little star, (A) / How I wonder what you are. (A) / Up above
the world so high, (B) / Like a diamond in the sky. (B)

138. Rhythm:
Rhythm is a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through
stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form.
English poetry makes use of five important rhythms. These rhythms are of different
patterns of stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. Each unit of these types is called
foot. Here are the five types of rhythm:
i. Iamb (x /) It consists of two syllables. The first syllable is not stressed while the
second syllable is stressed. Such as “compare” in “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day?”
ii. Trochee (/ x) It has two syllables. The first syllable is strongly stressed while the
second syllable is unstressed, as given below. Like “Tell me not, in mournful numbers”.
iii. Spondee (/ /) Spondee is a poetic foot which has two syllables that are
consecutively stressed. For example: “White founts falling in the Courts of the sun”
iv. Dactyl (/ x x) Dactyl is made up of three syllables. The first syllable is stressed and
the remaining two syllables are not stressed such as the word “marvelous”. For
example: “This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,” The
words “primeval” and “murmuring” show dactyls in this line.
5. Anapest (x x /) Anapests are totally opposites of the dactyls. They have three
syllables; where the first two syllables are not stressed while the last syllable is
stressed. For example: “Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,”
Example: The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson:

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 “Half a League, Half a League”
139. Rising Action:
Rising action in a plot is a series of relevant incidents that create suspense, interest and
tension in a narrative. In literary works, a rising action includes all decisions, characters’
flaws and background circumstances that together create turns and twists leading to a
climax. We find it in novels, plays and short stories. Rising action is one of the elements
of plot, begins immediately after its exposition.
140. Sarcasm:
Sarcasm is a literary and rhetorical device that is meant to mock with often satirical or
ironic remarks with a purpose to amuse and hurt someone or some section of society
simultaneously.
Example: Mending walls by Robert Frost:
“Good fences make good neighbors.”
141. Satire:
Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and
corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It
intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses
fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their
corruption.
Satire and irony are interlinked. Irony is the difference between what is said or done
and what is actually meant. Therefore, writers frequently employ satire to point at the
dishonesty and silliness of individuals and society and criticize them by ridiculing them.
Example: Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels is one of the finest satirical works in
English Literature.
142. Setting:
Setting is an environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes place. It may
provide particular information about placement and timing, such as New York, America,
in the year 1820.Social conditions, historical time, geographical locations, weather,
immediate surroundings, and timing are all different aspects of setting. It has its three
major components; social environment, place and time. Moreover, setting could be an
actual region, or a city made larger than life, as James Joyce characterizes Dublin in
Ulysses.
Backdrop Setting – Backdrop setting emerges when it is not important for a story, and
it could happen in any setting such as A. A. Milne’s story Winnie-the-Pooh could take
place in any type of setting.

40
Integral Setting – It is when the place and time influences theme, character and action
of a story. In this type, setting controls the characters and by controlling setting, writers
could control their characters. If they confine a certain character to a particular setting,
it will define the character. The Tail of Peter Rabbit, is an example of integral setting.
143. Sibilance:
Sibilance is a literary device where strongly stressed consonants are created
deliberately by producing air from vocal tracts through the use of lips and tongue. Such
consonants produce hissing sounds. However, in poetry, it is used as a stylistic device
and sibilants are used more than twice in quick succession. Most of the times, the “s”
sound is the sibilant.
Alliteration is produced by the repetition of first consonant sounds in the words,
generally the first one or two letters such as in “A big bully beats a baby boy.” However,
sibilance is also a specific type of alliteration that uses the soft consonants. In
sibilance, the sibilant or hissing sounds are created. These soft consonants are s with
sh, and ch, th including three others such as z, x, f and softer c. SEASON of mists and
mellow fruitfulness,
144. Simile:
A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between
two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the
words “like” or “as”. Therefore, it is a direct comparison.
Example: In the novel To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf compares the velocity of her
thoughts about the two men with that of spoken words. She says both are difficult to
follow and cannot be copied in words by a pencil.
145. Slang:
Words that are not a part of standard vocabulary or language and are used informally
are called slang. These words are mostly used in speech rather than in writing.
Slang can be divided into four different types; country slang, urban slang, gay slang and
common slang. Country slang is used by those who are in the rural parts of a country,
while urban slang is spoken by those from the city or by African-Americans. Gay slang
is used by gays, bisexual, homosexuals or transsexuals. Common slang is used by
almost everybody.
. Example: “Last night was flop.” Here the slang term being used is “flop” “
146. Soliloquy:
A soliloquy is a popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost
thoughts of a character. It is a great technique used to convey the progress of action of
the play by means of expressing a character’s thoughts about a certain character or
past, present or upcoming event while talking to himself without acknowledging the
presence of any other person.

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 A monologue is a speech, the purpose and presentation of both is different. In a
monologue, a character usually makes a speech in the presence of other characters,
while in a soliloquy, the character or speaker speaks to himself. By doing so, the
character keeps these thoughts secret from the other characters of the play. An aside
on the other hand, is a short comment by a character towards the audience for another
character usually without his knowing about it.
Example: The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This short form of soliloquy comes at the end
of Act 2 where John Proctor faces the open sky when talking to Mary Warren.
147. Sonnet:
In poetry, a sonnet has 14 fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter. Each line
has 10 syllables. It has a specific rhyme scheme and a “volta” or a specific turn.
Generally, sonnets are divided into different groups based on the rhyme scheme they
follow. The rhymes of a sonnet are arranged according to a certain rhyme scheme. The
rhyme scheme in English is usually ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG and in Italian ABBA-ABBA-
CDE-CDE.
• Italian Sonnet: Italian or Petrarchan sonnet was introduced by an Italian poet
Francesco Petrarch of 14th century. The rhyme scheme of Petrarchan sonnet has first
eight lines called octet that rhymes as ABBA -ABBA –CDC-DCD. The remaining six
lines called sestet might have a range of rhyme schemes.
• Shakespearean Sonnet: A Shakespearean sonnet is generally written in an iambic
pentameter, there are 10 syllables in each line. The rhyme scheme of Shakespearian
sonnet is ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG and this is difficult to follow. Hence only Shakespeare
is known to have done it.
• Spenserian Sonnet: Sir Edmund Spenser was the first poet who modified the
Petrarch’s form and introduced a new rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme in this sonnet
is ABAB-BCBC-CDCD-EE which is specific to Spenser and such types of sonnets are
called Spenserian sonnets.
Others are Miltonic Sonnet, Terza Rima Sonnet and Curtal Sonnet
148. Static Character:
A static character is one that does not undergo inner changes or undergoes a little
change. It is a character that does not develop or grow such as Sherlock Holmes and
James Bond.
Static characters should not be confused or mixed up with flat characters — one
dimensional characters. Though both do not change throughout the story, if a character
remains unchanged, it does not mean that he is one-dimensional like a flat character.
Example: Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. He plays a vital role in
the novel by making efforts to get Darcy and Elizabeth together, and contributes

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comedy in the story; however, his character does not change. Thus, he is a perfect
example of a static character.
149. Stream of Consciousness:
In literature, stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes in words
the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. The term was coined was initially
coined by a psychologist William James in his research “The Principles of Psychology”.
Another appropriate term for this device is “Interior monologue”
150. Style:
The style in writing can be defined as the way a writer writes and it is the technique
which an individual author uses in his writing. It varies from author to author and
depends upon one’s syntax, word choice, and tone. It can also be described as a voice
that readers listen to when they read the work of a writer.
These styles distinguish the work of different authors from one another. Here are four
styles of writing:
i. Expository / Argumentative style: Expository writing style is a subject-oriented
style. The focus of the writer in this type of writing style is to tell the readers about a
specific subject or topic and in the end the author leaves out his own opinion about that
topic.
ii. Descriptive style: In descriptive writing style, the author focuses on describing an
event, a character or a place in detail. Sometimes, descriptive writing style is poetic in
nature in, where the author specifies an event, an object or a thing rather than merely
giving information about an event that has happened. Usually the description
incorporates sensory details.
iii. Persuasive style: Persuasive style of writing is a category of writing in which the
writer tries to give reasons and justification to make the readers believe his point of
view. The persuasive style aims to persuade and convince the readers.
iv. Narrative style: Narrative writing style is a type of writing where the writer narrates a
story to. It includes short stories, novels, novellas, biographies and poetry.
151. Symbolism:
Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from their literal sense.
Example: We find symbolic value in Shakespeare’s famous monologue in his play As
you Like It.
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players”

“A stage” here symbolizes the world and “players” is a symbol for human beings.
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152. Synecdoche:
Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it
may use a whole to represent a part.
Example: The use of synecdoche in the lines taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116:
“O no! It is an ever-fixed mark
The phrase “ever-fixed mark” refers to a lighthouse.
153. Synesthesia:
In literature, synesthesia refers to a technique adopted by writers to present ideas,
characters or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one senses like
hearing, seeing, smell etc. at a given time. Generally, the term synesthesia refers to a
certain medical condition in which one of the five senses simultaneously stimulates
another sense.
Example: We see Shakespeare employing synesthetic device in play King Lear: “Lear”
makes fun of his daughter “Goneril” for wearing revealing attire. He associates the word
“warm” with “gorgeous” which is an attempt to blend the sense of touch with the sense
of sight.
154. Syntax:
Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from different parts of
speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.
Diction refers to the choice of words in a particular situation while syntax determines
how the chosen words are used to form a sentence.
Example: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. In this novel writer uses long and
complex structures to emphasize the laziness of his character.
155. Tautology:
Tautology is a repetitive use of phrases or words which have similar meanings. In
simple words, it is expressing the same thing, an idea or saying two or more times.
Example: Hamlet by Shakespeare:
“Polonious: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.”
Here Hamlet has used words in order to show that he is lost in words that Polonius is
famous in using.
156. Theme:

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Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may
be stated directly or indirectly. Major and minor themes are two types of themes that
appear in literary works.
Subject is a topic which acts as a foundation for a literary work while a theme is an
opinion expressed on the subject. For example, a writer may choose a subject of war for
his story and the theme of a story may be writer’s personal opinion that war is a curse
for humanity. Usually, it is up to the readers to explore a theme of a literary work by
analyzing characters, plot and other literary devices.
Example: In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. The whole narrative revolves
around the major theme of matrimony. Its minor themes are love, friendship, affectation
etc.
157. Thesis:
A thesis is a statement in a non-fiction or a fiction work that a writer intends to support
and prove. One can find examples of thesis statement at the beginning of literary
pieces. These thesis statements are of utmost importance, as they serve as clear
indicators as to which directions writers will follow in their work.
Example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune
must be in want of a wife.
158. Thesis Statement:
A thesis statement is a statement that occurs at the end of the introduction, after the
background information on the topic. The thesis statement is connected with the
background information through a transition, which could be a full sentence, or a simple
transition word, such as therefore, because, but etc. A good thesis statement must have
evidences, interesting, limited, manageable and researchable.
A thesis statement is not a topic, but a brief explanation of the topic in a way that sets
the direction of the essay. The topic, however, is a general idea of the essay.
159. Utopia:
The literary term utopia denotes an illusionary place that projects the notion of a perfect
society to the reader. Here, the “perfect society” refers to ideal conditions achieved
within the material world as opposed to the expected idealism of afterlife in Christianity
or other religions. Further, the citizens presiding in such utopias are bearers of a perfect
moral code, or at the least, every violator of the moral code is harshly punished. A
utopian society is one where all social evils have been cured.
Example: H. G. Wells’s A Modern Utopia
160. Vernacular:

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Vernacular is a literary genre that uses daily used language in writing and speaking. It is
different from written works, as they normally follow the formal variety of language. The
word “vernacular” refers to writing or speaking of the public. Dante, who used
vernacular language in his famous epic poem, Divine Comedy others are Geoffrey
Chaucer and Mark Twain.
Vernacular is the use of ordinary, everyday and plain language in speaking or writing,
such as corn is a common name of a plant, and its scientific name is Maize.
161. Verse:
The literary device verse denotes a single line of poetry. The term can also be used to
refer to a stanza or other parts of poetry. Generally, the device is stated to encompass
three possible meanings, namely a line of metrical writing, a stanza, or, a piece written
in meter.
162. Wit:
It is a literary device used to make the readers laugh. Over the years, its meanings have
kept changing. Today, it is associated with laughter and comedy. It is, in fact, a clever
expression of thought; whether harmless or aggressive, with or without any disparaging
intent toward something or someone.
Example: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
163. Zeugma:
It is a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more
than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas.
Like zeugma, syllepsis also employs the technique of using a single verb for more than
one part in a sentence but where that single verb applies grammatically and logically to
only one. For example, in a sentence “They saw lots of thunder and lightning,” the verb
“saw” is logically correct only for the lightning as thunder is “heard”. Despite this
distinction, syllepsis is often considered a kind of zeugma.
Example: In Francis Bacon essay Of Studies:
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy,
deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

164. Zoomorphism
It is a literary technique in which the animal attributes are imposed upon non-animal
objects, humans, and events and animal features are ascribed to humans, gods and
other objects.
Example: Like in this instance, “A couple of customers that had been heading for my
slot began to knock against each other, like scared pigs in a chute” A&P by John

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Updike. Here pigs are meant to be intelligent animals and have been used as a simile to
show how people were behaving.
Anthropomorphism is ascribing human qualities to other objects, animals and
inhuman creatures in order to give an insight into their functions.
Example: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare: This excerpt is the
speech of Bottom in the play, who had a dream in which he was an ass-headed
monster adored by gorgeous fairy queen. He describes that humans cannot
comprehend his dream; it is beyond their approach.
CONCLUSION:

We employ rhetoric whether we are conscious of it or not, but becoming conscious of

how rhetoric works can transform speaking, reading and writing, making us more
successful and able communicators and more discerning audiences.

It is more important to recognize how figures of speech or rhetorical devices affect

readers and be able to use them effectively to persuade and communicate than it is to
identify them.

Rhetoric speeches are intended to get listener to accept a particular point of view, and
then motivate them into action. The art of giving a persuasive speech is as much about
using languages effectively as it is about communicating a convincing argument.

v. LITERARY CRITICISM:

Notes

vi. LINGUISTICS:

Book

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