UNIT 5

Literary Terms:
Literary devices/figure of speech are the heart and soul of every expression. These
devices/terms breathe life in words which are common to all forms of a language whether it is
a narrative, story writing, drama, newspaper or poetry.
❖ What is figure of speech?
Figure of speech such as Simile, metaphor, alliteration make the work of literature beautiful.
Writers used them to highlight a particular description or to emphasise the interesting details
by repetition of words /phrases/consonant sounds/vowel sounds and so on and so forth.
‘Language is the dress of thought’. Imagine a person’s feelings, emotions or views on a subject,
stated plainly without the aid of a literary device. It would be a dull task. We all love to see our
favourite movie stars delivering those wonderfully scripted dialogues with great passion and
intensity.
All these expressions are a manifestation of the beauty of words, which we refer to as literary
devices. The English language encompasses a host of literary devices that make it so rich and
expressive. They provide a broad structure under which all the types of literature are classified,
studied and understood. The importance of literature in the portrayal of human emotions is best
understood by the application of these devices. Some of the common ones in use are described
in brief as follows.
1. Symbolism:
Symbolism is when the author uses an object or reference to add deeper meaning to a
story. Symbolism in literature can be subtle or obvious, used sparingly or heavy-
handedly. An author may repeatedly use the same object to convey deeper meaning or
may use variations of the same object to create all-encompassing mood or feeling.
Symbolism is often used to support a literary theme in a subtle manner.
According to etymology, ‘symbol’ literary means ‘something that has been put
together’. The source of the word is the Greek word ‘sumballein’, which refers to the
idea of putting things together to contrast them and ultimately became a word that was
used for compare.

So, when an author or a poet uses one object or refer toa completely different idea, then
he/she is employing symbolism.
Symbolism in literature is one of the many tools that writers employ in order to generate
not only interest in one’s work but also to create another level of meaning. ‘Symbolism
is not mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration; it is inherent in the very texture of human
life. Language itself is a symbolism.
According to Alfred North Whitehead, a philosopher, Symbolism has picked up such
significance that it has seeped into the arts in such a way that it has become an integral
part of most literary works and even general communication.
A mere sight of a skull and crossbones figure and you know that there is something that
you are being warned against.
 Roses and images of hearts have become synonymous with love.
Different colours have come to symbolize different emotions, for example purple for
royalty, green for peace/envy, red for jealousy/danger. But before symbolism penetrated
everyday language the way it has, it became a mainstay in the literary work.
Symbolism has been a writing method of choice for many authors and writers due to
the allowance of refinement that this literary device allows you with.
Some Examples of Symbolism
The following are common symbols used in literary works:
Symbols referring to damnation: Fire, flames, heat, hot temperatures
Symbols referring to salvation: Crosses, Angels, Haloes, Cloud, Churches
Symbols referring to reincarnation or reinvention: Phoenix rising from flames, crosses,
rainbows, passing storms, dawn, sunrise, broken chains
Symbols referring to death or endings: Gravestones, cemeteries, day of the dead, skulls,
candle bowing out, coffin, ringing of bell.

❖ Why do writers use symbolism?

Symbolism is used in literature to give to the literary work meaning that goes beyond what is
evident to the reader. Symbolism helps in giving the piece of writing feeling and mood without
the writer having to actually spell out the same. By giving certain things human like
characteristics and also defining them with certain qualities, the writer can manage to give the
novel another level that may refer to things that are completely alien from what is mentioned
in the piece of writing. Symbolism is supplement to the story.
❖ Examples of symbolism in literature
Symbolism need not necessarily have to be symbols that are easily recognizable or ones
that are commonly used. They can be subtle symbolic representations used to hint at
something without making it an obvious and overwhelming statement. There are many
famous examples of symbolism in novels in English language, some of which are listed
below.
The Scarlet Letter. The forcible wearing of the letter ‘A’ by Hester Prynne to indicate
that she was an adulteress and that the name of the father of her illegitimate child started
with the letter A.
Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan very obviously used his protagonist to be the
embodiment of every Christian. Every fellow traveller of Christian represents states of
being; every place he passes represents the temptations that you may face in life before
being led to your ultimate destination, Heaven which in the book is Celestial City.

Animal Farm. An allegorical novel, the entire story symbolizes communism and the
evils that come out of following the ideology. Each animal character in the book is a
symbol for a key character in the Russian revolution.

Symbolism is also a key part of poetry with many poets using symbols to express
emotions like love, grief, death, anger, jealousy, etc.
 Understanding symbolism can be difficult because while some writers use very simple
imagery to put forward their views, there are authors, playwrights and poets who
believe in using multiple symbols and several contexts to play on the symbols they have
used. Symbolism is what makes prose and poetry more enchanting to read. It gives us
a reason to find insights into the writer’s way of thinking and to try to understand why
a writer would put forward a theory the way he or she has. It is the writer’s way of
playing games with reader.

2. Motif
Motif is a repeated pattern; image, sound, word, symbol that comes back again and again in a
particular story.
When we see something, underline it and consider it carefully.
Why should I pay attention to this pattern?
A Motif can highlight something about the character to help us understand it better, or it can
help us understand the mood of the story. Often, motif reinforce the themes of the story.
Motif is not the same as a theme, but motif can be the background that leads us to
understand/discover the theme or support and reinforce it.
Finally, motifs can evoke other movements in the story, to minus other connections of the
scenes.
Example: “I stared at it in the swinging LIGHTS of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies
of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the DARKNESS which roared outside”.
James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues” (1957)
This pattern of ‘Darkness’ and ‘Light’ appears around the story. It comes up so often that we
start to pay attention to it, to tract it, to know the different context, and lines which are to use.
In this story, the motifs of Darkness and Light reinforces the themes of ‘suffering’, ‘Salvation’,
‘Imprisonment’, and ‘Freedom’.
2nd example: Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”.
The key part of the story is setting the mood and reinforcing the theme of Madness, Mental and
Moral decay.
3. Allegory
Allegory is comparing two things which are not at all similar. The word allegory comes
from the Greek word ‘Allegoria’ which means ‘veiled language’. It will not outrightly
denote anything. It is a deeper comparison that you eventually figure out when you read
that work and you try to figure out the hidden meaning.
The first kind of allegory is ‘Fables’. Fables are a part of oral story telling context. In
this kind of structure, they tell us stories where the major characters are animals and
they indirectly represent human beings and human conditions. Through animals, they
criticized certain human behaviuor. Example: Grasshopper and the Ant.
 Grasshopper and Ant allegorically represent two sets of people. A very hard working
people who works in order to save something for the future. The other set of people are
who believed in luck and that future will take care of itself.
Aesop was the founder of Fables. He was a very poor man and he wrote fables during
the Greek’s time.
#Another important kind of allegory is Parables.
Parables, unlike fables, they don’t used animals but they used human beings as
characters and they have deeper moral and spiritual messages. Example: The Good
Samaritan. It gives multiple messages.

Allegory is a metaphor in which places, people, events, things are used to deliver a
broader message about real world issues.
It is where poem, novel, or play gives a moral lesson or political message through
symbolism.
For example- “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan, is a classic example of
Religious Allegory.
Because, the character, the protagonist of the novel, Christian symbolizes every person
who practices Christianity. throughout his journey, the spiritual journey, he comes
across various characters.
Each character symbolized either virtues or vice.
Another example is Edmund Spenser’s “Fairie Queen”. Each knight symbolizes a
virtue. So, it is another example of allegory.
Then, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. It is a classic example of political allegory. It
talks about the evils of Russian Revolution.

❖ Allegories in literature
The first important allegory of literature is Plato’s allegory of Cave.
There is a cave and on one side of the cave, fire is burning and on the other side, people are
standing. Now fire is burning before them. So, people cannot see the fire. But due to fire, they
can see their reflection on the other side of the wall of the cave. So, they think that this the
reality, the shadow that they are seeing is the reality. Out of these people, few of the go out,
who are philosophers. These philosophers, when they go out and when they see, that there is a
wall beyond the cave, and the reality is the sun and the reality is the wall. And what we are
seeing on the wall is not reality, that is when you realize what the truth is all about. So, Plato is
trying to tell us that all the people on this earth are fools. They keep looking at the shadows
and lead their lives thinking that this is truth.
But, few of them, are philosophers who go out and see the actual truth. When they come back
and tell the people that what the actual truth is, people would not believe. Human beings are so
concern about themselves that they never listen to other people.
Another allegory is Pilgrim’ Progress written by John Bunyan.
John Bunyan talks about the character called Christian, who is going from the city of
destruction to the Heavenly city. While on his pilgrimage came across so many people; like
Faithful, Mercy. Then valley of Salvation then House of disappointment. This journey
allegorically represents every human being.
As we journey towards our heavenly home, we come across so many evil characters. There are
so many good people that we meet. We need to be with good people, we need to keep ourselves
away from bad people. And all these things will test our patience and we need to keep ourselves
victorious. This is how we succeed in life and we move towards our spiritual success and we
move towards self-realizations.
This journey of Christian is an allegory of every person.
Another important example of allegory is Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Animal Farm talks about certain animals and these animals are divided into two groups.
These two groups represent the political leaders of that time.
Russian political system is denoted through this story. Animal characters perfectly represent
Stalin and other characters. This is how George Orwell is criticizing political scenario of that
time.
4. Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which non humans(animals/objects/ideas) are
given characteristics of human beings.
The non-human objects are portrayed in such a manner that we feel that they have the
ability to act like human beings.
Examples:
1. A host of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
2. The wind howled in the night.
3. The old car was so sad as no one used it.
4. The last piece of cake was calling out my name.

The daffodils are personified by William Wordsworth. We know that daffodils are
flowers and not human beings, they cannot dance. But, because William Wordsworth
has personified daffodils, has given human like characteristics to daffodils, we can
totally visualize daffodils dancing in the breeze.

5. Simile and Metaphor

The two most commonly use figures of speech; Simile and Metaphor:
1. Simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things with ‘like’ and ‘as’.
For example: ‘She is as beautiful as an Angel’. She is compare to Angel by using ‘as’.
‘The trains are moving like huge elephants’. It’s again a simile because ‘like’ is used. To
compare ‘Train’ with ‘elephant’.
6.Metaphor
Metaphor is figure of speech that compare two unlike things without using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
When we say, ‘she is as beautiful as a rose’. We are using simile.
When we say, “She is a rose”. We are using metaphor.
We are directly saying, ‘She is a rose’. We are not using ‘like’ or ‘as’ here. so, this is a metaphor.
In literature, the most classic example that we can find is Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”.
Here is the line:
“All the world is a stage; the men and women merely players”.
---As you like it
So, this is a classic example of metaphor. The world is directly compare to a stage. ‘Like’ and
‘as’ is not used.
Then, there is a line from John Donne’s poem, “Sunne Rising” where he says-
‘She is all states and all princes I’.
So, he’s comparing his beloved to all the states, without using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Simile is when we are comparing by using ‘like’ or ‘as’. “She is as beautiful as a rose”.
Metaphor is when we are directly comparing without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. “She is a rose”.
Having understanding of ‘simile’ and ‘metaphor’, will help us understand many other literary
devices.
6.Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about the events are
dropped or planted. Sometimes, foreshadowing is relatively obvious; other times, it can be
more obscure or esoteric. Especially when certain elements can only be recognized as
foreshadowing after the fact, when readers have more information with which to contextualize
and make sense of what happened earlier. So, foreshadowing take advantage of the difference
between two additional literary terms that, in conversation, are often used synonymously, but
actually mean quite different things: plot-which is the order of events in a narrative as they
would take place linearly-and narrative, which is how events are told or related.
When a piece of foreshadowing shows up early in the narrative, then, it hints at or gestures
toward something that is going to take place later in the plot: usually not by giving away
precisely what’s going to happen, but by dropping a hint or make an allusion to something
that’s going to occur down the road, so to speak.
We’re being about it now in the narrative, then, to heighten our anticipation and make us want
to find out what’s going to happen.
Foreshadowing can serve multiple purposes:
The most common purpose is to generate or increase narrative suspense or tension.
This is why foreshadowing is found at the end of chapters or sections, and why it’s a standard
feature in genres that really rely on suspense, like the gothic novel and the horror movie.
A classic example of this kind of foreshadowing can be found in Mary Shelley’s famous Gothic
and early science fiction novel, Frankenstein, from 1818.
When Victor Frankenstein is telling us about his childhood, for example, he is narrating from
the vantage point of many years later and so he knows more than we as readers do about what’s
going to happen in the future.
At one point, for example, Victor relates how, during a family vacation when he was 13 years
old, a rainy day forced them to stay indoors, and Victor found some old books of occult
philosophy by the medieval mystic Cornelius Agrippa.
After beginning to read them eagerly, he asks his father about them, but gets only an offhand
dismissal. Victor then tells us:
“If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me, that the principles
of Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a modern system of science had been
introduced…I should have certainly thrown Agrippa aside….It is even possible, that the train
of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.
But the cursory glance that my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he
was acquainted with it’s contents, and I continued to read with the greatest pleasure”.
Here we have a very explicit bit of foreshadowing, something that clearly tells the reader to
expect bad things to happen as a result of Victor’s early exposure to mystical treatises that don’t
respect the boundaries and limitations of modern science (just as Victor will go on to transgress
the boundaries of the possible by learning to reanimate dead matter).
Sometimes foreshadowing isn’t this obvious-sometimes it’s not something the narrator says,
for example, but something that happens whose significance only become clear later.
7.HAMARTIA
Hamartia is derived from the Greek word “hamartanein”, meaning “to miss the mark” or “to
err”. Aristotle introduced the term in the Poetics to describe the error of judgement which
ultimately brings about the tragic hero’s downfall.
• Hamartia is a personal error in a protagonist’s personality, which brings about his tragic
downfall in a tragedy.
• This defect in a hero’s personality is also known as a ‘tragic flaw’.
• Aristotle introduced the term casually in the Poetics in describing the tragic hero as a
man of noble rank and nature whose misfortune is not brought about by villainy but by
some “error of judgement” (hamartia).
• Hamartia is the tragic flaw or error that reverses a protagonist’s fortune from good to
bad.
• Hamartia, is derived from the Greek phrase ‘hamartanein’ meaning ‘toerr’ or ‘to miss
the mark’.
• Hamartia, as a concept, is closely related to and interchangeable with the term tragic
flaw, as they both lead to the downfall of a protagonist in a tragedy. However, hamartia
can also be interpreted as a mistake based on outside circumstances rather than a
character’s personal frailty.
• Example: The character of Oedipus in ‘Oedipus the King’ by ‘Sophocles’.
• In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus is considered a classic tragic hero and his
hamartia is complex. Most people agreed that Oedipus displays the tragic flaw of
 hubris, and that his stubborn, impulsive, and arrogant nature cause him to make wrong
decisions that lead to his downfall. However, it is also a lack of knowledge and
information about his identity and that of other characters that leads to Oedipus to his
tragic fate. Therefore, the outside circumstances that cause errors in judgement have as
much to do with Oedipus tragedy as any flaw in his character.
Examples of hamartia:
• A hero is blinded by his loyalty to his best friend, even though his friend is working to betray
him.
• A heroin is so consumed with pride in her own beauty, that she fall willingly into the trap set
by the evil witch.
• As a literary device, hamartia does not reflect a character’s general weakness. Instead,
hamartia is a specific character trait, flaw, or vice that results in a literary character’s serious
misfortune or fall.
• Common examples of hamartia are pride or over-confidence, aggressive ambition, blind-
passion, arrogance, etc.
• Nearly all of William Shakespeare’s tragedies feature a character with hamartia. The tragic
hero in Shakespeare tragedy is brought to ruin or even death by a tragic flaw.
# Some examples of tragic heroes in Shakespeare’s works and their corresponding
hamartia:
• 1. Hamlet – fear of direct confrontation
• 2. Macbeth – violent ambition
• 3. Romeo and Juliet – impatience, adolescent passion.
• 4. Othello – extreme jealousy
• 5. King Lear – stubborn pride, anger
• 6. Julius Caesar – excessive pride, quest for power.

8. Catharsis
• Catharsis is a metaphor used by Aristotle in the Poetics to describe the effects of true
tragedy on the spectator.
• According to Aristotle the purpose of tragedy is to arouse “Fear and pity”and catharsis
of this emotions.
• The exact meaning has been the subject of critical debate over the centuries as
Aristotle never specified the meaning.
• Origin of the term:
• The term derived from the Greek word ‘Katharsis’ meaning ‘purgation’
or ‘cleansing’.
What is Catharsis?
• The exact meaning is debated as Aristotle never clarified it.
• The interpretation generally accepted is that;
• “Through experiencing fear vicariously in a controlled situation, the spectator’s own
anxieties are directed toward, and, through sympathetic identification with the tragic
protagonist, his insight and outlook are enlarged”.
• Tragedy then has a healthful and humanizing effect on the spectator or
reader.
• Catharsis is the purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity
and fear) primarily through art.
• A Catharsis is an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of
liberation from anxiety and stress.

Examples of Catharsis in Literature:

• Shakespeare’s plays: 1. Macbeth 2. Romeo and Juliet
• So, Catharsis is the release or purging of unwanted emotions-specifically fear and
pity-brought about by exposure to art. The term was first used by the Greek philosopher
Aristotle in his Poetics to refer to the desired.

9. Irony
• Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that the intended
meaning is completely different from the actual meaning.
There are various types of irony:
• 1. Verbal irony
• 2. Situation irony
• 3. Dramatic irony
Verbal irony
• Verbal irony is when the words that are used mean completely different
from what they seem to be.
• For example: in “Julius Caesar”, Mark Anthony, in his speech says, “Brutus is an
honorable man’. He gives a speech after Julius Caesar’s death. And, again and again he
repeats, “Brutus is an honorable man”. But he does not mean it. So, words that he used,
it doesn’t actually mean those words. So, this is a classic example of Verbal irony.
• He’s repeating those words again and again, to make people understand
that no, Brutus is not an honorable man. So. This is a classic example of verbal irony.

Situational irony
• Situational irony is when you expect something and the complete
opposite happens.
• In life, if you come across a marriage counsellor filing for divorce, we can say that
this an example of situational irony. Because you are not going to expect a marriage
counsellor having problem in his own marriage.
• In English literature, you can find a classic example of situational irony in O’ Henry
story, “The Gift of the Maggi”.
• So, there is a poor couple who love each other a lot. The wife sells her beautiful hair
to a wig maker, so that she can give her husband a chain for his pocket watch. She is
shocked to know that her husband has sold his pocket watch so that he can gift her a
new set of combs for her beautiful hair.
• So, this is a classic example of situational irony.
Dramatic irony
• The interesting type of irony is Dramatic irony.
• Dramatic irony is when the audience or the reader who knows what is
going to happen or what is happening, but the character in the play or the novel does
not know that.
• For example, in “Othello”, the audience knows the Desdemona is innocent but Othello
does not know it. The audience know that Yago is scheming for Othello’s downfall, but
Othello does not know.
• In “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles, we the audience know that Oedipus
has killed his own father and married his own mother. But Oedipus is not
aware of it.
• Othello and Oedipus Rex represent dramatic irony beautifully, where we
the audience know what is going to happen, what is happening but the
main characters are not aware of.

10. Dramatic Monologue:

• In a Dramatic Monologue, the speaker addresses an audience, usually an imaginary
of audience or silent listener who sits somewhere before him. And this speaker in
Dramatic Monologue is usually not the Poet but it is somebody else, usually another
individual, very well - defined individual.
• “God is in His heaven-all’s right with the world”- lines from Robert Browning’s verse
drama, “Pippa Passes”. With it, he stops bothering about the changes that happened
around him. And he found greater interest in dealing with individuals. Individual man
and woman, into whose mind decided to delve deeper and deeper. And in this attempt,
he revealed very interesting characters to us. And for this interest of his, he understood
the best method suited would be the poetic genre called the Dramatic Monologue.
• The dramatic monologue in the hands of Poet, like, Robert Browning enhances into
such perfections that nobody will be able to achieve the level that he had achieved.
• In his monologue we see such brilliant characterizations of very interesting people.
• In dramatic monologue, the speaker addresses the audience-usually an imaginary
audience or a silent listener who sits somewhere before him.
• The speaker in dramatic monologue is usually not the poet but it’s somebody else.
Usually another individual, a very well – defined individual.
• In the case of Robert Browning, he chose real life individuals like Andrea, who was a
painter of Florence.
• Almost in all the dramatic monologue, we see there is a listener, silent passive listener.
The listener doesn’t really talk to the speaker. And there is conversation going between
them and that is why it is called monologue. There is no dialogue between the listener
and the speaker.
• From what the speaker tells us we do understand a lot about the silence
and the passive listener.
• Dramatic monologue was used earlier by English Poets
• Classic examples: To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvel.
• Lord Tennyson, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost in American literature.
• Dramatic monologue is not to be mistaken for a soliloquy. Because it is not intended
for a listener. It is just an instant where a character or a speaker speaks out his personal
feelings. So, a listener is not intended and audience is not expected but in a dramatic
monologue, there is an audience to whom all these is said.
• The special genius of the form Dramatic Monologue is that it creates a kind of tensions
between sympathy and judgement.

• ROBERT LANGBAUM’S “The Poetry of Experience: The Dramatic Monologue in

the Modern Literary Tradition (1957)
• According to Robert Langbaum, “There is a disequilibrium between the validity of
the speaker’s apprehension of reality and objective reality”.
• Example: My Last Duchess-
• There’s a Duke who’s talking to an ambassador from another country about his
previous Duchess. This ambassador has come there for a marriage proposal and the
duke is talking to him about his earlier wife and telling him how he has so much love
for her and how she easily showered her affection on others that she used to smile even
at the gardener. So, he was so possessive and decided to kill her. He couldn’t imagine
the idea of his wife smiling at others. So, he says, “I put an end to her”.
• There are two things that happens here: we sympathize because he kills her, out
extreme love for her, and, at the same time we stand in judgement, because he kills her.

Characteristics of Dramatic Monologue:

• 1. The speaker is not the Poet but the listener. Only one speaker all throughout the
poem.
• 2. The statements made by the speaker makes it clear that there are people he/she is
talking to.
• 3. “Dramatic” implies a performance.
• 4. The speaker reacts to the listener’s statements and his or her own statements provide
with an idea about the listeners.
• 5. The special genius of the form Dramatic Monologue is that it creates a kind of
tensions between sympathy and judgement.

Conclusion: In conclusion it gives the reader something to take away that will help
them see things differently or appreciate the topic in personally relevant ways. It can
suggest broader implications that will not only interest the reader, but also enrich your
reader's life in some way. It is the gift to the reader.