Figurative Language Terms

1) Anachronism: Something that is misplaced in a story because it 9) Antithesis: A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas 16) Onomatopoeia: Use of words to imitate natural sounds. Brutus is out of time. In Julius Caesar, a clock strikes though there were are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical says "The exhalations whizzing in the ai (II.i.44): whizzing is an no clocks in Caesar’s day. structure. "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome example of onomatopoeia. more." 2) Irony (verbal) :Verbal irony is saying one things but meaning 17) Simile: a comparison of two-unalike things using “like,” “as,” another. In Julius Caesar, when Mark Antony refers in his funeral 10) Paradox: A statement which seems to contradict itself. “than,” or “rather.” Example: The skies are painted with oration to Brutus as "an honorable man" repeatedly, he really "Cowards die many times before their deaths." Is a quote made unnumbered sparks, / They are all fire, and every one doth shine; means the opposite. by Ceasar in the book. This quote is a paradox because man can't / But there's but one in all doth hold his place. / So in the world: actually die several times, but men fear death so much that they 'tis furnished well with men. / And men are flesh and blood, and 3) Hyperbole: Exaggeration; overstatement. Examples: (1) He may as well be dead because they aren't living their lives to the apprehensive, / yet in the number I do not know but one / That [Julius Caesar] doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, fullest. unassailable holds on his rank, / Unshaked of motion; and that I and we petty men walk under his...huge legs.–Shakespeare. am he. (III, i, 63-70).Analysis: The reader gains a glimpse of the (Caesar has become a giant.) (2) Ten thousand oceans cannot 11) Oxymoron: Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes arrogant Caesar, who compares himself to the Northern star, that wash away my guilt. (3) Oscar has the appetite of a starving lion. sense. Examples of oxymora include jumbo shrimp, sophisticated the conspirators fear. rednecks, and military intelligence. The best oxymora seem to 4) Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several reveal a deeper truth through their contradictions. For instance, 18) Iambic pentameter: A ten-syllable line consisting of five iambs words in sequence. “Veni, vidi, vici.” Julius Caesar "without laws, we can have no freedom." Shakespeare's Julius is said to be in iambic pentameter ("penta" = five). Its stress Caesar also makes use of a famous oxymoron: "Cowards die pattern (five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables) is 5) Apostrophe: (not the punctuation) a sudden turn from the many times before their deaths" (II.ii.32). conventionally represented U /U / U /U / U / general audience to address a specific group or person or / / - / - - / - - / personified abstraction absent or present.”For Brutus, as you 12) Aside: An aside is words spoken to the audience or perhaps to Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar another character while other characters are on stage. The other loved him.” Shakespeare, Julius Caesar characters pretend to not hear and we the audience get to listen in 19) Personification: Giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, on the thoughts. In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or 6) Allusion: A reference to another written work, legend, myth, Trebonius is told to stay close to Caesar's side and he replies to ideas) Addressing conspiracy as if it were a person. (see example television show, etc. "Why, man he doth bestride the narrow Caesar: "Caesar, I will (and in an aside to the audience) and so below) world like a Colossus" (Cassius, I.ii).This is an allusion to the near will I be,/That your best friends shall wish I had been Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient further." (II. iv. 124-125) The audience hears everything, but 20) Soliloquy world everyone pretends that Caesar does not hear Trebonius' An utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or threatening words. It is a device used so that the audience gets to herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present. 7) Anaphora: The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the hear the candid, inner thoughts of the characters. Cassius in soliloquy about Brutus in I.ii. beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs. One of the devices of repetition, in which the same phrase is repeated 13) Pun (double entendre)Comic relief, a word or expression that O conspiracy, at the beginning of two or more lines. "And Brutus is an has two different meanings: (I.i.15) "a mender of bad souls" Sham’st thou to show thy dan’rous brow by night, honorable man." When evils are most free? O, then by day 14) Monologue: Refers to a speech by one person in a drama, a Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough 8) Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing is a key literary device in the form of entertainment by a single speaker, or an extended part of To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; play. We see foreshadowing from the beginning of the play, when the text of a play uttered by an actor. “ANTONY: Friends, Romans, Hide it in smiles and affability: the Soothsayer tells Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March" in I.i, countrymen, lend me your ears” (III.ii). For if thou path, thy native semblance on, which happens to be the day that Caesar is killed. Calpurnia later Not Erebus itself were dim enough dreams of Caesar's death, but he does not heed her warning. this 15) Metaphor: A comparison of two unalike things NOT using To hide thee from prevention. not only tells us what is going to happen, but it also shows us “like,” “as,” “than,” or “rather.” Upon what meat doth this our how Caesar's status and ego are getting to his head. Caesar feed / That he is grown so great? (I, ii, 149-50). Analysis: Foreshadowing gives us a hint of what is to come, and can also Cassius compares Caesar to a carnivore and the common citizens reflect upon a character or characters. to meat, not a very flattering comparison.