Literary Devices DH DENOTATION HYPERBOLE DENOTATION Example The

Literary Devices D-H DENOTATION - HYPERBOLE

DENOTATION Example: The literal de·no·ta·tion (denō dictionary táysh'n ) n. 1. definition of a word basic meaning: the most specific or literal meaning of a word, as opposed to its figurative senses or connotations

DENOUEMENT The resolution of the plot; the point at which all mysteries are solved, tangles untied, and conflict resolved Example: When Oedipus banishes himself from Thebes and asks Creon to bury Jocasta and care for his daughters; when Victor asks Robert Walton to pursue the creature and finish the job

DESCRIPTION Writing that uses Example: “The wild imagery and garden behind the figurative language house contained a to show detail and central apple-tree help the reader and a few straggling picture scenes, bushes under one of events, and which I found the characters rusty bicycle pump. ”

DIALECT Language that Example: conveys a regional “My hand is in my distinction of a hussyfskap, people group Goodman, as ye may see; An it sould nae be barrd this hundred year, It’s no be barrd for me. ” (From “Get Up & Bar the

DIALOGUE Written conversation between two or more characters Example: “Merry Christmas, Uncle!” “Bah humbug!”

DIARY A writer’s personal Example: day-to-day account Anne Frank’s main of his or her literary thoughts, accomplishment; impressions, and anyone’s personal experiences. journal; The Diary of Samuel Pepys

DICTION A writer’s specific choice of words— both vocabulary and syntax (word arrangement and usage); diction may be formal, informal, technical, abstract, concrete, etc. Example: The poet’s choice for Hrothgar; Shakespeare’s choices for Hamlet; Chaucer’s decision to use the vernacular of the lower class in his writing

DRAMA A form of literature presented on stage with actors speaking dialogue in front of an audience Examples: Romeo & Juliet; Much Ado About Nothing; Once Upon a Mattress; The Crucible; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

DRAMATIC IRONY When the audience knows before the characters what will happen Examples: The fact that we know before Oedipus that he is the murderer of his own father; the fact that the reader knows the plans of the three rioters to kill each other in “The Pardoner’s Tale”

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE A narrative poem or speech in which one character speaks and reveals feelings, personality, or other information previously unknown to the audience Example: Juliet’s speech regarding Romeo; a newscaster reporting on the day’s events; to speak out loud to one’s self, evaluation a course of action

ELEGY A poem or speech expressing mourning or loss, usually over the death of someone Examples: “The Seafarer, ” “The Wanderer, ” and “The Wife’s Lament”; Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam, written in memory of his friend; “On My First Son” by Ben Jonson after the death of his child

ELIZABETHAN (ENGLISH) SONNET A 14 -line poem made up of 3 quatrains (4 -line stanzas) and a final couplet Examples: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day, ”; all of Shakespeare’s sonnets

END RHYME When the sounds of words at the ends of two or more lines of poetry are identical Example: “In buying victuals; he was never rash / Whether he bought on credit or paid cash. ” (from Chaucer’s “Prologue” to Canterbury Tales)

EPIC A long, narrative poem about the deeds of a hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated Examples: Beowulf; The Iliad & The Odyssey; Paradise Lost

EPIC SIMILE A long comparison that continues for a number of lines throughout a long story-telling poem; it usually contains the words like or as Example: Conspicuous as the evening star that comes, amid the first in heaven, at full of night, and stands most lovely in the west, so shone in sunlight the fine-pointed spear Achilles poised in his right hand… (from The Iliad)

EPIGRAM A short, witty poem Examples: or pointed “To err is human, to statement; often forgive, divine. ” written in two wellbalanced parts “Early bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. ”

EPITAPH An inscription on a gravestone or monument to honor the memory of the deceased Example: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water. ”

EPITHET A descriptive phrase or compound word that functions as an adjective and is used to point out specific traits of a person or thing Examples: “The sin-stained demon, ” “boarheaded helmets, ” “gold-covered benches”

ESSAY A brief work of non Examples: -fiction that offers “Of Studies, ” or “Of an opinion on a Marriage and Single subject Life” by Francis Bacon (Father of the English essay)

EXAGGERATION To stretch the truth Example: for effect; “There was no one hyperbole greater or stronger anywhere on the earth than Beowulf. ”

EXPOSITION Example: “Marley was dead: The part of a narrative or drama in which important background information is revealed to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. ” (From A Christmas Carol)

EXTENDED METAPHOR A comparison of two things, not using like or as, that goes on throughout an entire poem, or portion of a story Examples: When a poet gives a long description of his love as a mathematician’s compass he is using this; a song describing a person’s love like a fire through an entire song

EXTERNAL CONFLICT Problems that are outside of the protagonist rather than within Examples: Scrooge v. fate; Beowulf v. Grendel; Victor v. the Creature; the three young ritoers v. Death

FABLE A brief tale told in Examples: “The verse or prose for Hare & the purpose of Tortoise, ” “The teaching a moral or Boy Who Cried lesson; often Wolf, ” “The Goose contain animals as Who Laid the main characters Golden Egg”

FALLING ACTION The point within a Example: When plot following a Jocasta discovers the crisis and showing truth and Oedipus a reversal of continues to seek the fortune for the truth regarding the protagonist murderer; when Victor decides to go after the Creature

FANTASY A work of fiction that disregards the restraints of reality; creatures or events that are not real are presented in an organized fashion Examples: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia

FARCE Exaggerated comedy that features absurd plot, ridiculous situations, and humorous dialogue Examples: A pie in the face; a slip on a banana peel; a mix-up of character identities

FICTION Imaginative works of prose, usually presented in novel or short story form; the people and events of a work of literature that are NOT true Examples: Frankenstein; A Christmas Carol; A Separate Piece; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Language that Examples: A writer communicates using various meaning beyond methods to describe the literal meaning a flower…the flower of the words; was as red as dawn; includes similes, the flower was a metaphors, glowing ember; the hyperbole, personification, etc. flower awoke with joy to the light of sunrise

FIRST PERSON P. O. V. When the narrator Example: in a work of When we arrived to literature tells the scene, the first story as he or she thing I noticed perceives it—from were the shards of the perspective of glass throughout I, me, mine, we, etc. the room.

FLASHBACK An account of an Example: The narrator explains that a character event that used to love dance as a happened before child and gives a long the beginning of explanation of a scene the story from that character’s childhood, then jumps back to the present scene where the character is despising dance.

FOIL A character who Example: Scrooge’s provides a striking nephew, Fred, is one contrast to another to Scrooge; Elizabeth character is one to Victor Frankenstein; Darth Vader is one to Yoda.

FOLK BALLAD An anonymous poem or song handed down from generation to generation Examples: “Get Up and Bar the Door, ” “Sir Patrick Spens, ” and “Barbara Allan” are all examples of this form.

FOLK TALE A story handed down by work of mouth from generation to generation Examples: “Little Red Riding Hood, ” “The Three Little Pigs, ” “Rumplestiltskin, ” “Paul Bunyan”

FORESHADOWING A writer’s clues or Examples: Teiresias’ predictions hints about events of Oedipus’ loss of that will occur later sight; Frankenstein’s within the work sense of doom before a loved one dies

FORM All the principles of arrangement in a poem—the ways in which the words and images are organized and pattered. Form includes rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, consonance, and assonance. Examples: A sonnet, a haiku, a dramatic monologue, a free verse poem, a narrative poem, an elegy—all are examples of this literary device.

FRAME STORY A story within another story Examples: “The Canterbury Tales, ” “Federigo’s Falcon, ” and the tales from The Decameron; Frankenstein

FREE VERSE Verse that contains Example: no particular “I have met them at pattern of rhythm the close of day/ or rhyme coming with vivid faces / from counter or desk… (a stanza from a poem)

HAIKU A poem of three lines and 17 syllables and arranged in lines of 5 syllables (first line), 7 syllables (second line), and 5 syllables (third line) Example: “Purple crocuses Rise up to meet the dawn Stems of royalty” (a poem)

HERO The protagonist or Examples: central character in Oedipus, Beowulf, a work of fiction, a Victor Frankenstein, drama, or epic Ebeneezer Scrooge, poem and Hamlet are all examples of this.

HEROIC COUPLET Two rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter (10 beats per line) Example: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

HISTORICAL WRITING The narrative or systematic telling of real past events Example: A work of literature retelling the real events of Lewis and Clark; a work that retells the accounts of several lives involved in the Civil War

HUMOR Literature that includes sarcasm, irony, exaggeration, puns, and characters in ridiculous situations Example: Dave Barry’s use of satire to show the ridiculous side of recent news events; Chaucer’s use of mockery to poke fun at the Miller; when you are sarcastic to make people laugh

HYPERBOLE Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis Example: There was no one greater or stronger than Beowulf anywhere on the earth.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? ” with the meaning that the bit of blood on Macbeth’s hand will turn the entire ocean red. A: Hyperbole/Exaggeration

SAMPLE QUESTIONS Teiresias’ predictions to Odysseus as to how to get home; the eclipse of the moon, the horses running wild, the winds blowing trees down—all before Duncan’s actual murder; Frankenstein’s feeling of dread and doom as he listens to Justine’s last words in her cell A: Foreshadowing

SAMPLE QUESTIONS The conversation between the three rioters in “The Pardoner’s Tale”; the conversation between Anansi and his daughter; words spoken by Macbeth to Lady Macbeth A: Dialogue

SAMPLE QUESTIONS The Odyssey; The Iliad; Beowulf; Paradise Lost; Lord of the Rings A: Epic

SAMPLE QUESTIONS A pie in the face; a slip on a banana peel; a falling safe hits someone on the head; some of Shakespeare’s mixed identity plays; Saturday Night Live’s various skits, especially those of cheerleaders, politicians, nerds, etc. A: Farce