VI. Find examples of anaphora, epiphora and framing. Comment on their functions.

1. I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that (Ch. Dickens «Bleak House»).

2. Five years have passed;
Five summers, with the length of
Five long winters! and again I hear these waters…

(W. Wordsworth «Tintern Abbey»).

3. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place (J.D. Salinger «The Catcher in the Rye»).

4. Is life vain, beauty vain, hope vain, happiness vain? (J. Galsworthy «The Forsyte Saga»)

5. Never wonder. By means of addition, multiplication and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder (Ch. Dickens «Hard Times»).

6. The Dog was wild, and the Horse wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild, - as wild as wild could be (R. Kipling «The Cat That Walked By Himself»).

7. No wonder his father wanted to know what Bosinney meant, no wonder (J. Galsworthy «The Forsyte Saga»).

8. She was not what you would call refined. She was not what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot (Mark Twain).

VII. Comment on the function of the underlined nominative sentences.

1. It's my mother's idea of where a well-bred young lady ought to be while she pursues her education. Education.Hah! ” (I. Shaw «Nightwork»)

2. The Wimpole Street laboratory. Midnight. Nobody in the room. The clockon the mantelpiece strikes twelve ( B. Shaw «Pygmalion»).

3. Dust.Dusk.A quality of fading light over a fading street … Home. (P. Marshall «The Raging Moon»)

4. When I was a young lady they wrote it in fiery letters. The World of the Future!Science, Comfort and the New Things for All! Ha!Eighty years. The Future comes Now! Do we fly rockets? No! We live in shacks like our ancestors before us (R. Bradbury «Fahrenheit 451»).

 

 

 

 

O’HENRY

The Cop and the Anthem

 

On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily. When wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husbands, and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park, you may know that winter is near at hand.
A dead leaf fell in Soapy's lap. That was Jack Frost's card. Jack is kind to the regular denizens of Madison Square, and gives fair warning of his annual call. At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboard to the North Wind, footman of the mansion of All Outdoors, so that the inhabitants there of may make ready.
Soapy's mind became cognisant of the fact that the time had come for him to resolve himself into a singular Committee of Ways and Means to provide against the coming rigour. And therefore he moved uneasily on his bench.
The hibernatorial ambitions of Soapy were not of the highest. In them there were no considerations of Mediterranean cruises, of soporific Southern skies drifting in the Vesuvian Bay. Three months on the Island was what his soul craved. Three months of assured board and bed and congenial company, safe from Boreas and bluecoats, seemed to Soapy the essence of things desirable.
For years the hospitable Blackwell's had been his winter quarters. Just as his more fortunate fellow New Yorkers had bought their tickets to Palm Beach and the Riviera each winter, so Soapy had made his humble arrangements for his annual hegira to the Island. And now the time was come. On the previous night three Sabbath newspapers, distributed beneath his coat, about his ankles and over his lap, had failed to repulse the cold as he slept on his bench near the spurting fountain in the ancient square. So the Island loomed big and timely in Soapy's mind. He scorned the provisions made in the name of charity for the city's dependents. In Soapy's opinion the Law was more benign than Philanthropy. There was an endless round of
institutions, municipal and eleemosynary, on which he might set out and receive lodging and food accordant with the simple life. But to one of Soapy's proud spirit the gifts of charity are encumbered. If not in coin you must pay in humiliation of spirit for every benefit received at the hands of philanthropy. As Caesar had his Brutus, every bed of charity must have its toll of a bath, every loaf of bread its compensation of a private and personal inquisition. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not meddle unduly with a gentleman's private affairs.
Soapy, having decided to go to the Island, at once set about accomplishing his desire. There were many easy ways of doing this. The pleasantest was to dine luxuriously at some expensive restaurant; and then, after declaring insolvency, be handed over quietly and without uproar to a policeman. An accommodating magistrate would do the rest.
Soapy left his bench and strolled out of the square and across the level sea of asphalt, where Broadway and Fifth Avenue flow together. Up Broadway he turned, and halted at a glittering cafe, where are gathered together nightly the choicest products of the grape, the silkworm and the protoplasm.

Soapy had confidence in himself from the lowest button of his vest upward. He was shaven, and his coat was decent and his neat black, ready-tied four-in-hand had been presented to him by a lady missionary on Thanksgiving Day. If he could reach a table in the restaurant unsuspected success would be his. The portion of him that
would show above the table would raise no doubt in the waiter's mind. A roasted mallard duck, thought Soapy, would be about the thing—with a bottle of Chablis, and then Camembert, a demi-tasse and a cigar. One dollar for the cigar would be enough. The total would not be so high as to call forth any supreme manifestation of revenge from the cafe management; and yet the meat would leave him filled and happy for the journey to his winter refuge.
But as Soapy set foot inside the restaurant door the head waiter's eye fell upon his frayed trousers and decadent shoes. Strong and ready hands turned him about and conveyed him in silence and haste to the sidewalk and averted the ignoble fate of the menaced mallard.
Soapy turned off Broadway. It seemed that his route to the coveted island was not to be an epicurean one. Some other way of entering limbo must be thought of.
At a corner of Sixth Avenue electric lights and cunningly displayed wares behind plate-glass made a shop window conspicuous. Soapy took a cobblestone and dashed it through the glass. People came running around the corner, a policeman in the lead. Soapy stood still, withhis hands in his pockets, and smiled at the sight of brass buttons.
"Where's the man that done that?" inquired the officer excitedly.

"Don't you figure out that I might have had something to do with it?" said Soapy, not without sarcasm, but friendly, as one greets good fortune.

The policeman's mind refused to accept Soapy even as a clue. Men who smash windows do not remain to parley with the law's minions. They take to their heels. The policeman saw a man half way down the block running to catch a car. With drawn club he joined in the pursuit. Soapy, with disgust in his heart, loafed along, twice unsuccessful.

On the opposite side of the street was a restaurant of no great pretensions. It catered to large appetites and modest purses. Its crockery and atmosphere were thick; its soup and napery thin. Into this place Soapy took his accusive shoes and telltale trousers without challenge. At a table he sat and consumed beefsteak,

flapjacks, doughnuts and pie. And then to the waiter be betrayed the fact that the minutest coin and himself were strangers.

"Now, get busy and call a cop," said Soapy. "And don't keep a gentleman waiting."

"No cop for youse," said the waiter, with a voice like butter cakes and an eye like the cherry in a Manhattan cocktail. "Hey, Con!"

Neatly upon his left ear on the callous pavement two waiters pitched Soapy. He arose, joint by joint, as a carpenter's rule opens, and beat the dust from his clothes. Arrest seemed but a rosy dream. The Island seemed very far away. A policeman who stood before a drugstore two doors away laughed and walked down the street.
Five blocks Soapy travelled before his courage permitted him to woo capture again. This time the opportunity presented what he fatuously termed to himself a "cinch." A young woman of a modest and pleasing guise was standing before a show window gazing with sprightly interest at its display of shaving mugs and inkstands, and two yards from the window a large policeman of severe demeanour leaned against a water plug.
It was Soapy's design to assume the role of the despicable and execrated "masher." The refined and elegant appearance of his victim and the contiguity of the conscientious cop encouraged him to believe that he would soon feel the pleasant official clutch upon his arm that would insure his winter quarters on the right little, tight little isle.
Soapy straightened the lady missionary's readymade tie, dragged his shrinking cuffs into the open, set his hat at a killing cant and sidled toward the young woman. He made eyes at her, was taken with sudden coughs and "hems," smiled, smirked and went brazenly through the impudent and contemptible litany of the "masher." With half an eye Soapy saw that the policeman was watching him fixedly. The young woman moved away a few steps, and again bestowed her absorbed attention upon the shaving mugs. Soapy followed, boldly stepping to
her side, raised his hat and said:
"Ah there, Bedelia! Don't you want to come and play in my yard?"
The policeman was still looking. The persecuted young woman had but to beckon a finger and Soapy would be practically en route for his insular haven. Already he imagined he could feel the cozy warmth of the station-house. The young woman faced him and, stretching out a hand, caught Soapy's coat sleeve.
Sure, Mike," she said joyfully, "if you'll blow me to a pail of suds. I'd have spoke to you sooner, but the cop was watching."
With the young woman playing the clinging ivy to his oak Soapy walked past the policeman overcome with gloom. He seemed doomed to liberty.
At the next corner he shook off his companion and ran. He halted in the district where by night are found the lightest streets, hearts, vows and librettos.
Women in furs and men in greatcoats moved gaily in the wintry air. A sudden fear seized Soapy that some dreadful enchantment had rendered him immune to arrest. The thought brought a little of panic upon it, and when he came upon another           policeman lounging grandly in front of a transplendent theatre he caught at the immediate straw of "disorderly conduct."
On the sidewalk Soapy began to yell drunken gibberish at the top of his harsh voice. He danced, howled, raved and otherwise disturbed the welkin.
The policeman twirled his club, turned his back to Soapy and remarked to a citizen.
"'Tis one of them Yale lads celebratin' the goose egg they give to the Hartford College. Noisy; but no harm. We've instructions to lave them be."
Disconsolate, Soapy ceased his unavailing racket. Would never a policeman lay hands on him? In his fancy the Island seemed an unattainable Arcadia. He buttoned his thin coat against the chilling wind.
In a cigar store he saw a well-dressed man lighting a cigar at a swinging light. His silk umbrella he had set by the door on entering. Soapy stepped inside, secured the umbrella and sauntered off with it slowly. The man at the cigar light followed hastily.
"My umbrella," he said, sternly.
"Oh, is it?" sneered Soapy, adding insult to petit larceny. "Well, why don't you call a policeman? I took it. Your umbrella! Why don't you call a cop? There stands one on

the corner.     

                    
The umbrella owner slowed his steps. Soapy did likewise, with a presentiment that luck would again run against him. The policeman looked at the two curiously.
"Of course," said the umbrella man--"that is--well, you know how these mistakes occur--I--if it's your umbrella I hope you'll excuse me--I picked it up this morning in a restaurant--If you recognise it as yours, why--I hope you'll--"
"Of course it's mine," said Soapy, viciously.
The ex-umbrella man retreated. The policeman hurried to assist a tall blonde in an opera cloak across the street in front of a street car that was approaching two blocks away.
Soapy walked eastward through a street damaged by improvements. He hurled the umbrella wrathfully into an excavation. He muttered against the men who wear helmets and carry clubs. Because he wanted to fall into their clutches, they seemed to regard him as a king who could do no wrong.

At length Soapy reached one of the avenues to the east where the glitter and turmoil was but faint. He set his face down this toward Madison Square, for the homing instinct survives even when the home is a park bench.
But on an unusually quiet corner Soapy came to a standstill. Here was an old church, quaint and rambling and gabled. Through one violet-stained window a soft light glowed, where, no doubt, the organist loitered over the keys, making sure of his mastery of the coming Sabbath anthem. For there drifted out to Soapy's ears sweet music that caught and held him transfixed against the convolutions of the iron fence.
The moon was above, lustrous and serene; vehicles and pedestrians were few; sparrows twittered sleepily in the eaves--for a little while the scene might have been a country churchyard. And the anthem that the organist played cemented Soapy to the iron fence, for he had known it well in the days when his life contained such things as mothers and roses and ambitions and friends and immaculate thoughts and collars.
The conjunction of Soapy's receptive state of mind and the influences about the old church wrought a sudden and wonderful change in his soul. He viewed with swift horror the pit into which he had tumbled, the degraded days, unworthy desires, dead hopes, wrecked faculties and base motives that made up his existence.
And also in a moment his heart responded thrillingly to this novel mood. An instantaneous and strong impulse moved him to battle with his desperate fate. He would pull himself out of the mire; he would make a man of himself again; he would conquer the evil that had taken possession of him. There was time; he was comparatively young yet; he would resurrect his old eager ambitions and pursue them without faltering. Those solemn but sweet organ notes had set up a revolution in him. To-morrow he would go into the roaring downtown district and find work. A fur importer had once offered him a place as driver. He would find him to-morrow and ask for the position. He would be somebody in the world. He would--

 

Alliteration means “letters of alphabet”. It is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.

But a better butter makes a batter better.

A big bully beats a baby boy.

Assonance takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds.

“Men sell the wedding bells.”

 

Amphibrach is a metrical foot used in Latin and Greek prosody; consists of a long syllable between two short syllables; combination of unstressed, stressed and unstressed syllable – (daDUMda)

 

Anapest is a poetic device defined as a metrical foot in a line of a poem that contains three syllables wherein the first two syllables are short and unstressed followed by a third syllable that is long and stressed as given in this line “I must fi nish my jour ney a lone. ” Here the anapestic foot is marked in bold.

 

Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events.

“Animal Farm”, written by George Orwell, is an allegory that uses animals on a farm to describe the overthrow of the last of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the Communist Revolution of Russia before WW I. The actions of the animals on the farm are used to expose the greed and corruption of the revolution. It also describes how powerful people can change the ideology of a society. One of the cardinal rules on the farm for the animals is:

“All animals are equal but a few are more equal than others.”

The animals on the farm represent different sections of Russian society after the revolution.

 

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. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text.

For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, “I do not approve of this quixotic idea,” Quixotic means stupid and impractical derived from Cervantes’s “Don Quixote”, a story of a foolish knight and his misadventures.

“Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo and Juliet”.

The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes. – This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”.

 

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 phrases or clauses, i.e. the structures of phrases and clauses are similar in order to draw the attention of the listeners or readers.

For example:

“Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man but a giant step for mankind.”

The use of contrasting ideas, “a small step” and “a giant step”, in the sentence above emphasizes the significance of one of the biggest landmarks of human history.

The opening lines of Charles Dickens’ novel “ A Tale of Two Cities” provides an unforgettable antithesis example:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

The contrasting ideas, set in parallel structures, markedly highlight the conflict that existed in the time which was discussed in the novel.

 

Aposiopesis is the rhetorical device of breaking off in the middle of speech. The sentence or thought is unfinished and the end left to the imagination of the interlocutor or audience. This can signify a speaker’s unwillingness or inability to continue for any number of reasons. Usually these reasons have to do with an extreme emotion interfering with continuous thought processes, such as fear, anger, joy, etc.

“ If it be you that stir these daughters’ hearts

Against their father, fool me not so much

To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,

And let not women’s weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,

I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall–I will do such things,–

What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be

The terrors of the earth.”

“King Lear” by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare uses an example of aposiopesis in his tragedy King Lear. Lear is so overcome with anger when imagining his possible revenge that he cannot continue. He breaks off as he addresses his daughters Goneril and Regan in the line “That all the world shall–I will do such things,—.” Lear acknowledges that he does not yet know what revenge he will take, but that “they shall be / The terrors of the earth.”

 

Asyndeton 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. This literary tool helps in reducing the indirect meaning of the phrase and presents it in a concise form.

“This is the villain among you who deceived you, who cheated you, who meant to betray you completely…….”

Rhetoric by Aristotle

The word “and” is not featured in the given lines, which could have functioned as a conjunction here. Aristotle believed that asyndeton could be effective if used in the ending of the texts. Here he himself employed this device.

“Consciousness of place came ebbing back to him slowly over a vast tract of time unlit, unfelt, unlived…..”

“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce

Joyce has also used this device and omitted the conjunctions in order to give rhythm and pace in the text. Here we can see the elimination of conjunctions such as “and” “or” etc. which could have joined the words; “unlit, unfelt, unlived”. These are creating a frantic and hurried effect.

 

The term anadiplosis is a Greek word which means “to reduplicate”. It refers to the repetition of a word or words in successive clauses in such a way that the second clause starts with the same word which marks the end of the previous clause.

Anadiplosis exhibits a typical pattern of repeating a word. For example, the repetition of the word “give” in the sentence “When I give, I give myself.” is termed anadiplosis as it occurs at the end of the first clause and marks the beginning of the following clause.

 

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.

Anaphora, possibly the oldest literary device, has its roots in Biblical Psalms used to emphasize certain words or phrases. Gradually, Elizabethan and Romantic writers brought this device into practice. Examine the following psalm:

“O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?”

The repetition of the phrase “O Lord,” attempts to create a spiritual sentiment. This is anaphora.

 

Antagonist

An antagonist is  an opponent of the protagonist or the main character. The action in the story arises from a conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. The antagonist can be a person, an inanimate object, an animal, or nature itself.

 

An author is narrowly defined as the originator of any written work and can thus also be described as a writer (with any distinction primarily being an implication that an author is a writer of one or more major works, such as books or plays).

 

Accent is the elevation of the voice which distinguishes one part of a word from another.

1. The noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb (meaning ‘to lay stress on, to emphasize’ in various senses) on the second.

2. In general use, an accent is ‘individual, local, or national mode of pronunciation’, as in a Scottish accent, a slight accent, etc.:

  She had…the accent of a good finishing school.

‘ Crème de framboises,’ she read in her governessy accent.

She resembled Jackie Kennedy, but —surprisingly —had a strong Scottish accent.

It is also used to mean the position of the stress in a word, and a sign put on a word in writing to mark a feature of its pronunciation:

You must pronounce this all as one word with the accent on the first syllable.

 

Ballad Stanza – Its rhyme scheme is a b a b with iambic tetrameter.

 

Blank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones and five of which are stressed but do not rhyme. It is also known as un-rhymed iambic pentameter.

The Earl of Surrey introduced blank verse in English literature in 1540. Milton, Shakespeare, Marlowe, John Donne, John Keats and many other poets and dramatists have used this device in their works. Have a look at some examples of blank verse:

Example:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

“Mending Walls” by Robert Frost

 

Bathos is when a writer or a poet falls into inconsequential and absurd metaphors, descriptions or ideas in an effort to be increasingly emotional or passionate.Bathos is a literary term derived from a Greek word meaning “depth”.

Jane Austen is among the few serious writers who used this tool. It helped her give a sense of merriness to her novel Northanger Abbey. In this novel, Austen highlights the ingenuous and imaginative nature of the leading character Catherine Morland. She uses Catherine’s increasingly active imagination to work like Bathos in order to parody the plot used in Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic novels and the likes of her.

In Radcliff’s The Romance of the Forest, a character finds a human skeleton in the chest. In Northanger Abbey, Austen uses a mysterious chest in her story as a prop to build on and successfully satirize the extremes of the Gothic fiction of eighteenth century.

Catherine became skeptical when she saw the enormous chest in her room during her stay at the Abbey. Certain questions arose in her mind about that chest and about what it held and why it was placed in her room. Catherine, who seemed to be very naïve, went on investigating the chest. You can see that the novel at this particular point adopts a very gothic tone. It starts using short clauses that consist of many inauspicious words, for instance ‘trembling hands’, ‘alarming violence’ and ‘fearful curiosity’. The selection of words at this point aids in building up the suspense in the readers’ and audience’s heads only to discover consequently that the chest holds only a folded bed sheet.

 

Capitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (upper-case letter) and the remaining letters in lower case in writing systems with a case distinction.

 

Catharsis is an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress.

“ 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]”

In “Romeo and Juliet”, Romeo commits suicide by drinking the poison that he erroneously thinks Juliet had tasted too. The audience usually finds themselves crying at this particular moment for several reasons. Primarily because losing a loved one is a feeling that all of us share. Watching or reading such a scene triggers the memories of someone we have lost (either by death or by mere separation) and because we are able to relate to it, we suddenly release the emotions that we have been repressing.

 

С onflict is a literary element that involves a struggle between two opposing forces usually a protagonist and an antagonist.

Сonflicts may be internal or external.

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. Internal conflict develops a unique tension in a storyline marked by a lack of action.

External conflict, on the other hand, is marked by a characteristic involvement of an action wherein a character finds himself in struggle with those outside forces that hamper his progress. The most common type of an external conflict is where a protagonist fights back against the antagonist’s tactics that impede his or her advancement.

Examples:

1.Example of an internal conflict is found in the character of Doctor Faustus in Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus”. Faustus has an ambitious nature. In spite of being a respected scholar, he sold his soul to “Lucifer” by signing a contract with his blood for achieving ultimate power and limitless pleasure in this world. He learns the art of black magic and defies Christianity.

After the aforementioned action, we see Faustus suffering from an internal conflict where he thinks honestly about repenting, acting upon the advice of “the good angel” but “the bad angel” or the evil inside him distracts him by telling that it is all too late. In conclusion, the conflict is resolved when devils take his soul away to Hell and he suffers eternal damnation because of his over-ambition.

2. External conflict is when a character in a story struggles against another character physically. In William Golding’s novel “The Lord of the Flies” for example, Ralph (the leader of the “good guys”) steadily comes into conflict with Jack (a bully who later forms a “tribe” of hunters). Jack and his “tribe” give in to their savage instinct and make attempts to hunt or kill the civilized batch of boys headed by Ralph.

Climax is a structural part of a plot and is at times referred to as a crisis. It is a decisive moment or a turning point in a storyline at which the rising action turns around into a falling action. Thus, a climax is the point at which a conflict or crisis reaches its peak that calls for a resolution or denouement (conclusion).

In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, the story reaches its climax in Act 3. In the first scene of the act, Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel after he (Tybalt) killed Mercutio:

“And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!

Now, Tybalt, take the ‘villain’ back again

That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio’s soul

Is but a little way above our heads,”

As soon as he killed Tybalt, Romeo says:

“O! I am Fortune’s Fool!”

He realizes that he has killed his wife’s cousin. This juncture in the play is a climax as the audience wonders how Romeo would get out of this terrible situation. Similarly, it qualifies as a climax because after this act all the prior conflicts start to be resolved and mysteries unfold themselves and thus the story moves toward its logical conclusion during the coming scenes.

 

Chiasmus 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:

“ Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You.”

Notice that the second half of the above mentioned sentence is an inverted form of the first half both grammatically and logically. In the simplest sense, the term chiasmus applies to almost all “criss-cross” structures and this is the concept that is common these days. In its strict classical sense, however, the function of chiasmus is to reverse grammatical structure or ideas of sentences given that the same words and phrases are not repeated.

 

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.

Whenever writers use a quote or a fact from some source, it becomes necessary to provide their readers some information about the source, to give context to its use. This piece of information is called context. Context illuminates the meaning and relevance of the text, and may be something cultural, historical, social, or political.

 

Cohesion is one of the two qualities that give a written or spoken text unity and purpose, the other being coherence. It refers to the use of linguistic devices to join sentences together, including conjunctions, reference words, substitution and lexical devices such as repetition of words, collocations and lexical groups.

Example

The second sentence above has cohesive devices such as conjunctions (and, such as, including), articles (the), references (it), and collocations (join _____ together, lexical groups).

In the classroom

Cohesion is an extensive area and can be approached at a discrete item level, e.g. practising article use or differing synonyms. Teachers can also make learners aware of the cohesive features of a text, asking them to identify examples of reference, substitution, lexical cohesion, and conjunction.

 

Coherence is a Latin word, meaning “to stick together.” In a composition, coherence is a literary technique that refers to logical connections, which listeners or readers perceive in an oral or written text. In other words, it is a written or spoken piece that is not only consistent and logical, but also unified and meaningful. It makes sense when read or listened to as a whole. The structure of a coherent paragraph could be general to particular and particular to general or any other format.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask … scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—BLOOD.”

Taken from the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, this passage’s emphasis is on the idea of staining, and scrawling the word “blood,” which further brings coherence into the lines. The connection is thus made through the appearance of Wood-Sawyer, a man who scares Lucie later. This is how it achieves coherence.

 

All stories need certain necessary elements. Without these elements, literary works often fail to make sense. For instance, one of the essential elements of every story is a plot with a series of events. Another important element is a character.

A character can be any person, a figure, an inanimate object, or animal. There are different types of characters, and each serves its unique function in a story or a piece of literature.

There are many types of the characters which include:

Confidante

A confidante is someone in whom the main character confides. He reveals the central character’s thoughts, intentions, and personality traits. However, a confidante need not necessarily be a person. An animal can also be a confidante.

 

Characterization is a literary device that is used step by step in literature to highlight and explain the details about a character in a story.

It is in the initial stage where the writer introduces the character with noticeable emergence and then following the introduction of the character, the writer often talks about his behavior; then as the story progresses, the thought-process of the character. The next stage involves the character expressing his opinions and ideas and getting into conversations with the rest of the characters. The final part shows how others in the story respond to the character’s personality.

There are many examples of characterization in literature. “The Great Gatsby” is probably the best. In this particular book, the main idea revolves around the social status of the characters. The major character of the book, Mr. Gatsby, is perceptibly rich but he does not belong to the upper stratum of society. This means that he cannot have Daisy. Tom is essentially defined by his wealth and the abusive nature that he portrays every now and then, while Daisy is explained by Gatsby as having a voice full of money.

 

Dactyl is a metrical foot, or a beat in a line, containing three syllables in which first one is accented followed by second and third unaccented syllables (accented/unaccented/unaccented) in quantitative meter such as in the word “humanly.” In dactyl, we put stress on first syllable and do not stress on second and third syllables, try to say it loud-“HU-man-ly.”

 

Denouement is a literary device which can be defined as the resolution of the issue of a complicated plot in fiction. Majority of the examples of denouement show the resolution in the final part or chapter that is often an epilogue.

 

Denouement is usually driven by the climax. In mystery novels, however, the climax and denouement might occur simultaneously. In most of the other forms of literature, it is merely the end of the story.

“ They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together…..”

(The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

The denouement in The Great Gatsby happens when Nick decides to go back to Minnesota to get away from the rich people who are engaged in all those things which Nick thinks are part of the moral worthlessness in Gatsby’s life. All the people in Gatsby’s circle were unfaithful.

 

Detachment is a stylistic device based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation).

I have to beg you nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident. (I.Shaw)

I have to beg you for money. Daily. (S.Lewis)

She was crazy about you. In the beginning. (R.P.Warren)

 

Discourse

Foucault presents possibly the best definition of discourse. Originally it has roots in the Latin language. The term assumes slightly different meanings in different contexts but in literature discourse means speech or writing normally longer than sentences which deals with a certain subject formally in the form of writing or speech. In other words, discourse is the presentation of language in its entirety while performing an intellectual inquiry in a particular area or field i.e. theological discourse or cultural discourse.

The role of discourse is hard to ignore in our daily intellectual pursuits, for it provides a basis to conduct a comparative analysis and frame our perceptions about different things. For instance, two competing discourses about the civil war in Syria today can be used thereby either qualifying the war as ‘war against dictatorship’ or ‘war against imperialism’. On the other hand, it could “war against Islam” or “war for humanity”. Thus, both discourses provide a distinct style, vocabulary and presentation which are required to convey the respective ideas to a specific audience.

 

Dynamic Character

A dynamic character changes during the course of a novel or a story. This change in character or his/her outlook is permanent. That is why sometimes a dynamic character is also called a “developing character.”

 

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.

The purpose of epiphany in a novel or a short story is to use it for the characters to point out a turning point in the plot in the near future. It may also be used to change the opinion of one character about other characters, events and places after a sudden awareness of the situation. It may also be a sign of a conclusion in the story.

Example of epiphany in the short story “Miss Brill” written by Katherine Manfield. Miss Brill, being delighted to be part of the season in the “JardinsPublique”, particularly on Sundays, prepares herself for the occasion on a chilly day. She wears her fur coat and walks towards a band playing music in the park. She sees life everywhere around her, and it pleases her to imagine that she is part of all that takes place; a component of a living life that makes itself visible every Sunday to notice and be noticed. In a flash of epiphany, she recognizes that she and everyone else in the park are mere actors, acting out their roles. There was nothing important about that gathering of actors and she was alone despite being with a crowd.

 

Exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters etc. to the audience or readers. Exposition is crucial to any story, for without it nothing makes sense.

An exposition is typically positioned at the beginning of a novel or a movie because the author wants the readers to be fully aware of the characters in the story. The famous story for children titled “The Three Little Bears” applies this technique of exposition.

“ Once upon a time, there were three bears. There was a Daddy Bear, who was very big, a Mama Bear, who was middle-sized, and a Baby Bear, who was very small. They all lived together in a little cottage in the middle of the woods. Their favorite breakfast was porridge. One morning, after they made their porridge, Daddy Bear said, ‘Let’s go for walk in the woods until it cools.’ Mama Bear and Baby Bear liked the idea, so off they went. While they were away, a little girl named Goldilocks came walking through the forest and smelled the porridge… ”

With the help of a single passage, the author of the story has given us an overview of the bear family, their residence and information on how the story sets in motion.

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.

The purpose of epiphany in a novel or a short story is to use it for the characters to point out a turning point in the plot in the near future. It may also be used to change the opinion of one character about other characters, events and places after a sudden awareness of the situation. It may also be a sign of a conclusion in the story.

Example of epiphany in the short story “Miss Brill” written by Katherine Manfield. Miss Brill, being delighted to be part of the season in the “JardinsPublique”, particularly on Sundays, prepares herself for the occasion on a chilly day. She wears her fur coat and walks towards a band playing music in the park. She sees life everywhere around her, and it pleases her to imagine that she is part of all that takes place; a component of a living life that makes itself visible every Sunday to notice and be noticed. In a flash of epiphany, she recognizes that she and everyone else in the park are mere actors, acting out their roles. There was nothing important about that gathering of actors and she was alone despite being with a crowd.

 

Euphony can be defined as the use of words and phrases that are distinguished as having a wide range of noteworthy melody or loveliness in the sounds they create. It gives pleasing and soothing effects to the ears due to repeated vowels and smooth consonants. It can be used with other literary devices like alliteration, assonance and rhyme to create more melodic effects.

All euphony examples share the following features:

 

· Euphony involves the use of long vowels that are more melodious than consonants.

· Euphony involves the use of harmonious consonants such as “l, m, n, r” and soft “f” and “v” sounds.

· Euphony uses soft consonants or semi-vowels “w”, “s”, “y” and “th” or “wh” extensively to create more pleasant sounds.

“Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne’er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.Not one of all the purple host

Who took the flag to-day

Can tell the definition,

So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Break, agonized and clear!”

(“Success” by Emily Dickinson)

In this poem, Emily Dickinson has used soft and harmonious consonants to create euphony. For example, “s”, “v” and “f” sounds are running throughout the poem. Such words are melodic in nature, hence they produce pleasing sounds.

 

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 “…”.

 

Apart from being convenient, ellipsis also helps in advancing the story. The part of a sentence or an event that is left out by substituting it with ellipses is often used to either save time or use it as a stylistic element by allowing the reader to fill in the gaps by using their imagination.

 

My aunt waited until Eliza sighed and then said:

“Ah, well, he’s gone to a better world.”

Eliza sighed again and bowed her head in assent. My aunt fingered the stem of her wine-glass before sipping a little.

“Did he…peacefully?” she asked.

“Oh, quite peacefully, ma’am,” said Eliza. “You couldn’t tell when the breath went out of him. He had a beautiful death, God be praised.”

“And everything…?”

“Father O’Rourke was in with him a Tuesday and anointed him and prepared him and all.”

“The Sisters” from Dubliners by James Joyce

 

Epiphora, also known as epistrophe, is a stylistic device in which a word or a phrase is repeated at the end of successive clauses. Examples of epiphora are not only found in literary pieces.

Epiphora or epistrophe is a literary device that serves the function of furnishing an artistic effect to passages; both in poetry as well as prose. It lays emphasis on a particular idea. In addition, it lends a unique rhythm to the text which consequently becomes a pleasurable experience for the readers. That is the reason that it is easily understood and memorized along with providing full comprehension of the emphasis it adds to the ideas.

“Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit,

Which, like a userer, abound’st in all,

And uses none in that true sense indeed

Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.”

“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare

Again, Shakespeare is at his best in using epiphora; “thy shape, thy love, thy wit” comes twice within four lines. It puts much emphasis on three attributes of Romeo. Friar Laurence is at his best when he speaks this dialogue.

 

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.

One can find many examples of epithet in Shakespeare’s works. Many of which were his own coinages. Like, “Thou mad mustachio purple-hued maltworms! (Henry IV) and “Death lies on her like an untimely frost. Upon the sweetest flower of all the field…” (Romeo and Juliet).

 

Falling action occurs right after the climax, when the main problem of the story resolves. It is one of the elements of the plot of the story, the other elements being exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution. Falling action wraps up the narrative, resolves its loose ends, and leads toward the closure.

Example is in the famous story of Poe, The Cask of Amontillado. Following his wicked plan, Montresor invites Fortunato to his vault to taste the rare flavor of Amontillado, a type of wine. He makes a plan to keep Fortunato inebriated, ensuring that his glass remains full. When Fortunato starts coughing, Montresor asks him if he wants to go back, but intoxicated Fortunato insists on tasting more.

The climax of the story occurs when Montresor chains him and buries him alive in a brick wall. Then the falling action follows this climax, where Fortunato regains consciousness and struggles to get free of chains to call for help. Before sealing the wall, Montresor throws a torch to see if Fortunato is alive to end the story.

 

Feminine rhyme – It rhymes on one or two unstressed syllables like in “enticing,” and “endicing.”

 

Merriam Webster defines flashback as “an interruption of the chronological sequence (as of a film or literary work) of an event of earlier occurrence.”

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.

Sentence enclosed in brackets is a flashback. It has interrupted the current event in form of a sudden thought giving us an insight into the past of the narrator.

The use of a flashback is to convey to the readers information regarding the character’s background and give them an idea of the characters motives for doing certain things later in the story.

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” uses flashback to narrate Willy Loman’s memories of the past. At one moment, Willy talks with his dead brother while playing cards with Charley. He relives a past conversation in the present. This demonstrates a character that is physically living in the present but mentally living in the memories and events of the past.

 

Feminine ending, in grammatical gender, is a term that refers to the final syllable or suffixed letters that mark words as feminine.

At times, Shakespeare chose to write lines with eleven syllables, yet the stress is still on the tenth syllable. This is called using “feminine endings.” For example, in the first line, “To BE or NOT to BE—that IS the QUESTion,” we see five iambs (two beats with the stress on the second beat) concluded with the feminine unstressed ending.

 

Framing - a repetition in which the opening word or phrase is repeated at the end of the sentence.

“Acquainted with the night” by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

 

Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves.

Functional style as “having social relevance, functionally determined, displaying inner coherence combination of ways of usage, choice and combination of means of speech communication in the domain of a certain national language, correlated with other ways of expression of the same type, which attain other aims and fulfill other functions in the social communicative experience of the people”(V.V.Vinogradov).

 

Flat Character

A flat character does not change during a story. Also, he or she usually only reveals one or two personality traits.

 

First-person point of view is in use when a character narrates the story with I-me-my-mine in his or her speech. The advantage of this point of view is that you get to hear the thoughts of the narrator and see the world depicted in the story through his or her eyes. However, remember that no narrator, like no human being, has complete self-knowledge or, for that matter, complete knowledge of anything. Therefore, the reader’s role is to go beyond what the narrator says.

For example, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is told from the point of view of Scout, a young child. She doesn’t grasp the complex racial and socioeconomic relations of her town — but the reader does, because Scout gives information that the reader can interpret. Also, Scout’s innocence reminds the reader of a simple, “it’s-not-fair” attitude that contrasts with the rationalizations of other characters.

Graphon is intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its authentic pronunciation, to recreate the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere of the communication act; is referred to all changes of the type (italics, CapiTaliSation), s p a c i n g of graphemes (hy-phe-na-ti-on, m-m-multiplication) and of lines.

E.g. “Alllllaboarrrrrrrd”.

“The b-b-b-ast-ud seen me c-c-coming” (stumbling).

“You don’t mean to thay that thithith your firth time” (lisping).

“Ah like ma droap o’Scatch, d’ye ken” (Scotch accent). – I like my drop of Scotch.

It is used in contemporary prose in dialogical clichés: gimme, lemme, gonna, gotta, coupla, mighta, willya.

 

Genre means the type of art, literature or music characterized by a specific form, content and style. For example, literature has four main genres; poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from one another. Hence, it is necessary on the part of readers to know which category of genre they are reading in order to understand the message it conveys, as they may have certain expectations prior to the reading concerned.

 

A heroic couplet is fairly similar to the elegiac couplet in that it is generally closed and self-contained, and thus has meaning on its own. Heroic couplets came into popularity in the mid-14th century in English epic and narrative poetry. The meter of heroic couplets is usually iambic pentameter, though some poets took liberties with changing the meter at times to provide a sort of closure.

 

There was a time in my demented youth

When somehow I suspected that the truth

About survival after death was known

170 To every human being: I alone

Knew nothing, and a great conspiracy

Of books and people hid the truth from me.

(“Canto Two” from Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov)

 

Hyperbole is an unreal exaggeration to emphasize the real situation.

From W.H Auden’s poem “As I Walked One Evening”,

“I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you

Till China and Africa meet,

And the river jumps over the mountain

And the salmon sing in the street,

I’ll love you till the ocean

Is folded and hung up to dry”.

The use of hyperbole can be noticed in the above lines. The meeting of China and Africa, the jumping of the river over the mountain, singing of salmon in the street, and the ocean being folded and hung up to be dried are exaggerations not possible in real life.

 

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. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality.

Examples:

You laugh at a person who slipped stepping on a banana peel and the next thing you know, you slipped too.

The butter is as soft as a marble piece.

“Oh great! Now you have broken my new camera.”

 

We come across the following lines in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Act I, Scene V.

“ Go ask his name: if he be married.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed. ”

Juliet commands her nurse to find out who Romeo was and says if he were married, then her wedding bed would be her grave. It is a verbal irony because the audience knows that she is going to die on her wedding bed.

 

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.

Like all literary devices, the main function of inversion in prose or poetry is to help the writers achieve stylistic effects like laying an emphasis on a particular point or changing the focus of the readers from a particular point. In poetry, inversions are regularly used to create rhythm, meter or rhyming scheme in the lines.

Similarly in the poem “Love in Jeopardy” by Humbert Wolfe, there is an inversion of an unusual kind. He wrote:

“Here by the rose-tree

they planted once

of Love in Jeopardy

an Italian bronze.”

The poet, in the above lines, attempts to produce an ancient effect in his poem, as he is describing an old statue in the poem.

 

Intertexuality is a sophisticated literary device used in writing. In fact, it is a textual reference within some text that reflects the text used as a reference. Instead of employing referential phrases from different literary works, 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 for instance, James Joyce retells The Odyssey in his very famous novel Ulysses.

 

Jargon is a literary term that is defined as a use of specific phrases and words by writers in a particular situation, profession or trade. These specialized terms are used to convey hidden meanings accepted and understood in that field. Jargon examples are found in literary and non-literary pieces of writing.

Medical Jargons

Certain medications can cause or worsen nasal symptoms (especially congestion). These include the following: birth control pills, some drugs for high blood pressure (e.g., alpha blockers and beta blockers), antidepressants, medications for erectile dysfunction, and some medications for prostatic enlargement. If rhinitis symptoms are bothersome and one of these medications is used, ask the prescriber if the medication could be aggravating the condition.

(Robert H Fletcher and Phillip L Lieberman)

This passage is full of medical jargon such as nasal, congestions, alpha blockers and anti-depressants. Perhaps only those in the medical community would fully understand all of them..

Examples of jargon used in literature are used to emphasize a situation or to refer to something exotic to the readers or audience.

 

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. In simple language, meter is a poetic device that serves as a linguistic sound pattern for the verses, as it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound. For instance, if you read a poem loudly, and it produces regular sound patterns, then this poem would be a metered or measured poem.

 

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

 

“Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare

 

Masculine rhyme – It ends on stressed syllables like in “bells and hells.”

 

Masculine ending is term used in prosody, the study of verse form. It refers to a line ending in a stressed syllable. Its opposite is feminine ending, which describes a line ending in a unstressed syllable. For example, in the following couplet by Longfellow, the first line has a feminine ending and the second a masculine one.

 

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

When a masculine ending is rhymed, the result is called a masculine rhyme.

 

Meiosis can be defined as a witty understatement that belittles or dismisses some