Literary Terms Imagery Visually descriptive or figurative language paints a picture of the scene in your head Hamlet O that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ID: 594033
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Slide1
Audrey Odom
Literary TermsSlide2
Imagery
Visually descriptive or figurative language
“paints a picture” of the scene in your head.
Hamlet:
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
(Act I, Scene ii, Lines 129-130)
Imagery in Music
“Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies”
-The Beatles “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”Slide3
Simile
The comparison of two very different things using “like” or “as”
Hamlet:
Pale as his shirt
(Act II, Scene
i
, Line 81)
Simile in music
“Telephone wires above are sizzling like a snare
”
-Lana Del Rey “Summertime Sadness”Slide4
Metaphor
A
word or phrase used to refer two things to show that they are similar
Hamlet:
To die, to sleep–
To sleep, perchance to dream
(Act III, Scene
i
, Lines 64-65)
Metaphor in Movie Title
“Gone with the Wind”Slide5
Personification
Giving human characteristics/actions to something nonhuman.
Hamlet:
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
(Act I, Scene
i
, Lines 166-167)
Personification in Movies
“Ted”Slide6
Apostrophe
The addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically
Hamlet:
Let me not think
on’t
: frailty, thy name is women
(Act I, Scene ii, Line 146)
Apostrophe in Poetry
O Captain! My Captain!
-Walt WhitmanSlide7
Symbol
A thing/theme that represents something else with a deeper meaning
Hamlet: Poison
Poison is a symbol of disloyalty and corruption and death
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed
hebenon
in a vial
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The
leperous
distilment
(Act I, Scene v, Lines 61-64)
Symbols in Movies:
Luke Skywalker wear black throughout the return of the Jedi symbolizing the possibility of him turning to the dark side.Slide8
Allegory
A story or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, an allusion to another meaning
Hamlet:
O heart, lose not thy nature. Let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
(Act III, Scene ii, Lines 376-377)
Hamlet is referring to Nero, who killed his mother, prior to when Hamlet is going to visit Gertrude. He hopes not to kill her.
Allegory in Books:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. LewisSlide9
Paradox
A statement that says two opposite things contradict each other, but both are true
Hamlet:
I must be cruel, only to be kind
(Act III, Scene iv, Line 178)Slide10
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statements not to be taken literally
Hamlet:
With such
deterity
to incestuous sheets!
(Act I, Scene ii, Line 159)
Hyperboles in Music
“You
A
in’t
Nothin
But a Hound Dog”
-Elvis Presley Slide11
Understatement
The presentation of something being smaller or less important than it actually is.
Hamlet:
It is not nor it cannot come to good.
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
(Act I, Scene ii, Lines 158-159)
Understatement in Music
“It
’
s the End of the World as We Know It”
-R.E.M.Slide12
Irony
The use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think. Can be used for humor and drama.
Hamlet: (Dramatic Irony)
Get thee to a nunnery.
(Act III, Scene 1, Line 121)
Irony in Movies
“50 First Dates”
Adam Sandler doesn’t want a long lasting relationship until he meets a girl with short term memorySlide13
Chiasmus
An inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases
Hamlet:
King: Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
Queen: Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
(Act II, Scene ii, Lines 33-34)Slide14
Metonymy
Substitution of the name of an attribute for that of the thing meant
Hamlet
…To die, to sleep
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
(Act III, Scene I, Lines 60-61)
Metonymy in Books
“Her voice is filled with money”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”Slide15
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole
Hamlet:
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
(Act I, Scene ii, Lines 129-130)
Synecdoche in daily phrase:
“All hands on deck!”Slide16
Repartee
Conversation characterized by quick, witty comments
Hamlet:
Hamlet: Well, God-a-mercy
Polonius: Do you know me, my lord?
Hamlet: Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
Polonius: Not I, my lord.
Hamlet: Then I would you were so honest a man.
Polonius: Honest, my lord!
(Act II, Scene ii, Lines 171-176)Slide17
Stichomythia
Dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse
Hamlet:
Laertes: Where is my father?
Claudius: Dead
Gertrude: But not by him
(Act IV, Scene 5, Line 28)Slide18
Stock Characters
Character who is normally one-dimensional but sometimes stock personalities are deeply conflicted, rounded characters.
Hamlet: Polonius
Polonius is a stock character because he has former wisdom but still provides comic relief.
Stock Characters in TV:
Normally a guest star that appears for one episode is considered a stock characterSlide19
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
Hamlet:
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts
(Act I, Scene v, Line 43)
Alliteration in Real Life:
Dunkin DonutsSlide20
Assonance
Repetition of the sound of a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be noticeable
Hamlet:
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
(Act II, Scene ii, Lines 115-116)
Assonance in Music
“I’m a mess in a dress”
-
Orianthi
“According to You”Slide21
Consonance
Recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables
Hamlet:
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
(Act III, Scene I, Line 61)
Consonance in Music
“Whisper word of wisdom, let it be”
-The Beatles “Let it Be”Slide22
Rhyme
Correspondence of sound between words
Hamlet:
…The plays the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
(Act II, Scene ii, Lines 591-592)
Rhyme in Music
“Hope that you fall in love and it hurts so bad,
the only way you can know is give it all that you have”
-One Republic “I Lived”Slide23
Rhythm
A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound
Hamlet:
The rhythm in Hamlet corresponds to iambic pentameter
Rhythm in Music
All music has some sort of rhythm in it, the drums or the bass guitar usually provides the rhythmSlide24
Meter
Arranged and measured rhythm in verse
Hamlet:
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s
the respectSlide25
End-Stopped Line
A line that ends with a definite punctuation mark (period/colon).
Hamlet:
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
(Act II, Scene ii, Line 143)Slide26
Run-On Line
When the natural pause in reading does not coincide with the end of a line, the speaker continues without pause
Hamlet
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother
looks, and my father died
within’s
two hours.
(Act III, Scene ii, Lines 118-120) Slide27
Caesura
A break between words within a metrical foot.
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be, that is the question
(Act III, Scene
i
, Line 56)Slide28
Free Verse
Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
Hamlet:
The common people in this era would speak in free verse as opposed to the higher class, who would speak in prose
Example of Free Verse in Poetry
“Winter Poem” by Nikki GiovanniSlide29
Iambic Pentameter
A line that has ten syllables in each line, but the alternate syllable is stressed
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be: that is the question.
(Act III, Scene I, Line 56)
Iambic Pentameter in Other Literature:
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
-Shakespeare, Romeo and JulietSlide30
Grammatical/Rhetorical Pauses
Grammatical- A pause introduced by a mark of punctuation
Rhetorical- A natural pause not marked by punctuation
Hamlet:
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
(Act II, Scene ii, Line 535)
Grammatical Pause in Music:
“It takes two, two sides to every story”
-Katy Perry “It Takes Two”Slide31
Concluding Couplet
Two successive lines that are rhymed and have the same meter
Hamlet:
Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth
o’erwhelm
them, to men’s eyes.
(Act I, Scene 2, Lines 257-258)
Concluding Couplet in Poetry
“If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
-Shakespeare Sonnet 116