Symbol
Anything that represents or stands for something else
Example: “Out, damned spot!” Lady Macbeth cries in
her sleep. The blood spots she dreamed she saw on her
hands were symbols of the guilt she now feels after
helping kill Duncan.
Example: “Fruitless crown” is a symbol of Macbeth’s
infertility; his children (which he will not have, of
course) would not have been kings.
Personification
Giving human characteristics to something that isn’t
human, or to an abstract idea
Example: If chance will have me King, why, chance
may crown me without my stir.
Example: Come, seeling Night, scarf up the tender
eye of pitiful Day…
Theme
Main ideas of the story—a “living idea” that emerges
from the plot
Example: Good vs. evil
Example: The effects of ambition on people
Example: Inverted values (“fair is foul and foul is
fair”)
Foil
A secondary character whose personal traits and
characteristics are essentially opposite from a main
character. Foils are used to highlight character
differences.
Example: Banquo is Macbeth’s foil. Banquo, who is
more noble than Macbeth, would have treated the
witches’ prophecy much different from Macbeth, if
their roles were reversed.
Apostrophe
Addressing an inanimate object, or something that is
dead or otherwise not present.
Example: “Is this a dagger which I see before me, /
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
thee!”
Metaphor
Metaphor: A comparison that does not use like or as
Example: Look like the innocent flower but be the
serpent underneath it.
Example: “O full or scorpions is my mind, dear wife”
Example: “I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
to make thee full of growing.”
Simile
A comparison using like or as
Example: “Your face, my thane, is as a book where
men / May read strange matters.”
Example: “And pity, like a naked newborn babe.”
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