Literary Terms
by Alex Wade
Figurative Language
• Imagery:
• Definition: visually descriptive language
• Harry Potter: “Fudge smiled at Harry over the edge of his teacup,
rather like an uncle surveying a favourite nephew.”
• Hamlet:
• OPHELIA My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;
Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors,--he comes before me. (II,i,85-112)
Simile
• Definition: A comparison using like or as.
• Harry Potter: “Fudge smiled at Harry over the edge of
his teacup, rather like an uncle surveying a favourite
nephew.”
• Hamlet:
• And why such daily cast cast on brazen cannon
and foreign mart for implements of way
why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
does not divide the Sunday from the week
What might be toward, and this sweaty haste
doeth make the night join - laborer with the day? (I,i,
72-78)
Metaphor
• Definition: A direct comparison of two things
that are not alike.
• Harry Potter: “He can run faster than Severus
Snape confronted with shampoo.”
• Hamlet:
• “It is a nipping and an eager air.”
• (I,iv,2)
Personification
• Definition: When an inanimate object is given
human qualities.
• Harry Potter: “The wand chooses the wizard.”
• Hamlet:
• For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,
being a good kissing carrion— Have you a
daughter?
• (II,ii,173-4)
Apostrophe
• Definition: An exclamatory passage addressed to a
person who usually isn’t there.
• Harry Potter: “Merlin’s beard, Harry!”
• Hamlet:
• “…Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
• It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
• A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
• Though inclination be as sharp as will,
• My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
• And, like a man to double business bound…”
• (III,iii,37-42)
Symbol
• Definition: Something that represents or
stands for something.
• Harry Potter: “Well it’s the sign of the Deathly
Hallows, of course.”
• Hamlet: Poison is a symbol in Hamlet, playing
the part of betrayal, corruption, and deceit.
Allegory
• Definition: When a speech or poem can be
interpreted to mean something deeper.
• Harry Potter: The tensions between pure
blood wizards and humans can be seen as an
allegory for racism.
• Hamlet: Hamlet’s addressing of Yorick’s skull is
can be interpreted to mean that death is very
common and happens to everyone. It is the
ultimate leveling factor in our lives.
Paradox
• Definition: A statement that seems true in the
beginning but cannot be no matter what.
• Harry Potter: In Harry Potter, Harry saves
himself from an attack by going back in time.
• Hamlet:
• I must be cruel only to be kind.
• (III,iv,181)
Hyperbole
• Definition: An extreme overexaggeration
• Harry Potter: “mountains of roast and boiled
potatoes.”
• Hamlet:
• O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
thaw and resolve into a dew.
• (I,ii,131-2)
Understatement
• Definition:
• Harry Potter: "We teachers are rather good at
magic, you know."
• Hamlet:
• She married. O most wicked speed, to post
• With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
• It is not nor it cannot come to good,
• But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
• (I,ii,159-61)
Irony
• Definition: expression of meaning by using
language that normally signifies the opposite.
• Harry Potter: (Situational irony) In the Goblet of
Fire, Harry didn’t ask to be famous, but he is as
someone put his name in the cup.
• Hamlet:
• CLAUDIUSHow is it that the clouds still hang on
you?
HAMLETNot so, my lord. I am too much i' the sun.
• (I,ii,66-67)
Chiasmus
• Definition: Where two words appear twice, in opposite
order the second time. Can also refer to overall plot.
• Harry Potter: The entire series can be seen as a sort of
chiastic structure, with many similarities between the
first and last novels.
• http://virtueofpotter.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/chias
tic-structure-in-harry-potter/
• Hamlet:
• King: Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
Queen: Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
• (II,ii,33-34)
Metonymy
• Definition: Substitution of a name for a attribute
of the thing being named.
• White Collar (TV): Mozzie refers to Peter, an FBI
agent, as Suit, his name for government agents.
• Hamlet:
• The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
• Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
• And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
• (III,i,59-61)
Synecdoche
• Definition: A figure of speech in which a part
represents a whole.
• Harry Potter: Voldemort is referred to as “You
Know Who” instead of his full name.
• Hamlet:
• The point envenomed too!—Then, venom, to
thy work.
• (V,ii,317-18)
Repartee
• Definition: A conversation or speech characterized by
quick, witty comments or replies.
• Harry Potter: Fred and George are often caught in
repartee.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8lobgcYK8
• Hamlet:
• HAMLETExcellent well. You are a fishmonger.
• POLONIUSNot I, my lord.
• HAMLETThen I would you were so honest a man.
• (II,ii,166-168)
Stichomythia
• Definition: dialogue in which two characters speak
alternate lines of a verse.
• Harry Potter: Fred and George often complete each other’s
sentences.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIlonOPDZPI
• Hamlet:
• GERTRUDEHamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLETMother, you have my father much offended.
GERTRUDECome, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLETGo, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
• (III,iv,9-13)
Stock Characters
• Definition: Stock characters are based on how
a culture thinks they should behave.
• Harry Potter: Rubeus Hagrid
• Hamlet: Polonius
Assonance
• Definition: repetition of a sound or vowel.
• Harry Potter: "Bone of the father, unwillingly
given. Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed"
• Hamlet:
• Doubt thou the stars are fire
• (II,ii,116)
Consonance
• Definition: Recurrence of similar sounds
(consonants) together.
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
• Hamlet:
• Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
• Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to
men’s eyes.
• (I,ii,256-58)
Rhyme
• Definition: When two nearby verbs share a
similar sound at the end of each word.
• Harry Potter: “Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling
Stump.”
• Hamlet:
• If you have hitherto concealed this sight,
• Let it be tenable in your silence still.
• And whatsoever else shall hap tonight,
• (I,ii,256-247)
Rhythm
• Definition: A regular repeated pattern of
sound.
• Harry Potter: Fred and George use rhythm
when trying out a tongue twister.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIlonOPD
ZPI
• Hamlet:
• All of Hamlet written in iambic pentameter
has a stress/unstress rhythm.
Meter
• Definition: The rhythm of a piece of poetry.
• Harry Potter: Same as rhythm.
• Hamlet: Same as rhythm.
End-stopped Line
• Definition: There is a pause at the end of a line,
as the sentence ends there.
• Harry Potter:
• Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
• Hamlet:
• Upon the platform, ’twixt eleven and twelve,
• I’ll visit you.
(I,ii,251-252)
Run-on Line
• Definition: There is no pause as a line ends, as the
sentence is not over yet.
• Harry Potter:
• Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
• Hamlet:
• Upon the platform, ’twixt eleven and twelve,
• I’ll visit you.
• (I,ii,251-252)
Caesura
• Definition: A break between words within a line.
• Harry Potter:
• Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
• Hamlet:
• I’ll speak to it, though Hell itself should gape
• And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
• If you have hitherto concealed this sight,
• (I,ii,244-246)
Free Verse
• Definition: A poem without a regular rhyme scheme or
distinct rhythm.
• Poem:
• http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-freeverse-poems.html
• Hamlet:
• "Rightly to be great
Is not to move without great argument,
But to find quarrel greatly in worthless land
When honor’s at stake.“
• (IV,iv,53-56)
Iambic Pentameter
• Definition: Ten syllable lines, stressed followed by
unstressed.
• A few poems:
• http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples/ex
amples-of-iambic-pentameter.html
• Hamlet:
• To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
• (III,I,67-68)
Grammatical/Rhetorical Pause
• Definition: A natural pause in a reading.
Unmarked by punctuation.
• Harry Potter:
• “Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,”
• Hamlet:
• I’ll speak to it, though Hell itself should gape
• And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
• If you have hitherto concealed this sight,
• (I,ii,244-246)
Concluding Couplet
• Definition: The finishing two lines of a poem;
they will rhyme.
• Harry Potter:
• Hamlet: