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Literary Terms Glossary for Hamlet
You will need to have a strong understanding of these terms to closely read and analyze literature. To truly
understand these literary terms, you must practice application individually. For this assignment, find examples of
each term from our class reading of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Allusion: a passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, or event, or to another
literary work or passage
Example: “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” - Macbeth
Example from Hamlet:
Antithesis: contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence
Example: “My only love sprung from my only hate” – Romeo and Juliet
Example from Hamlet:
Double Entendre: a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways
Example: "for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon" – Romeo and Juliet
Example from Hamlet:
Metaphor: a word or expression that in literal usage denotes one kind of thing is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing,
without asserting a comparison
Example: “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? /Thou art more lovely and more temperate” – Sonnet 18
Example from Hamlet:
Metonymy: the literal term for one thing applied to another with which it has become closely associated because of a
recurrent relation in common experience
Example: “the crown” = a king
Example from Hamlet:
Oxymoron: a paradoxical utterance that conjoins two terms in that in ordinary usage are contraries
Example: “Parting is such sweet sorrow” – Romeo and Juliet
Example from Hamlet:
Paradox: a statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory or absurd, yet turns out to be interpretable in a way
that makes sense
Example: “One fire burns out another’s burning, / One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.” – Romeo and Juliet
Example from Hamlet:
Personification: either an inanimate object of an abstract concept is spoken of as though it were endowed with life or with
human attributes or feelings
Example: “The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night” – Romeo and Juliet
Example from Hamlet:
Pun: a play on words
Example: “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man” – Romeo and Juliet
Example from Hamlet:
Simile: a comparison between two distinctly different things explicitly indicated by the words “like” or “as”
Example: Pity is “like a naked newborn babe.” - Macbeth
Example from Hamlet:
Synecdoche (sin-eck-doe-key): a part of something used to signify the whole
Example: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” – Julius Caesar
Example from Hamlet: