Literary Tools
HAMLET
plot diagram
Paradox
 Definition: a statement whose two parts
seem contradictory yet make sense with
more thought.
 "They have ears but hear not.“
 "Deep down he's really very shallow."
 Paradox attracts the reader's or the listener's
attention and gives emphasis.
oxymoron
 apparently contradictory terms appear in
conjunction.
"A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."
(G.K. Chesterton)
Motif (leitmotif)
 A recurring important idea or image.
 A motif differs from a theme in that it can be
expressed as a single word or fragmentary
phrase, while a theme usually must be
expressed as a complete sentence.
 Weather in The Great Gatsby
Parody
a humorous or
satirical imitation of
a serious piece of
literature or
writing: his hilarious
parody of Hamlet's
soliloquy.
 Conan O’Brien
Synecdoche
 a part is used to represent the whole
 "Take thy face hence."
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
Pun
 A play on words, either on different senses of
the same word or on the similar sense or
sound of different words.
 "Grave men, near death, who see with
blinding sight"
(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night")
 "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a
banana."
(Groucho Marx)
Metonymy
 one word or phrase is substituted for another
with which it is closely associated
 "The B.L.T. left without paying."
(waitress referring to a customer)
Hyperbole
 Hyperbole is exaggeration. It puts a picture
into the "reader" mind. Hyperbole is
frequently used in humorous writing.
 It's a slow burg—I spent a couple of weeks
there one day.
—Carl Sandburg, "The People, Yes"
Onomatopoeia--The
use of words to
imitate sounds is called onomatopoeia.
Cynthia in the Snow
 It SHUSHES
It hushes
The loudness in the road.
It flitter-twitters,
And laughs away from me.
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
And whitely whirs away,
To be
Some otherwhere,
Still white as milk or shirts,
So beautiful it hurts.
--Gwendolyn Brooks
invective
 As defined in our glossary, invective is
language that denounces or casts blame on
somebody or something. That language is
often highly abusive and sometimes witty.
 Shakespeare Insult Kit
Conceit
 An extended metaphor—
Identity
Analogy
 Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is
more of a logical argument.
 demonstrate how two things are alike
 pointing out shared characteristics
Shakespeare’s Language
 Translating Elizabethan English
 Shakespearean Syntax
 Common Expressions