How well read are you?

Have you ever heard someone say “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn?”
Perhaps you’ve heard someone who is stingy with their money be described as a Scrooge.
Or, if a friend catches you off guard, you might say that the surprise was a “Pearl Harbor sneak attack.”
All of these examples contain allusions. Can you identify them?

 An allusion is a “ reference to a person, event, statement, or theme found in literature, the other arts, religion, or popular culture .”
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Basically, an allusion is when one work of art references another work of art.
An author’s use of allusions tends to assume that the readers in general will possess the knowledge to recognize the allusion. (In other words, if you have never learned about what is being alluded to, the whole thing will go right over your head.)

 In the song “Get Over It,” The Eagles sing the line “Let’s kill all the lawyers.”
This line alludes to William Shakespeare’s
Henry VI, Part II . In the play, “Old Billy” says the famous line verbatim.

 Listen to this short clip of a song by Dire
Straits. After a few verses, tell me what famous story is being alluded to.
 Why would the songwriter use these famous characters in his song? What do we know about their story?

A love struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with me a love song that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like “you and me babe how about it ?”
Juliet says “hey, it’s Romeo, you nearly gimme a heart attack”
He’s underneath the window she’s singing “hey la my boyfriend’s back”
You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway what you gonna do about it ?
“Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start,
And I bet that you exploded in my heart
And I forget, I forget the movie song.
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?”

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One of the reasons “The Simpsons” is my favorite television show is its rich use of allusions. The show is constantly referencing different art forms. (“Family Guy” does this quite a bit also.) Many of the references in “The
Simpsons” go unnoticed by students your age because the writers are alluding to things from your parent’s generation.
Watch the following clip from “The Simpsons.”
On a piece of paper, write down as many allusions as you can.

 The Simpson family is being compared to the Beverly Hillbillies in the opening scene.

“You maniacs! You blew it up!..”

 “I am the very model of a modern major general…”

 “That’s all I cans stand, I can’t stands no more…”

 “I guess I do have the right…what’s that stuff?”

 AAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH…..

Many modern day products, companies, and commercials make reference to Greek mythology.
This is done to send a message to an audience. For example…

Why would a jean company trying to appeal to female buyers call its company “Baucis and Philemon?”

What do you know about the story of
Frankenstein?
What do you know about
Prometheus?