| Foil (definition) | minor character whose attitudes, beliefs, and behavior differ significantly from those of the main character (highlights the flaws of the protagonist) |
| Foil (example) | Horatio acts as a foil to Hamlet |
| dramatic irony (definition) | occurs when the results of actions are tragic reverse of what participants think; spectators understand |
| dramatic irony (example) | Hamlet and Horatio know that Claudius has killed the King |
| comic relief (definition) | humorous episode in a tragedy |
| comic relief (example) | the graveyard scene in act five |
| aside (definition) | speech wherein character speaks his thoughts in words to the spectator but supposedly not to the other actors |
| aside (example) | “a little more than kin and less than kind” |
| oxymoron (definition) | A figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms |
| oxymoron (example) | “with mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage” |
| imagery (definition) | use of vivid, concrete, sensory details |
| metaphor (example) | when Hamlet calls the world an “unweeded garden” |
| simile (example) | “what a piece of work is man!…how like an angel” |
| hyperbole (definition) | An extreme exaggeration |
| hyperbole (example) | “he would drown the stage with tears/ And cleave the general ear with horrid speech” |
| personification (definition) | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes |
| personification (example) | “For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/ With most miraculous organ” |
| apostrophe (definition) | when a character addresses an abstract concept, absent person, or inanimate object |
| apostrophe (example) | “Frailty thy name is woman!” |
| assonance (definition) | Repetition of vowel sounds |
| assonance (example) | “in equal scarle weighing delight and dole.” |
| allusion (definition) | A reference to another work of literature, person, or event |
| allusion (example) | “she followed my poor father’s body/ Like Niobe, all tears…” |
| soliloquy (definition) | A dramatic or literary form of talking in which a character talks to himself or reveals his thoughts without addressing a listener |
| soliloquy (example) | Hamlet talks to himself about his mother’s hasty marriage to Claudius; the audience knows his thoughts |
Hamlet Literary Devices
July 8, 2019