Much Ado About Noting MC Literary Devices

Mythological Allusion Definition: A reference to a person place or thing that is outside of the literary work. Specifically a mythological allusion references a Greek god, goddess, or other legend from the greek age of mythology.Beatrice Act I Scene I: “He set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight; and my uncle’s fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt.”Mackenzie
Elision Definition: The removal of a syllable in order to maintain the desired flow of a line in a literary work. A syllable taken out is replaced with an apostrophe. This is commonly found within Shakespeare’s works because he employs iambic pentameter.Beatrice Act I Scene I: “But keep your way, i’ God’s name; I have done.”
Oxymoron Definition: Paired words with opposite meanings place side by side that contradict one another and provide a dramatic truth.Beatrice Act I Scene I: “No, not till a hot January.”Mackenzie
Polyptoton Definition: When words derived from the same root are syntactically repeated within a line in different forms.Messenger Act I Scene I: “…He hath indeed betterbettered expectation than you must expect of me totell you how.”Mackenzie
Antanaclasis Definition: A phrase or word repeated in a line, but the meaning of the word changes in each employment.Leonato Act I Scene I : “How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!”Mackenzie
Mythological Allusion Definition: A reference to a person place or thing that is outside of the literary work. Specifically a mythological allusion references a Greek god, goddess, or other legend from the greek age of mythology.Benedick Act II Scene I: “She would have made Hercules turned spit”
Personification Definition: The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.Beatrice Act II Scene I: “The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion.
Paradox Definition: A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but may include a latent truth.Verges Act III Scene III: “Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation, body and soul”
Elision Definition: The removal of a syllable in order to maintain the desired flow of a line in a literary work. A syllable taken out is replaced with an apostrophe.Dogberry Act III Scene III: “Five shillings to one on’t, with any man that knows the statues, he may stay him”
Diacope Definition: A rhetorical term meaning repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words.Conrade Act III Scene III: “Yes, the fashion is the fashion”
Inversion Definition: Reverse order of word structureLeonato “Chid I for that at frugal nature’s frame.”
Chiasmus Definition: Chiasmus is a figure of speech containing two phrases that are parallel but inverted to each other.Claudio “Thou pure impiety and impious purity”
Diacope Definition: A rhetorical term meaning repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words.Beatrice “Hero! Why hero”
Apostrophe Definition: a rhetorical device in which the character speaks to an inanimate object Leonato “Oh Fate!”
Metaphor Definition: a meaning ascribed to one subject by way of anotherLeonato “The story that is printed in her blood”