Literary Devices

  A figure of speech in which two or more contrasting ideas are placed beside each other, often in parallel grammatical form  The purpose is to emphasize the idea being contrasted  Example: Viola says to Olivia, “Farewell, fair cruelty ” ( ) Oxymoron

  A figure of speech designed to create humour by playing on words with several meanings  Example: ( )  Curio: Will you go hunt, my lord?  Duke: What, Curio?  Curio: The hart.  Duke: Why, so I do, the noblest that I have. [Olivia’s heart]… Pun

  A reference to a historical, literary, religious, mythologyical figure, event or object  The reader immediately makes the connection  Example: The Captain says to Viola, “Like Arion on the dolphin’s back,/ I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves/ So long as I could see” ( )  Example: Feste says to Maria, “Thou wert as witty a piece of Eve’s flesh as any in Illyria” ( ) Allusion

  Metaphor: A short comparison between two unlike things  Example: Viola says she would “call upon my soul within the house”  “my soul” is a metaphor for Olivia  Simile: a comparison made between two things, using “like” or “as”  Malvolio says to Olivia [about Cesario], “he’ll stand at your door like a sheriff’s post” ( )  Personification: inanimate objects are given human qualities  Duke says “And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E’er since pursue me ” ( ) Figurative Comparison

 Verbal Irony: saying one thing but meaning another Dramatic Irony: the audience is aware of the meaning of a character’s lines or actions, but other characters onstage are “blind” to such knowledge (the audience is in on a secret that characters onstage are not) Example: Duke Orsino says to Viola, “Diana’s lip/ Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe/ Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound;/ All is semblative a woman’s part” ( ) Irony