1. Basic Rhetorical Structures n Metaphor n Metonymy n Synecdoche n Irony

2. Metaphor n Links by implicit similarity n “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank” n “A green thought in a green shade” n “My love is a red, red rose” n Not to be confused with simile where the similarity is explicit

3. Metonymy n Links by close association (contiguity) n “The Crown” for the monarchy n “The Stage” for the theatrical profession n “Dante” for his works

4. Synecdoche n Substitutes the part for the whole n “Some eyes condemn the earth they gaze upon” n Milton refers to the corrupt clergy as “blind mouths”

5. Irony n Juxtaposes appearance and reality n the speaker’s implicit meaning is very different from what is said n “It grieves me much … who speaks so well should ever speak in vain” n Can appear as “dramatic irony”

6. The Genre of Allegory n allegory: a story in prose or verse with at least two levels of meaning: u primary or surface meaning u secondary or under-the-surface n fable: a short narrative which points an abstract moral principle. The most common is the beast fable. n parable: a short narrative which “teaches a moral lesson”

7. Four Levels of Meaning n literal or historical meaning u narrates what in fact happened n allegorical meaning u the hidden subtext and allusions n moral meaning u the ‘truth’ signified by the passage n anagogical meaning u the ‘mystical’ interpretation

8. Animal Farm n literally about the revolt of animals against human overlords n allegorical: Napoleon=Stalin; Major=Lenin; Snowball=Trotsky; Jones=corrupt capitalist landowners n moral: ‘power tends to corrupt’ n anagogical: human (and animal) nature does not change