GENRES OF LITERATURE
1 Fantasy - a genre of imaginative fiction
Genre means a type of art, literature, or music characterized
by a specific form, content, and style. For example,
literature has four main genres: poetry, drama, fiction, and
non-fiction. All of these genres have particular features and
functions that distinguish them from one another. Hence, it
is necessary on the part of readers to know which category
of genre they are reading in order to understand the
message it conveys, as they may have certain expectations
prior to the reading concerned.
(https://literarydevices.net/genre/)
Types of Genre
1. Prose - This type of written text is different from poetry
in that it has complete sentences organized into
paragraphs. Unlike poetry, prose focuses on characters and
plot, rather than focusing on sounds. It includes short
stories and novels, while fiction and non-fiction are its sub
genres. Prose is further categorized into essays, speeches,
sermons, and interpretations.
1.1 Non-fiction – a form of prose that is based on facts that
may sometimes convey information to readers.
1.1.1 Categories
1.1.1.1 Realistic
1.1.1.2 Non-Realistic
1.1.1.3 Semi-Fiction
1.1.2 Types
1.1.2.1 Biography- written account of another
person’s life
1.1.2.2 Autobiography – history of a person’s life
written or told by that person. Often
written in narrative form
1.1.2.3 Anecdote - a short amusing or interesting
story about a real incident or person
1.1.2.4 Diary - a book in which one keeps a
daily record of events and experiences
1.1.2.5 History - the whole series of past events
connected with someone or something
1.1.2.6 Essay - a short piece of writing on a
particular subject
1.1.2.7 Narrative Non-Fiction
1.1.2.8 News - a short piece of writing on a
particular subject
1.1.2.9 Speech - a formal address or discourse
delivered to an audience
1.1.3 Examples
1.1.3.1 A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by
James Joyce
1.1.3.2 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
1.1.3.3 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
1.1.3.4 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1. 2. Fiction – a form of prose that incorporates fantastical
and imaginary ideas from everyday life.
1.2.1 Categories
1.2.1.1 Personal Essay
1.2.1.2 Factual
1.2.2 Types
1.2.2.1 Drama - a play for theater, radio, or
television
1.2.2.
involving magic and adventure,
especially in a setting other than the
real world
1.2.2.1 Humor – a kind of fiction that is full of fun,
fancy and excitement.
1.2.2.1 Fable - a short story, typically with animals
as characters, conveying a moral.
1.2.2.1 Fairy Tale – or wonder tales about fairies or
other magical creatures, usually intended
to entertain
1.2.2.1 Science Fiction - fiction based on imagined
future scientific or technological advances
and major social or environmental
changes, frequently portraying space or
time travel and life on other planets
1.2.2.1 Short Story - a story with a fully
developed theme but significantly
shorter and less elaborate than a novel
1.2.2.1 Realistic Fiction – a story that can actually
happen and is true to real life
1.2.2.1 Historical Fiction -a story with fictional
characters and events in a historical
setting
1.2.2.1 Horror - a literary or film genre
concerned with arousing feelings of
horror
1.2.2.1 Tall Tale – humorous story with blatant
exaggerations
1.2.2.1 Legend – a tory that sometimes of a
national or folk hero
1.2.2.1 Mystery – a genre of fiction that deals with
the solution of a crime or the unravelling
secrets
1.2.2.1 Mythology - a collection of myths,
especially one belonging to a particular
religious or cultural tradition
1.2.2 Examples
1.2.2.1 The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History
of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
1.2.2.1 Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
 Figure of Speech
A figure of speech is a phrase or word having different
meanings than its literal meanings. It conveys meaning
by identifying or comparing one thing to another,
which has connotation or meaning familiar to
the audience. That is why it is helpful in creating vivid
rhetorical effect.
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia, pronounced on-uh-mat-uh–pee–uh, is
defined as a word which imitates the natural sounds of
a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing
described, making the description more expressive and
interesting.
For instance, saying, “The gushing stream flows in the
forest” is a more meaningful description than just
saying, “The stream flows in the forest.” The reader is
drawn to hear the sound of a “gushing stream,” which
makes the expression more effective.
In addition to the sounds they represent, many
onomatopoeic words have developed meanings of
their own. For example, the word “whisper” not only
represents the wispy or breathy sound of people
talking quietly, but also describes the action of people
talking quietly.
Common Examples of Onomatopoeia
• The buzzing bee flew away.
• The sack fell into the river with a splash.
• The books fell on the table with a loud thump.
• He looked at the roaring
• The rustling leaves kept me awake.
Moreover, we can identify a group of words related to
different sounds of wind, such as swish, swoosh, whiff,
whoosh, whizz, and whisper.
Examples of Onomatopoeia in Literature
Onomatopoeia is frequently employed in literature.
We notice, in the following examples, the use of
onomatopoeia gives rhythm to the texts. This makes
the descriptions livelier and more interesting,
appealing directly to the senses of the reader.
Below, a few Onomatopoeia examples are highlighted
in bold letters:
Example #1: Come Down, O Maid (By Alfred Lord
Tennyson)
“The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees…”
Example #2: The Tempest (By William Shakespeare)
“Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, ‘cock-a-diddle-dow!'”
Example #3: For Whom the Bell Tolls (By Ernest
Hemingway)
“He saw nothing and heard nothing but he could feel
his heart pounding and then he heard the clack on
stone and the leaping, dropping clicks of a small rock
falling.”

The different sounds of animals are also considered as Example #4: The Marvelous Toy (By Tom Paxton)
examples of onomatopoeia. You will recognize the “It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped,
following sounds easily: And whirr when it stood still.
• Meow I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.”
• Moo
• Neigh Example #5: Get Me to the Church on Time (By Alan
• Tweet Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe)
• Oink “I’m getting married in the morning!
• Baa Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime.”

Groups of Onomatopoeic Words

Onomatopoeic words come in combinations, as they

reflect different sounds of a single object. For example,
a group of words reflecting different sounds of water
are: plop, splash, gush, sprinkle, drizzle, and drip.
Similarly, words like growl, giggle, grunt, murmur,
blurt, and chatter denote different kinds of
human voice sounds.
Anaphora
In writing or speech, the deliberate repetition of the
first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic
effect is known as Anaphora.
Anaphora, possibly the oldest literary device, has its
roots in Biblical Psalms used to emphasize certain
words or phrases. Gradually, Elizabethan and Romantic
writers brought this device into practice. Examine the
following psalm:
“O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither
chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD,
heal me; for my bones are vexed.
My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how
long?”
The repetition of the phrase “O Lord,” attempts to
create a spiritual sentiment. This is anaphora.
Common Anaphora Examples
It is common for us to use anaphora in our everyday
speech, to lay emphasis on the idea we want to convey,
or for self affirmation. The following are anaphora
examples:
• “Every day, every night, in every way, I am
getting better and better.”
• “My life is my purpose. My life is my goal. My
life is my inspiration.”
• “Buying diapers for the baby, feeding the
baby, playing with the baby: This is what your
life is when you have a baby.”
• “I want my money right now, right here,
all right?”
• “The wrong person was selected for
the wrong job, at the wrong time, for
the wrong purpose.”
• “Their property was sold, their
homestead was sold, and their everything was
sold for want.”
• “Who is to blame, who is to look to, who is
to turn to, in a tough situation like this.”
• “In adversity, his close friends left him, his
close colleagues left him, and his best close
relatives left him.”
• “Everything looked dark and bleak, everything
looked gloomy, and everything was under a
blanket of mist.”
• “All the people were moving in the same
direction; all the people were thinking about
the same thing; and all the people
were discussing the same topic.”
• “After a long term of studies, the
students wanted to go home,
they wanted to play, and they wanted to meet
their parents and friends.”
• “The players were much exited for the
tour; the players wished to do a lot of
shopping; the players planned to go
sightseeing.”
• “The young writer was given the award for his
best seller. The young writer was exited to get
the reward, and he decided to celebrate the
occasion in a fitting manner.”
• “Tell them to be good, tell them to follow
their elders, and tell them to mind their
manners.”
• “The young athlete was in a decent uniform,
and wanted to perform very well.”
• “My mother liked the house very much, but
she couldn’t buy it.”
• “An apple fell on the head of a peasant, but he
couldn’t grasp the laws of motion.”
• “The search party barely got to the middle of
the desert, when a storm overtook it.”
• “The film was based on a true story, but it
failed to get viewers’ attention.”
Examples of Anaphora in Literature
Example #1: Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1 (By William
Shakespeare)
“This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings [. . .]
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,”
Here, Shakespeare does not disappoint us in the use of
anaphora. The repetition of the word “this” creates an
emotional effect on the readers, particularly those who
are English. Further, it highlights the significance of
England. The repetition of the word “dear” shows the
writer’s emotional attachment to the land, and expects
to elicit a similar response from the readers as well.
Example #2: A Tale of Two Cities (By Charles Dickens)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was
the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it
was the winter of despair.”
The repetitive structure used in the above lines make it
the most memorable and remarkable start of
a narrative ever achieved by a writer. The word “it” –
repeated all the way through the passage – makes the
reader focus more on the traits of the “age” they are
reading about.
Example #3: Tintern Abbey (By William Wordsworth)
This technique is employed by William Wordsworth in
“Tintern Abbey“:
“Five years have passed; Alliteration
Five summers, with the length of Alliteration is derived from Latin’s “Latira”. It means
Five long winters! and again I hear these waters…” “letters of alphabet”. It is a stylistic device in which a
Wordsworth also employs the technique of anaphora number of words, having the same first consonant
in this piece. The repetition of the word “five” at the sound, occur close together in a series.
beginning of each line gives melody to the lines, which Consider the following examples:
matches well with its nostalgic tone. • But a better butter makes a batter better.
• A big bully beats a baby boy.
Example #4: The Tyger (By William Blake) Both sentences are alliterative because the same first
“What the hammer? what the chain? letter of words (B) occurs close together and produces
In what furnace was thy brain? alliteration in the sentence. An important point to
What the anvil? what dread grasp remember here is that alliteration does not depend
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” on letters but on sounds. So the phrase not knotty is
The repetition of a series of questions, which starts alliterative, but cigarette chase is not.
with the query, “what,” creates a rhythm that elicits
the effect of awe in readers. Common Examples of Alliteration
In our daily life, we notice alliteration in the names of
Example #5: WWII Speech (By Winston Churchill) different companies. It makes the name of a company
Politicians frequently use anaphora as a rhetorical catchy and easy to memorize. Here are several
device, in their addresses and political speeches, to common alliteration examples.
evoke passion among the audience. Read an excerpt • Dunkin’ Donuts
from Winston Churchill’s speech during the Second • PayPal
World War: • Best Buy
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the • Coca-Cola
end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas • Life Lock
and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence • Park Place
and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our • American Apparel
island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the • American Airlines
beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we • Chuckee Cheese’s
shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight • Bed Bath & Beyond
in the hills. We shall never surrender.” • Krispy Kreme
• The Scotch and Sirloin
This extract from Winston Churchill’s speech is full of
anaphoric examples in which the speaker has spoken We also find alliterations in names of people, making
the phrase “we shall” several times to refer to the such names prominent and easy to be remembered.
plural form that he is using for the whole nation. For instance, both fictional characters and real people
The repetitive structures in the above passage suggest may stand out prominently in your mind due to the
the importance of the war for England. Moreover, it alliterative effects of their names. Examples are:
inspires patriotic sentiments among the masses. • Ronald Reagan
• Sammy Sosa
Example #6: I have a Dream (By Martin Luther King • Jesse Jackson
Jr.) • Michael Moore
“Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back • William Wordsworth
to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back • Mickey Mouse
to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our • Porky Pig
northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation • Lois Lane
can and will be changed.” • Marilyn Monroe
This extract from I have a Dream contains the • Fred Flintstone
repetition of the phrase “go back to” many time. The • Donald Duck
whole speech is full of the anaphoric example. • Spongebob Squarepants
• Seattle Seahawks
Alliteration Examples in Literature Assonance
Example #1 Assonance takes place when two or more words, close
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the to one another repeat the same vowel sound, but start
Ancient Mariner” with different consonant sounds.
“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, For instance, in the following sentence:
The furrow followed free; “Men sell the wedding bells.”
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.” The same vowel sound of the short vowel “-e-” repeats
In the above lines we see alliteration (“b”, “f” and “s”) itself in almost all the words, excluding the definite
in the phrases “breeze blew”, “foam flew”, “furrow article. The words do share the same vowel sounds, but
followed”, and “silent sea”. start with different consonant sounds –
unlike alliteration, which involves repetition of the
Example #2 same consonant sounds. Below are a few assonance
From James Joyce’s “The Dead” examples that are common.
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly
through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of Common Assonance Examples
their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” • We light fire on the mountain.
We notice several instances of alliteration in the above • I feel depressed and restle
mentioned prose work of James Joyce. Alliterations are • Go and mow the lawn.
with “s” and “f” in the phrases “swooned slowly” and • Johnny went here and there and everywhe
“falling faintly”. • The engineer held the steering to steer the
vehicle.
Example #3
From Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Brief Examples of Assonance
Sings” 1. “If I bleat when I speak it’s because I just got ...
“Up the aisle, the moans and screams merged with the flee”
sickening smell of woolen black clothes worn in — Deadwood, by Al Swearengin
summer weather and green leaves wilting over yellow 2. “Those images that yet,
flowers.” Fresh images beget,
Maya gives us a striking example of alliteration in the That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.”
above extract with the letters “s” and “w”. We notice — Byzantium, by W. B. Yeats
that alliterative words are interrupted by other non- 3. “Strips of tinfoil winking like people”
alliterative words among them but the effect of — The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath
alliteration remains the same. We immediately notice 4. “I must confess that in my quest I felt
alliteration in the words “screams”, “sickening smell”, depressed and restless.”
“summer”, “weather” and “wilting”. — With Love, by Thin Lizzy

Example #4 Examples of Assonance in Literature

From William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” Assonance is primarily used in poetry, in order to
(prologue to Act 1) add rhythm and music, by adding an internal rhyme to
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; a poem. Let us look at some examples of assonance
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” from literature:
This is an example of alliteration with the “f” and “l.” in
words “forth, fatal, foes” and “loins, lovers, and life”. Example #1: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Example #5 (By Robert Frost)
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s (English Romantic poet) “The Try to recognize the use of assonance in Robert Frost’s
Witch of Atlas” is a famous poem that is full of poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
examples of alliterations. Just a few of them are “wings “He gives his harness bells a shake
of winds” (line 175), “sick soul to happy sleep” (line To ask if there is some mistake.
178), “cells of crystal silence” (line 156), “Wisdom’s The only other sound’s the sweep
wizard. . . wind. . . will” (lines 195-197), “drained and Of easy wind and downy flake.
dried” ( line 227), “lines of light” (line 245), “green and The woods are lovely, dar and deep.
glowing” (line 356), and crudded. . . cape of cloud” But I have promises to keep,
(lines 482-3).
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
The underlined bold letters in the above extract are
vowels that are repeated to create assonance.
Example #2: Early Moon (By Carl Sandburg)
Assonance sets the mood of a passage in Carl
Sandburg’s Early Moon:
“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the
oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows
how and why the first poems came.”
Notice how the long vowel, “o”, in the above extract,
helps emphasize the idea of something being old and
mysterious.
Example #3: Outer Dark (By Cormac McCarthy)
The sound of long vowels slows down the pace of a
passage, setting an atmosphere that is grave and
serious. Look at the following example from Cormac
McCarthy’s Outer Dark:
“And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about
the glade in a frail agony of grace she trailed her rags
through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire, the
charred billets and chalk bones, the little calcined
ribcage.”
The repetition of the long vowel sound in the above
passage lays emphasis on the frightening atmosphere
that the writer wants to depict.
Example #4: Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night (By
Dylan Thomas)
Similarly, we notice the use of long vowels in a passage
from Dylan Thomas’ famous poem, Do Not Go Gentle
into the Good Night:
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight,
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
The poet deliberately uses assonance in the above lines
to slow down the pace of the poem, and to create a
somber mood, as the subject of the poem is death.
Example #5: Daffodils (By William Wordsworth)
William Wordsworth employs assonance to create
an internal rhyme in his poem Daffodils:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o‘er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze…”
Example #6: The Feast of Famine (By Robert Louis
Stevenson)
“From folk that sat on the terrace and drew out the
even long
Sudden crowings of laughter, monotonous drone of
song;
The quiet passage of souls over his head in the trees;
And from all around the haven the crumbling thunder
of seas.”
Farewell, my home,” said Rua. “Farewell, O quiet seat!
To-morrow in all your valleys the drum of death shall
beat.”
This is a good example of assonance, in which almost
all the lines contain one example of assonance. All the
examples have been written in bold. In the first line,
the /a/ sound has been repeated. In the second line,
the /o/ sound, as in dog, has been repeated. In the
third line, the /o/ sound as in go has been repeated. In
fourth line, /ʌ/ as in must has been repeated. In the
fifth line, the /a/ sound as in air, and the /e/ sound, as
in ten have been repeated. In the sixth line, the long
/e/ sound, as in sheep has been repeated.
Example #7: When I have Hears (By John Keats)
“When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain …”
This excerpt has been taken from John
Keats’ sonnet, When I Have Fears. The first line exhibits
repetition of the long /i/ sound, as in tripe. The second
line again contains the same long /i/ sound. The fourth
line repeats /ai/ sound as in bye.
Example #8: The Master (By Edgar Allan Poe)
“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple
curtain
Thrilled me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt
before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood
repeating`
‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door –
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; ”
This it is, and nothing more.”
The Master, by Edgar Allan Poe, is teeming with the
examples of assonance. The first line repeats the /ur/
sound, as in bird. The second line starts with the
repetition of the short /i/ sound, and ends with the
repetition of the short /e/ sound. The fourth line
repeats the long /i/ sound twice. The third line has a
short /i/ sound twice. The last line has again short /i/
sound repeated four times.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two opposite
ideas are joined to create an effect. The common
oxymoron phrase is a combination of
an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting
meanings, such as “cruel kindness,” or “living death”.
However, the contrasting words/phrases are not
always glued together. The contrasting ideas may be
spaced out in a sentence, such as, “In order to lead, you
must walk behind.”
Difference Between Oxymoron and Paradox
It is important to understand the difference between
an oxymoron and a paradox. A paradox may consist of
a sentence, or even a group of sentences. An
oxymoron, on the other hand, is a combination of two
contradictory or opposite words. A paradox seems
contradictory to the general truth, but it does contain
an implied truth. An oxymoron, however, may produce
a dramatic effect, but does not make literal sense.
Examples of oxymoron are found both in casual
conversations and in literature.
Common Examples of Oxymoron
1. Open secret
2. Tragic comedy
3. Seriously funny
4. Awfully pretty
5. Foolish wisdom
6. Original copies
7. Liquid gas
The above oxymoron examples produce a comical
effect. Thus, it is a lot of fun to use them in your
everyday speech.
Short Examples of Oxymoron in Speech
1. There was a love-hate relationship between
the two neighboring states.
2. The professor was giving a lecture on virtual
reality.
3. Paid volunteers were working for the
company.
4. The channel was repeating the old news again
and again.
5. The contractor was asked to give the exact
estimate of the project.
6. A lot of soldiers have been killed in friendly
fire.
7. The doctor was absolutely unsure of the
nature of his illness.
8. All the politicians agreed to disagree.
9. There was an employee in the office who
was regularly irregular.
10. The hero of the play was so dejected that he
was the perfect embodiment of being alone in
a crowd.
11. The heads of state gathered to determine
an approximate solution to the crisis.
12. The green pasture surrounded by hills was
teeming with a deafening silence.
13. The political scientist was asked to give
his unbiased opinion on the current issue.
14. The CEO of a multinational company said, “We
have been awfully lucky to have survived the
disastrous effects of the recent economic
recession.”
15. The program was not liked by the people, for a
lot of unpopular celebrities were invited.
Examples of Oxymoron in Literature
Example #1: Romeo and Juliet (By William
Shakespeare)
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
We notice a series of oxymora being employed when
Romeo confronts the love of an inaccessible woman.
An intense emotional effect is produced, to highlight
his mental conflict by the use of contradictory pairs of
words, such as “hating love,” “heavy lightness,” “bright
smoke,” “cold fire,” and “sick health”.
Example #2: Lancelot and Elaine (By Alfred Lord
Tennyson)
The shackles of love straiten’d him
His honour rooted in dishonoured stood
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true
We clearly notice the use of oxymoron in the phrases
“shackles… straiten’d,” “honour… dishonor,” “faith
unfaithful,” and “falsely true”.
Example #3: Petrarch’s 134th sonnet (By Sir Thomas
Wyatt)
I find no peace, and all my war is done
I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice,
I flee above the wind, yet can I not arise;
The contradicting ideas of “war … peace,” “burn …
freeze,” and “flee above … not rise” produce a dramatic
effect in the above-mentioned lines.

Example #4: Essays of Criticism (By Alexander Pope)
The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head,
With his own tongue still edifies his ears,
And always list’ning to himself appears.
The above lines provide fine evidence of Pope’s
witticism. The oxymora “bookful blockhead” and
“ignorantly read” describe a person who reads a lot,
but does not understand what he reads, and does not
employ his reading to improve his character.
Example #5: Hamlet (By William Shakespeare)
Shakespeare makes use of oxymora in his plays to
develop a paradox.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.
In the above lines taken from “Hamlet,” Shakespeare
draws two contradictory ideas: “be cruel … to be kind”.
The contradiction is understood in the context of the
play. Hamlet wants to kill Claudius, the murderer of his
father, who has married his mother. Hamlet does not
want his mother to be the beloved of his father’s
murderer. Therefore, he is of the view that this murder
will purge her.
Example #6: Romeo and Juliet , Act I, Scene II (By
William Shakespeare)
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiond angelical!
Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st;
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O, nature! what hadst thou to do in hell
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
This extract makes use of some good oxymora, such as
“damned saint,” and “honorable villain,” etc.
Irony
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in
such a way that their intended meaning is different
from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a
situation that ends up in quite a different way than
what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a
difference between appearance and reality.
Types of Irony
On the grounds of the above definition, we distinguish
two basic types of irony: (1) verbal irony, and
(2) situational irony. Verbal irony involves what one
does not mean. For example, when in response to a
foolish idea, we say, “What a great idea!” This is verbal
irony. Situational irony occurs when, for instance, a
man is chuckling at the misfortune of another, even
when the same misfortune is, unbeknownst to him,
befalling him.
Difference Between Dramatic Irony and Situational
Irony
Dramatic irony is frequently employed by writers in
their works. In situational irony, both the characters
and the audience are fully unaware of the implications
of the real situation. In dramatic irony, the characters
are oblivious of the situation, but the audience is not.
For example, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we
know well before the characters that they are going to
die. In real life circumstances, irony may be comical,
bitter, or sometimes unbearably offensive.
Common Examples of Irony
Let us analyze some interesting examples from our
daily life:
• I posted a video on YouTube about how boring and
useless YouTube is.
• The name of Britain’s biggest dog was “Tiny.”
• You laugh at a person who slipped stepping on a
banana peel, and the next thing you know, you’ve
slipped too.
• The butter is as soft as a slab of marble.
• “Oh great! Now you have broken my new camera.”
Short Examples of Verbal Irony
1. The doctor is as kind hearted as a wolf.
2. He took a much-needed vacation, backpacking in
the mountains. Unfortunately, he came back dead
tired.
3. His friend’s hand was as soft as a rock.
4. The desert was as cool as a bed of burning coals.
5. The student was given ‘excellent’ on getting zero in
the exam.
6. The roasted chicken was as tender as a leather
boot.
 7. He was in such a harried state that he drove the Water, water, everywhere,
entire way at 20 miles per hour. Nor any drop to drink.”
8. He enjoyed his job about as much as a root canal.
9. My friend’s kids get along like cats and dogs. In the above-stated lines, the ship – blown by the south
10. Their new boss was as civilized as a shark.
wind – is stranded in the uncharted sea. Ironically,
11. The new manager is as friendly as a rattlesnake.
12. The weather was as balmy as a winter day in Siberia.
there is water everywhere, but they do not have a
13. A vehicle was parked right in front of the no-parking single drop of drinkable water.
sign.
14. The CEO of a big tobacco company said he did not Example #5: The Gift of the Magi (By W.H. Auden)
smoke. This is an example of situational irony, in which the wife
15. The fear of long words is called sells her most prized possession – her hair – to get her
“Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalio phobia.” husband a Christmas present; and the husband sells his
most dear possession – the gold watch – to get his wife
Irony Examples in Literature a Christmas present. By the end, it is revealed that
Example #1: Romeo and Juliet (By William neither has the utility of the present bought by the
Shakespeare) other, as both sell their best things to give the other
We come across the following lines in one a gift. Combs, the gift for the wife, is useless
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V: because she has sold her hair. The gold watch chain,
“Go ask his name: if he be married. the gift for the husband, is useless because he has sold
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.” the watch to get the combs. The situation becomes
Juliet commands her nurse to find out who Romeo was, ironic for such an incident.
and says if he were married, then her wedding bed
would be her grave. It is a verbal irony because the Example #6: Othello (By William Shakespeare)
audience knows that she is going to die on her wedding There are many examples of verbal irony, in which
bed. the speaker means the opposite of what he says,
in Othello by Shakespeare, as given below:
Example #2: Julius Caesar (By William Shakespeare) OTHELLO: “O, thou art wise! ‘Tis certain” (IV.I.87),
Shakespeare employs this verbal irony in Julius Caesar, “Honest Iago . . . ” (V.II.88), (II.III.179) & (I.III.319), “I
Act I, Scene II: know, Iago, Thy honesty and love doth mince this
CASSIUS: ” ‘Tis true this god did shake.” matter” (II.III.251-52).
Cassius, despite knowing the mortal flaws of Caesar, These few lines tell us how Othello uses irony to talk
calls him “this god”. about Iago.
IAGO: “My lord, you know I love you.” (III.III.136)
Example #3: Oedipus Rex (By Sophocles) This shows that Iago only uses this phrase superficially,
In the Greek drama Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles: with quite the opposite meaning.
“Upon the murderer I invoke this curse – whether he is
one man and all unknown, Example #7: The Tell-Tale Heart (By Edgar Allan Poe)
Or one of many – may he wear out his life in misery to In the short story The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan
miserable doom!” Poe, there are many instances of irony as given below:
The above lines are an illustration of verbal and 1. The murderer poses that he is a wise and
dramatic irony. It was predicted that a man guilty of intelligent person, who takes each step very
killing his father and marrying his own mother brought carefully to kill the victim. However, the way
A curse on the city and its people. In the above- the old’s man eye prompts him to murder the
mentioned lines, Oedipus curses the man who is the victim is very ironic. He behaves absolutely
cause of the curse. He is ignorant of the fact that he insanely throughout the story.
himself is that man, and thus he is cursing himself. The 2. Another instance of irony in the same story is
audience, on the other hand, knows the situation. that the killer himself confesses his crime
Example #4: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (By without being asked by the police. The police
Samuel Coleridge) are there just to investigate the shriek some
Irony examples are not only found in stage plays, but in neighbor has reported. However, their delayed
poems too. In his poem The Rime of the Ancient stay makes the killer very nervous, and he
Mariner, Coleridge wrote: confesses his crime of murder in their
“Water, water, everywhere, presence. He even tells where he has buried
And all the boards did shrink; the dead body.
Allusion
Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person,
place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or
political significance. It does not describe in detail the
person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing
comment and the writer expects the reader to possess
enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its
importance in a text.
For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment
you say, “I do not approve of this quixotic idea,”
Quixotic means stupid and impractical derived from
Cervantes’s “Don Quixote”, a story of a foolish knight
and his misadventures.
Allusion Examples in Everyday Speech
The use allusions are not confined to literature alone.
Their occurrence is fairly common in our daily speech.
Look at some common allusion examples in everyday
life:
• “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” –
“Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s
Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo
and Juliet”.
• The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s
box of crimes. – This is an allusion to one of
Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s
box”.
• “This place is like a Garden of Eden.” – This is a
biblical allusion to the “garden of God” in the
Book of Genesis.
• “Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our
school is?” – “Newton”, means a genius
student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac
Newton.
• “Stop acting like my ex-husband please.” –
Apart from scholarly allusions we refer to
common people and places in our speech.
Examples of Allusion in Literature
Let us analyze a few examples of the use of allusions in
literature:
Example #1
Milton’s “Paradise Lost” gives allusions a fair share.
Look at the example from Book 6 below:
“All night the dread less Angel unpursu’d
Through Heav’ns wide Champain held his way, till
Morn,
Wak’t by the circling Hours, with rosie hand
Unbarr’d the gates of Light. There is a Cave
Within the Mount of God, fast by his Throne”
In the above lines “dread less Angel” is a reference to
“Abdiel”, a fearless angel. “Circling Hours” alludes to a
Greek Myth “The Horae”, the daughters of “Zeus” and
“Themis” namely “Thallo (Spring), Auxo (Summer) and
Carpo (Fall). “ With rosie hand” Milton refers to
Homer’s illustration of the “rosy fingered dawn”
(Odyssey Book 2).
Example #2
Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus” is replete with instances
of allusions. Read the example from Act III below:
“Learnèd Faustus, to find the secrets of astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove’s high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus’ top,
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yokèd dragons’ necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.”
Jove’s high firmament refers to the outer stretches of
the universe. “Olympus’ top” is an allusion to Greek
Mythology where Mount Olympus is home of gods.
Similarly, “a chariot burning bright” refers to a Greek
Myth of “god Apollo” who is said to drive the sun in his
chariot.
Example #3
In Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, “the two knitting
women” whom Marlow sees alludes to “Moirae” or
Fates as visualized in Greek Mythology:
“The two knitting women increase his anxiety by gazing
at him and all the other sailors with knowing
unconcern. Their eerie looks suggest that they know
what will happen (the men dying), yet don’t care”
The thread they knit represents human life. The two
women knitting black wool foreshadows Marlow’s
horrific journey in the “Dark Continent”.
Example #4
We find a number of allusions in Keats’s “Ode to the
Grecian Urn”. For example:
“Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?”
“Sylvan” is a goat-like-man deity of Greek mythology.
“Tempe” alludes to the “Vale of Tempe” in Greece, a
place (from Greek mythology) frequently visited by
Apollo and other gods. Likewise, “the dales of Arcady”
refers to the home of “Pan”, the god of rustic music.
Chiasmus Example #2: Essay on Man (By Alexander Pope)
Chiasmus is a rhetorical device in which two or more “His time a moment, and a point his space.”
clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal
of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect. Example #3: Do I Love You Because You’re
Let us try to understand chiasmus with the help of an Beautiful? (By Oscar Hammerstein)
example: “Do I love you because you’re beautiful?
“Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You.” Or are you beautiful because I love you?”
Notice that the second half of this sentence is an
inverted form of the first half, both grammatically and Example #4: Paradise Lost (By John Milton)
logically. In the simplest sense, the term chiasmus “…in his face
applies to almost all “criss-cross” structures, and this is Divine compassion visibly appeared,
a concept that is common these days. In its strict Love without end, and without measure Grace…”
classical sense, however, the function of chiasmus is to
reverse grammatical structure or ideas of sentences, Example #5: Quote (By Judith Viorst)
given that the same words and phrases are not “Lust is what makes you keep wanting to do it, Even
repeated. when you have no desire to be with each other. Love is
what makes you keep wanting to be with each other,
The Difference Between Chiasmus and Antimetabole Even when you have no desire to do it.”
Chiasmus is different from antimetabole. An
antimetabole is the repetition of words in consecutive Example #6: Quote (By John Marshall)
clauses, but in an inverted or transposed order. For “In the blue grass region,
example: A paradox was born:
“You forget what you want to remember, and you The corn was full of kernels
remember what you want to forget.” And the colonels full of corn.”
Antimetabole examples resemble chiasmus, as they
are marked by the inversion of structure. In examples Example #7: Quote (By Alfred P. Solan)
of chiasmus, however, the words and phrases are not “Some have an idea that the reason we in this
repeated. Generally, chiasmus and antimetabole are country discard things so readily is because we have
regarded by many critics as similar tools of rhetoric. so much. The facts are exactly opposite – the
reason we have so much is simply because we discard
Examples of Chiasmus from Greek Sages things so readily.”
The use of chiasmus as a rhetorical device dates back
to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Its traces Example #8: Quote (By Voltaire)
have been found in the ancient texts of Sanskrit, and “The instinct of a man is
also in ancient Chinese writings. Greeks, however, to pursue everything that flies from him, and
developed an unmatched inclination for this device, to fly from all that pursues him.”
and made it an essential part of the art of oration.
Example #9: Quote (By Thomas Szaz)
Example #1: Aeschylus, 5th Century B.C. “When religion was strong and science weak, men
“It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, mistook magic for medicine;
but the man the oath.” Now, when science is strong and religion weak, men
mistake medicine for magic.”
Example #2: Bias, 6th Century B.C.
“Love as if you would one day hate,
and hate as if you would one day love.”

Example #3: Socrates, 5th Century B.C.

“Bad men live that they may eat and drink, https://literarydevices.net/figure-of-speech/
whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”
Examples of Chiasmus from Literature

Example #1: Othello (By William Shakespeare)

“But O, what damned minutes tells he o’er
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves.”