Exploring Literary Devices in English (Core) XII NCERT

Exploring Literary Devices in English (Core) XII NCERT

As you delve into the higher realms of English literature in Class 12, you'll come across an array of literary devices that play a vital role in crafting richly nuanced narratives. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for English (Core) XII serve as robust resources to help you understand and appreciate these devices.

Personification

Personification is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, or behaviors to non-human entities. In literature, it's a powerful tool that helps create more intimate and relatable relationships between characters and their surroundings, such as the wind howling through the trees or thunder growling across the sky. Personification often helps to convey abstract ideas or emotions in a more tangible, human-like form.

For example, in William Wordsworth's The Prelude, the speaker personifies nature to evoke a sense of wonder and interconnectedness with the natural world: "Nature yet has truths to utter, / And feelings to communicate; for these / She best consults her forms and ways of old".

Metaphor

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable, making a direct comparison without using the words "like" or "as." Metaphors help to create vivid imagery and make abstract concepts more concrete and memorable.

For instance, in John Donne's The Sun Rising, the sun is metaphorically compared to a lover, making connections between the physical and the emotional, the sublime and the intimate: "Bring me to book, eyes, look your last; / Sleep then, or wink; for all of you is but / One face, one voice, one ear, and one eye".

Imagery

Imagery is the use of concrete language to create vivid, sensory-based representations of people, places, or things in literature. These descriptions help readers more fully engage with the text and experience the story from a more immersive perspective.

Consider Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, for example, where the narrator describes the color of the wallpaper in her room, creating a powerful visual representation of her confinement and isolation: "The outside is rose-colored; the inside is yellow with large brown stains...I wonder who has washed and dried that yellow washcloth and hung it out to wrinkle and sully so that I should use it to-day?".

Symbolism

Symbolism is the use of words, images, objects, or actions to represent ideas or concepts that lie beyond their literal meaning. In literature, symbols help create a deeper, more nuanced understanding of characters, plot, and themes.

For instance, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, the yellow wallpaper itself serves as a powerful symbol of the narrator's confinement and the limitations placed on women in society. The wallpaper's repetitive pattern and color also serve as a symbol of the narrator's cyclical existence and subjugation.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial consonant sound in adjacent or closely positioned words. In literature, alliteration helps create a sense of rhythm, ease, and unity in a text.

For example, in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the repetition of the "p" sound in "pig and a peacock were walking down the road," helps create a playful, whimsical tone and draws attention to the peculiarities of the world Alice discovers.

These literary devices are just a few of the many tools that you'll be introduced to in the English (Core) XII NCERT curriculum as you explore and analyze the rich tapestry of literature. As you delve deeper into these devices and their uses, you'll discover the critical role they play in shaping the narrative and conveying the text's underlying themes, emotions, and meanings.