Stylistic Devices in Literature

Stylistic Devices

• Stylistic devices, also called rhetorical devices, are techniques to create a particular effect.
• Effects can relate to sound (e.g., alliteration), structure (e.g., repetition, parallelism), or imagery.

Imagery

• Metaphor: A comparison between unlike things without using "like" or "as."
  • Example: "There's daggers in men's smiles." (Shakespeare, Macbeth)
• Personification: Representing animals or objects as human beings or possessing human qualities.
  • Example: "Love's not Time's fool..." (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)
• Simile: A comparison between two things using "like" or "as."
  • Example: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." (Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)

Sound

• Alliteration: Repetition of a sound, typically a consonant, at the beginning of words.
  • Example: "Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran."
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words.
  • Example: "Beside the lake, beneath the trees."
• Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds.
  • Example: "stuttering rifles' rapid rattle."

Structure

• Accumulation: A list of words or expressions with similar meanings. Emphasizes or describes;
  • Example: then shall our names...
• Analogy: Comparing two things that are similar in several aspects to clarify;
  • Example: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose...," (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

Miscellaneous

• Anaphora: Repeating the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
  • Example: "Come in, I say... Come in and eat with us."
• Enjambement: Incomplete syntax at the end of a line, where the meaning continues to the next.
• Enumeration: Listing words, phrases, or ideas.
• Parallelism: Deliberate repetition of similar grammatical structures in successive clauses, phrases, or sentences.
• Repetition: Using a word or phrase more than once for emphasis.
• Allusion: Direct or indirect referencing to something the reader should recognize (literature, historical events, religious texts).
  • Example: "This place is like the garden of Eden."
• Cliché: Overused expression losing original meaning.
• Exaggeration/Hyperbole: Overstatement for effect, often humorous or serious;
  • Example: "I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction."
• Irony: Saying one thing but meaning the opposite;
  • Example: praising someone with a sarcastic tone.
• Juxtaposition: Placing contrasting ideas, arguments, views together.
• Rhetorical Question: A question for effect, not requiring an answer.
• Understatement: Minimizing the true importance of something.
• Wordplay/Pun: Using words with multiple meanings or contexts for humor or effect;
  • Example: "The magician got so mad that he pulled his hair out"