English Literature

QUESTION: What is Irony? ANSWER: Irony is a device by which a writer expresses a meaning contradictory to the stated or ostensible one. There are many techniques for achieving irony. Example: [1] When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept                         Ambition should be made of sterner stuff;                         Yet Brutus says he was ambition,                         And Brutus is an honourable man.                         [Shakespeare: Julius Caesar]                  [2] Hamlet: So long? ….. O heavens! die two            ...

QUESTION: What is Paradox?  ANSWER:  A paradox is a statement, though it appears self contradictory, contains the basis of truth that reconciles the seeming opposites. Examples:   [1] Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend,                           And rise to faults true critics dare not mend.                          [Pope: An Essay On Criticism]                     [2] One short sleep, we wake eternally                            And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.                           [John Donne]   ...

QUESTION:  What is Oxymoron? ANSWER:  Oxymoron is a figure of speech consisting generally of two apparently contradictory terms that express a startling paradox. Example: [1] Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!                         O' anything of nothing first create                          O' heavy lightness! Serious vanity.                         [Shakespeare: Romeo And Juliet]                  [2] She loathed the bright dishonour of his love. [Blake]

QUESTION: What do you mean by Metonymy? ANSWER:   Metonymy is derived from a Greek word. Its meaning is 'a change of name'. In this figure of speech the name of some object or idea is substituted for another to which it has some relation. For example:     [1] He succeeded to the crown - The monarchy.                             [2] From the cradle to the grave - From childhood to death.                             [3] I never read Homer - The works of Homer.

QUESTION: What is Alliteration? ANSWER: Alliteration is one of the important figures of speech. It is the close repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of two or more words. For example:      [1] To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,                                   In a pestilential prison, with a life long lock.                                                   [W.S.Gilbert: The Mikado]                             [2] Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long         ...

QUESTION:What do you mean by  Pathetic Fallacy? ANSWER:  Pathetic Fallacy is a term originated by Ruskin in 1865. It is attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects. Such an attribution falls short of a full personification. For example:     [1] the cruel, crawling foam.                             [2] Mute nature mourns her worshipper.                             [3] Angry cloud and cruel wind.

QUESTION: What is Personification? ANSWER: The Personification is a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstracts ideas are endowed with human qualities or action. For example:    [1] He is the favoured child of fortune.                            [2] Let not Ambition mock their useful toil                                 Their homely joys, and destiny obscure. [Gray: Elegy]

QUESTION: What do you mean by  Antithesis? ANSWER: Antithesis is the setting of one thing against another. In this rhetorical figure, contrast of ideas are sharply and vividly expressed within a balanced grammatical structure. For example: [1] Give me liberty, or give me death. [2] He can bribe, but he can't seduce; he can buy, but he can't gain;  He can lie, but he can't deceive. [3] A friend exaggerates a man's virtue, an enemy his crimes. [4] A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. [5] Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow; The rest is all but leather or prunella. [Pope: An Essay On Criticism]

QUESTION:What is Metaphor? ANSWER:  Metaphor is a figure of speech in which two unlike objects are compared by identification or by the substitute of one for the other. Example: [1] Our eldest son is the star of our family.                  [2] He is the vulture of the province.

QUESTION: What is Simile ? ANSWER: Simile is an expressed comparison between two unlike objects. For this purpose' like' or 'as' are used usually. Example: [1] O, my luve is like a red, red rose                        That's newly sprung in June. [Burns]                  [2] Errors like straws, upon the surface flow;                        He that would search for pearls must dive below. [Dryden]                  [3] True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,                      ...