修辞格解释及例子 (2)

6. Note the use of synecdoche in ―The Lady or the Tiger?‖ by Frank R. Stockton:

―His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her.‖

―Faces‖ refers to the whole persons.

11. personification

Definition: a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings. Examples:

1. Taken from L. M. Montgomery‘s ―The Green Gables Letters‖,

―I hied me away to the woods—away back into the sun-washed alleys carpeted with fallen gold and glades where the moss is green and vivid yet. The woods are getting ready to sleep—they are not yet asleep but they are disrobing and are having all sorts of little bed-time conferences and whisperings and good-nights.‖

The lack of activity in the forest has been beautifully personified as forest getting ready to sleep, busy in bed-time chatting and wishing good-nights, all of which relate typically to human customs.

2. Taken from Act I, Scene II of ― Romeo and Juliet‖, ―When well-appareled April on the heel Of limping winter treads.‖

April cannot put on a dress, and winter does not limp and it does not have heel on which a month can walk. Shakespeare personifies month of April and winter season by giving them two distinct human qualities.

3. A.H. Houseman in his poem ―Loveliest of Trees the Cherry Now‖ personifies the cherry tree, ―Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide.‖

He sees a cherry tree covered with beautiful white flowers in the forest and says that cherry tree wears white clothes to celebrate Easter. He gives human attributes to a tree in order to describe it in human terms.

12. apostrophe

Definition: a figure of speech sometime represented by exclamation ―O‖. A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech. Examples:

1. William Shakespeare makes use of an apostrophe in his play ―Macbeth‖: ―Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.‖

In his mental conflict before murdering king Duncan, Macbeth has a strange vision of a dagger

and talks to it as if it were another person.

2. Jane Taylor uses apostrophe in well-known nursery rhyme ―The Star‖: ―Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.‖

In the above nursery rhyme, a child addresses a star which is an imaginary idea and hence is a classical example of apostrophe.

13. irony Definition:

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 may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality Examples:

1. We come across the following lines in Shakespeare‘s ―Romeo and Juliet‖, Act I, Scene V. ―Go ask his name: if he be married.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.‖

Juliet commands her nurse to find out who Romeo was and says if he were married, then her wedding bed would be her grave. It is a verbal irony because the audience knows that she is going to die on her wedding bed.

2. Shakespeare employs this verbal irony in ―Julius Caesar‖ Act I, Scene II, ―?tis true this god did shake‖

When a character Cassius, despite knowing the mortal flaws of Caesar, calls him ―this god‖. 3. In the Greek drama ―Oedipus Rex‖ written by ―Sophocles‖,

―Upon the murderer I invoke this curse- whether he is one man and all unknown, Or one of many- may he wear out his life in misery to miserable doom!‖

The above lines are an illustration of verbal and dramatic irony. It was predicted that a man guilty of killing his father and marrying his own mother has brought curse on the city and its people. In the above-mentioned lines, Oedipus curses the man who is the cause of curse on his city. He is ignorant of the fact that he himself is that man and he is cursing himself. Audience, on the other hand, knows the situation.

4. In his poem ―The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‖, Coleridge wrote, ―Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.‖

In the above stated lines, the ship, blown by the south wind, is stranded in the uncharted sea. Ironically, there is water everywhere but they do not have a single drop of water to drink.

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