Allusions test 4/16

bedlam

nickname for the mental hospital, St. Mary of Bethlehem in London.

Bedlem means wildly chaotic or extremely raucous and noisy

Albatross Around One’s Neck

Taylor Coleridge shoots an albatross in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and is forced to wear the albatross’s carcass around his neck.

This is some burden, often of guilt, a person must bear.

Prometheus/Promethean

Prometheus was cunning. He stole the fire from Olympus that Zues withheld from mankind and gave it to man. He was punished by being chained to a rock and having an eagle come eat out his liver every day.

This represents valiant resistance to authority or rebellion against the established order of the universe. It refers to an act of resistance.

Juggernaut

Hindu deity. People threw themselves in front of the large cart and were crushed, granting them immediate entry to paradise.

This is any force, epecially destructuve that defies opposition. Also applied to an unstoppable person

Sour Grapes

A fable by Aesop, “The Fox and the Grapes, depicts a fox trying to get grapes off the vine but fails every time. So the fox says they were probably sour anyway.

refers to the attitude of a person who has been disappointed or thwarted. They bitterly realize that what they wanted wasn’t so great after all

Sold down the River

In 19th-century America, slavery, slaves were sold to plantation owners in the South. The slaves felt betrayed.

to be betrayed or misled, especially by someone trusted

nemesis

greek goddess of vengeance and retribution. Punished people for excessive pride

a person’s _________ is that which causes his or her downfall, can refer to the downfall itself

pyrrhic vistory

pyrrhus was a general. He defeated the Romans but suffered great losses

one in which the winner’s victory comes at such a great expense that it is scarcely better than losing.

scapegoat

in the Book of Leviticus, each year on the Day of Atonement, the priest would place the sins of the Israelites on a goat, then send the goat into the wilderness. Taking the sins of the people with it

a person who is blamed or punished for someone else’s misdeeds.

Don Quixote/ Quixotic/ Tilting at Windmills

Romance written by Miguel de Cervantes. He loses his wits from reading too many romances, sets off in his own knightly adventures, he attacks a group of windmills mistaking them to be giants.( this referred to as__________)

to be foolishly or impratically idealistic.

Shibboleth

Hebrew word. Used as a password to prevent their enemies frok infiltrating their country by Israelites

mean a slogan of catchword used by, or associated with, a particular party, group, or sect

Doublespeak

1984, George Orwell used the term “___________” to refer to a type of propaganda practiced by the state in which language is used ambiguously.

refers to the deliberate use of evasive or ambiguous language

Murphy’s Law

says ‘if anything can go wrong it will”

often cited when something goes wrong and there is a sense of inevitablity about it

Flanderize

The Simpsons, Ned Flanders is Homer Simpson’s neighbor. Flanders’ family is more traditional, hard-working, and pious. In the early seasons, Ned Flanders had more depth to his character; however, as the series progressed, the writers played more and more into his religious devotion for humor. Ned quickly became a flatter character until he became synonymous with religious zealotry.

has been made shallower by the exaggeration of one trait that comes to encompass their entire personality

Rorschach test

Projective psychological test, invented by Hermann Rorschach. Series of ink-blots, asked what people saw in them. They would analyze someone’s personality, aspirations, anxieties, or thought based on their responses

many different interpretations of it. People commonly project their own values or ideas onto that thing.

The Monkey’s paw

A mummified _________ that had the power to grant three wishes. The wishes are granted in unexpected, terrifying, and costly ways. A man asks for money and he gets money in a bereavement payment because his son was killed in a factory accident.

some wish of yours is granted in a way that is unexpected and comes with a great cost.