Literary Devices

  • Alliteration

    • The repetition of the same initial letter in successive words

  • Consonance

    • The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text

  • Assonance

    • The repetition of vowel sounds in a chunk of text

  • Onomatopoeia

    • Sounds

  • Repetition

    • Using the same exact word or words

  • Rhyme

    • Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words

  • Simile

    • Comparing something using “like” or “as”

  • Metaphor

    • Comparing something to something else

  • Personification

    • Giving human characteristics to a non-living thing

  • Hyperbole

    • Exaggeration

  • Allusion

    • Reference to a well-known thing in literature

  • Syntax

    • The arrangement of words and phrases

  • Oxymoron

    • Two opposite words

  • Irony

    • Dramatic

      • When the audience knows something that the characters do not know

    • Verbal

      • Someone says something, but they mean the opposite

    • Situational

      • The outcome of a situation is different than what is expected

  • Imagery

    • Visually descriptive

  • Foreshadowing

    • A warning or indication of a future event

  • Comic relief

    • Introducing light entertainment between tragic scenes

  • Character foil

    • A character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight the qualities of the other character.

  • Aside

    • A remark or passage in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.

  • Soliloquy

    • An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.

  • Pun

    • A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

  • Paradox

    • A self-contradictory statement