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SIMILE:

A Comparison two different things using like or as. "...and makes each petty artery in this body as hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve
(Hamlet, Act I Scene VI)

be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery.
(Hamlet, Act III Scene I)

METAPHOR
Stating one entity is another for the purpose of comparing them in quality.

Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him
(Marcellus, Act I Scene I).

Marcellus is speaking as though "belief" had hands. That's a metaphor. It isn't simile, because he isn't saying "belief" is like a person, or like a lion or some animal. He's just saying "belief" can grab. That puts it in the more general category of metaphor.

PERSONIFICATION
Attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural
phenomena.

Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day? (Marcellus, Act I Scene I)
He's talking as though "day" and "night" were people who were at work. He's describing non-human things as though they were persons, doing what a person does, working as laborers.

"Fate cries out" and "Nature cannot choose his origin" (Hamlet, Act I Scene IV)

IDIOM
The different sort of expressions that people use, in different places and times. Marry, well bethought! (Polonius, Act I scene III)
"Marry" is idiom. It's a reference to the Virgin Mary, and people in those days used it the way we'd use "my goodness" or "golly."

ALLITERATION
A series of words that begin with the

same letter or sound alike.


With witchcraft of his wit (Ghost, Act I Scene V)
The repetition of the "w" make it alliterative.

That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure
(Polonius, Act II Scene II)

SIBILANCE
(CAN ALSO BE AN APOSTROPHE)

The presence of strongly emphasized s, sh, ch, z, j sounds in speech.


With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts -- O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power (Ghost, Act I Scene V)

AUXESIS
Is a form of hyperbole that intentionally overstates something or implies that it is greater in significance or size than it really is.

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
(Hamlet, Act I Scene II)

OXYMORON Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other.
Have

we, as 'twere with a defeated joy

(Claudius, Act I scene II)

PARADOX
Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth.

With one auspicious and one dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole,- (Claudius, Act I Scene II)

PARENTHESIS
Parenthesis is an explanatory word(s) that interrupts the grammatical flow of a sentence through brackets, commas or dashes. I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing As I perceiv it, I must tell you that, Before my daughter told mewhat might you, Or my dear majesty your queen here, think
(Act II Scene II)

MACROLOGIA
Using more words than are necessary in an attempt to appear eloquent.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time; Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief: your noble son is mad.
(Polonius, Act II Scene II)

EPISTROPHE
The repetition of a word or words at the end of two or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences. Compare anaphora

Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? Woo't drink up eisel?
(Hamlet, Act II scene II)

HENDIADYS
Is from the Greek phrase one by means of two. Is a figure of speech in which a complex idea is expressed by two words connected by a conjunction.

My hour is almost come. When I to sulf'rous and tormenting flames Must render up myself
(Ghost, Act I Scene V)

EPIZEUXIS Is the repetition of words in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis.


Mother, mother, mother! (Hamlet, Act III Scene IV)
"Words, words, words.
(Hamlet, Act II Scene II)

ALLEGORY
The expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence
Rosencrantz' "massy wheel" speech: The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from noyance; but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel, Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. (Act III Scene III)

SYNECDOCHE
In which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part.

Hamlet, (Act I Scene V) "There were six guns out on the moor" (guns stands for shooters).

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. ('royal bed' stands for Gertrude & Claudius)

RHETORICAL QUESTION
Is one that requires no answer because the answer is obvious and doesn't need to be stated . The speaker (of the rhetorical question) is not looking for an answer but is making some kind of a point, as in an argument.
Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes? You cannot call it love; for at your age The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have
(Hamlet Act III Scene IV)

PARALLELISM
The repetition of key syntactical elements in order to create balance and rhythm.

"Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good; if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,-mark you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life." (Gravedigger, Act V Scene I)

ANTITHESIS
Contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question"


(opposite ideas of being or not being, living or dying)

SOLILOQUY
The act of speaking alone or to oneself, especially as a theatrical device.
ex: Hamlet's entire "To be or not to be" speech is a soliloquy: To be, or not to be--that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep-To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

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