1. NOTES FOR UNIT TEST: LITERARY DEVICES AND EXAMPLES
MACBETH
NOTES FOR UNIT TEST:
LITERARY DEVICES AND EXAMPLES

2. ALLITERATION The repetition of initial consonant sounds
Ex. Act I: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair; / Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
Ex. Act III: “But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in / To saucy doubts and fears.”
Ex. Act IV: “Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”

3. ALLUSION
Reference to something the author expects readers to know (history, science, literature, religion, geography, etc.)
Ex. Act I--a battle scene is called “another Golgotha” (the place where Christ was crucified)
Ex. Act II: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” (Roman god of the sea)
Ex. Act III: “There is none but [Banquo] / Whose being I do fear, and under him / My genius is rebuked, as it is said / Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.”

4. ASIDE
a remark by a character in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters.
Ex. Act II: Malcolm: “Why do we hold our tongues?” Donalbain: “What should be spoken here, where our fate…may rush and seize us?”

5. ASSONANCE The repetition of vowel sounds
Ex. Act I: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair;
Ex. Act IV: “Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”

6. CLIMAX
The most exciting and/or intense point of the story; in a Shakespeare play, the point of no return
Ex. Act II: Macbeth kills Duncan.

7. COUPLETS (RHYMED)
2 consecutive rhyming lines that may summarize a speech or emphasize an important idea
Ex. Act I: “Away, and mock the time with fairest show / False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
Ex. Act II: “Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.”

8. DRAMATIC IRONY
occurs when the audience and some characters know something that other characters in a narrative do not
Ex. Act I: The witches, the king, and some of his men know that Macbeth is now thane of Cawdor before he finds out himself.
Ex. Act III: When Macbeth tells his guests that he wishes Banquo could be at the feast, he knows that Banquo is already dead.

9. FOIL
Character who stands in sharp contrast to another character in order to highlight that character’s traits
Ex. Act I: Duncan’s mild and gracious manner vs. Macbeth’s deadly ambition
Ex. Act II: Banquo’s willingness to leave his fate to heaven vs. Macbeth’s determination to fulfill some prophecies at all costs

10. FORESHADOWING
Clues or hints of what will happen in the future of a story
Ex. Act I: The witches’ predictions
Ex. Act II: The owl killing the falcon
Ex. Act IV: The ghosts’ prophecies

11. HYPERBOLE
The use of exaggeration in order to emphasize an important point
Ex. Act II: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine / Making the green one red.”
Ex. Act IV: “Not in the legions / Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned / In evils to top Macbeth.”
Ex. Act V: “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

12. IMAGERY
The use of one or more of the 5 senses to help the reader imagine an aspect of the story
Ex. Act I: [Macbeth] unseamed [Macdonwald] from the nave to th' chops, / And fixed his head upon our battlements.
Ex. Act II: “My hands are of your color, but I shame / “To wear a heart so white.”
Ex. Act II: “Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood… there, the murderers, / Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers / …breeched with gore.”

13. IRONY The opposite of what is expected
Ex. Act IV: Lady Macduff: “I have done no harm. But I remember now / I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime / Accounted dangerous folly.”

14. METAPHOR
Implied comparison of 2 unlike things to emphasize their similar traits
Ex. Act I: “Yet I do fear thy nature; / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way
Ex. Act III: ”O proper stuff! / This is the very painting of your fear. / This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / Led you to Duncan.”
Ex. Act V: Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.”

15. Soliloquy
Extended uninterrupted speech given by one person to others present
Ex. Act II: “Is this a dagger that I see before me…”
Ex. Act III: “Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too…”
Ex. Act IV: “I conjure you by that which you profess—Howe'er you come to know it—answer me…”
Ex. ActV: “She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…”

16. ONOMATOPOEIA Words whose sound suggest their meaning
Ex. Act II: “Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there?”
Ex. Act IV: “Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.” Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.”

17. PARADOX
A contradictory statement that contains a (sometimes hidden) truth.
Ex. Act I: The witches’ prophecies to Banquo: “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Not so happy, yet much happier…”
Ex. Act II: Macbeth’s reaction to killing Duncan: “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.”
Ex. Act IV: Lady Macduff about her son: “Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.”

18. PERSONIFICATION Attributing human traits to objects
Ex. Act I: “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me / Without my stir.”
Ex. Act I: “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
Ex. Act II: “Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame / That darkness does the face of Earth entomb / When living light should kiss it?”
Ex. Act III: “And you all know, security / Is mortals' chiefest enemy.”
Ex. Act IV: “Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak / Whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break.”

19. SIMILE
Direct comparison of 2 unlike things using like or as or than to show their similar traits
Ex. Act III: Macbeth’s reaction to the murderers’ failure to kill Fleance: “I had else been perfect, / Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, / As broad and general as the…air.”
Ex. Act V: “Now does [Macbeth] feel his title / Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief.”

20. SYMBOL Object that represents both itself and another concept.
Ex. Blood—represents the guilty consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth