Literary Devices & Figures of Speech 101 (+ PDF)

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1. FOIL: A minor character in a work of art used to expose and emphasize the attributes of a main character
2. STAGE: The platform on which actors perform a play
3. THEATRE: A building in which dramatic performance are staged.
4. COSTUME: The attire or clothing worn by actors
5. CHARACTERIZATION: The techniques an author uses to build a character into what he wants him/her to be. These techniques include:
6. what the character says
7. What the character does
8. What other characters say about him
9. Authorial comments (what the author says about him)
10. FORM: The shape or appearance of a poem defined by the sound and rhythm of the words, line lights, stanza, structure as well as the use of such poetic devices as rhyme, imagery, metaphor etc.
11. EPIC HERO: A strong, adventurous, legendary figure.
12. SCANSION: The process of counting the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem to determine its rhythm.
13. A RELIABLE NARRATOR: A narrator (persona), usually a third person narrator, who is detached and objective.
14. PARALLELISM: The repetition of grammatical structures or patterns especially phrases and clauses in a literary work. (Pattern repetition)

Example: i. No past, no present, no future.

1. CONCEIT: A comparison, in a metaphor, of things which seem extremely unlike but which can be developed into striking parallels. It is common in metaphysical poetry.
2. FANTASY: An idea, which is very much unreal and unlikely to materialize
3. CLICHÉ: An expression or idea which through repeated use has become commonplace and tiresome.

Example: i. Its importance cannot be overemphasized

ii. He who fails to plan, plans to fail

1. JARGON: An expression, which is unnecessarily specialized to a group or people and therefore unavailable to outsiders. When it is a short-lived fashionable expression within a select group it is known as ARGOT
2. CANT: The mindless use of a jargon
3. TENOR AND VEHICLE: The two terms used respectively to distinguish the primary object of attention (TENOR) from the thing being used to clary that object. (VEHICLE)

Example: She rose like a star

Tenor = she

Vehicle = star

1. PATHETIC FALLACY: ascribing to nature, emotions which reflect human attributes. It is an extreme form of personification.

Example: The trees cried as the rain fell on them.

1. ALLEGORY: consistent and systematic description of another order of things beyond the obvious one. Example: John Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress.
2. RHYTHM: It is the musical flow of poetic lines produced among other things, by the alternation of long and short words, stressed and unstressed syllables, rhyme etc.
3. METRE: It is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.
4. RHETORICAL QUESTION: It is a statement made more effective by being put in the form of question. No answer is given or expected; it is understood from the context. e.g.
5. Hath not a few eyes?
6. Who cares for Alexander the Great who chose not to bow down to his tutor Aristotle?
7. TONE: The manner in which a writer puts across his feelings in his work. The tone of a writer shows his mood and attitude.
8. MOOD: The feeling or emotion of a writer. The mood of a writer can be seen in the words he uses since a writer’s mood reflects his tone.
9. STYLE: It is the writer’s manner of writing. His deliberate method of expression and construction: that is one in which we are aware of the process of selection and arrangement intended to produce a special effect 
10. A STATED THEME: It is one that the author expresses directly in the work
11. AN IMPLIED THEME: It is one that is not stated directly in the work but is suggested by the work’s other elements.
12. ATMOSPHERE: It is the general feeling that a passage or poem creates. it could be that of sadness, dullness, gaity, frenzy, tension, calmness etc. atmosphere and mood are interrelated.

Example: An atmosphere of frenzy or excitement:

Chume: Forgive us all

Congregation: Amen

Chume: Forgive us all

(And the, punctuated regularly with Amens)

Yes Father, make you forgive us all. Make you save us from palaver.

Save us from trouble at home. Tell our wives not to give us trouble …..

(The penitent has become placid. She is stretched out flat on the ground)

… Give us money to satisfy our daily necessities. Make you no forget those of

us who dey struggle daily.  Those who be clerk today, make them chief clerk  tomorrow. Those who are messengers today, make them senior service tomorrow …….

(The Amens grew more and more ecstatic)

Those who are petty trader today, make them big contractor tomorrow. Those who dey sweep street today, give them their own big office tomorrow. It we de walka today, give us our own bicycle tomorrow. I say those who dey walka today, give them their own bicycle tomorrow. Those who have bicycle today, they will ride their own car tomorrow.

(The enthusiasm of the response becomes, at this point quite overpowering) I say those who day push bicycle; give them big car big car tomorrow. Give them big car tomorrow. Give them big car tomorrow, give them big car tomorrow.

1. SUBJECT MATTER: It is the content of a piece of writing. It deals with all what the writer has described or narrated in a literary work. It is from the subject matter that the theme is derived.
2. STRUCTURE: The way the work has been built. It shows how the various elements or components are combined together to form a particular piece of work. In poetry it is the stanzas into which the poem is divided as well as the number of lines that each stanza consists of.
3. MORAL: The lesson that the writer wants to share with the reader. It is that which a story, event or experience teaches. Morals were very much used in the olden days where public morality was expected to be the main objective of literature and they were the main ingredients of fables and tales like Aesop’s Tales, Ananse Stories etc.
4. PARABLE: A short narrative, illustrating some moral truth. It is briefer than Allegory.
5. EPIGRAM: It is a brief and pointed expression often implying an apparent contradiction of meaning which at once calls our attention. e.g.
6. Clever men are good but they are not the best.
7. To look is much less easy than to overlook.
8. ODE: It is any poetic composition written in honour of a person or object to extol a special idea. It is usually in irregular metre and expressing noble feelings.

Example: Ode To A Nightingale

1. BALLAD: It is a narrative poem which is usually sung, written in short stanzas and usually centered on love, battle, death etc. The subjects of ballad are always communal and impersonal in nature, and they include legends, tribal wars, group catastrophes, the supernatural, and hero – stories treated to show a collective or communal concern

TRAGI-COMEDY: It is a kind of play with both sad and happy events. It is a blend of tragedy and comedy usually ending with mixed feelings. e.g. Shakespeare’s, Much Ado about Nothing.

NON – FICTION: Any story or vent, which is true and has actually occurred and written by some one. Examples are biographies, autobiographies and historical accounts.

DRAMATIC IRONY: A situation in a play in which the audience and the writer know something that the character doesn’t know or is unaware of. It is also a situation where a character says something, which later comes true in a way the speaker had not expected or envisaged at the time he made the statement.

Example: In The Gods Are Not To Blame. Odewale is unaware that he has married his own mother but the reader or audience is aware

1. RIDDLE: It is a short statement that does not identify its subject but provides enough for the reader to recognize the subject

Example: Riddle: Have I invited you to follow me?

Solution: The human shadow.

1. FOLKTALE: A popular story handed down orally from past generations. It deals with traditional beliefs, customs, taboos, etc. It is normally used to entertain or educate.
2. MELODRAMA: A type of play, which is full of exaggeration and incredible actions. There are a lot of exciting and tragic, incidents. The emotions of characters are exaggerated and usually with a happy ending.
3. STAGE DIRECTION: The printed direction in a play to actors about their position movements etc. It is normally written in italics or put in brackets and not party of the dialogue. Stage directions have greater significance for actors than for readers as they show them how to act in a play. It is also referred to as SECONDARY TEXT
4. DIALOGUE: A piece of writing in the form of conversation or talk. Plays are written in dialogue. It is a direct conversation between two people.
5. REPETITION: A device in which a particular word, phrase, question or statement is made to reoccur in a piece of writing for the sake of emphasis e.g.

Example:  Work, -Work – Work,

Till the brain begins to swim

work – work – work

1. THE CHORUS: A band of singers and dancers whose words and actions are commentary on the events of the play.
2. NEMESIS: A situation in which a character is punished for his bad deeds or misdeeds. Thus the person’s misfortune (nemesis) comes as a fitting reward for his misdeeds and as a result we are not made to sympathize with them.
3. DICTION: A writer’s choice and use of words or his style or manner of writing.
4. CLIMAX: The highest point in the plot of a story where the audience or reader gets their curiosity satisfied as something they have been expecting happens.
5. OMNISCIENT NARRATION: The writer narrates his story in such a way that he takes the position of an all-knowing being. The writer is able to tell what goes on even in the mind of his characters, their privacy, their ambition, their secret plans and what they say to themselves. He is also called third person narrator
6. INTERLUDE: It is an exposition done by a writer in the middle of the story. It is not a necessary part of the story. It is usually the interval between two events or interval between acts of a play.
7. CARICATURE: It is meant to ridicule or make fun of the person by exaggerating that person’s peculiar characteristics. It has the effect of making readers laugh at the person being so ridiculed.
8. PROLOGUE: An exposition or explanation done by a writer at the beginning of a story, play or poem. It may also be called PERLUDE
9. DENOUEMENT: A device or method through which problems or complications which occur in the plot are unraveled or solved before the play ends. It is the final stage where things are made clear in the development of the plot of TRAGEDY,  a story, play, etc. It is also called RESOLUTION.
10. DRAMATIS PERSONAE: The list of characters in a play. It is also known as CAST
11. EXPOSITION: The explanation that a writer does usually at the beginning of his play or story.
12. SYMBOLISM: The representation of ideas by the use of symbols in prose, drama or poetry. A symbol may be created from anything that can be made to stand for some aspects of life. Some writers use light to represent bliss and darkness for gloom, white for peace or safety and red for danger.
13. ANACHRONISM: A mistake in dating something. It is a device through which a writer speaks of something which had not been invented or created at the time the story took place. In the sentence “Julius Caesar looked at his wrist-watch and telephone receiver were not invented at the time of Julius Caesar.
14. PLAGIARISM: A sort of parody in which a writer copies another person’s work and passes it off as his own. It is the illegal copying of a work belonging to others.
15. COPYRIGHT: The legal right to the exclusive mistakenly for another that resembles it, causing amusement e.g. “come girls, this gentleman will exhort (for escort) us”. It usually involves long, complex or difficult words.
16. EUPHUISM: It refers to elaborately artificial style of writing. This device which must not be confused with euphemism, consists of the use of fetched, or over-refined, fantastic language.
17. MYTH: It is a story, handed down from olden times, especially concepts or beliefs about the early history of a, race, explanation of natural events such as the seasons.
18. LEGEND: It is an old story handed down from the past especially one of doubtful truth, e.g. the legends of King Arthur, the legends of Okomfo Anokye.
19. BURLESQUE: It is a poem which imitates a person’s behavior or ideas for the purpose of making it amusing.
20. IDYLL: It is a poem which describes life in the countryside (villages). William Wordsworth’s The Solitary Reaper is an example of an Idyll.
21. DOGGEREL: It is a short and simple poem written in verse containing some amount of humour. It has no distinct form.
22. LIMERICK: It is a type of poem which has not serious theme and is written in a single stanza of five lines.
23. EULOGY: It is any piece of writing which praises a person, an idea, a group, a country etc. Any literary work which is concerned with giving praise is therefore eulogistic.
24. PATHOS: It is the quality in literary work, which arouses a feeling of pity, sympathy or tenderness in the reader or audience when a character is treated unjustly.
25. ELLIPSIS: It is a literary device used to avoid the repetition of information that is easily understood in the context.
26. JESTER OR CLOWN: A person who causes amusement in a play.
27. REFRAIN: A line or lines of a poem or song, repeated especially at the end of each stanza or verse.
28. ANECDOTE: It is a short usually amusing story about some real person or event. It is merely told to evoke laughter
29. CUE: It is the last words of an actor’s speech, which show when somebody else is to come or say something.
30. MIME: It involves the use of only facial expressions and gesture in dramatic performance without uttering a word.
31. Lyric: It is a poem, which deals with the personal thoughts and feelings of the poet. It is usually written on the theme of love, death etc. It is sung to accompaniment of musical instruments.
32. IMAGERY: It is a device through which the reader is made to form a picture in his mind of some other things before he can understand what the writer wants to say.
33. EPITOME: It is  short summary of a book, speech etc. It is also called Gist
34. STAGE: It refers to the raised platform or structure of boards in a theatre where actors perform.
35. PSEUDONYM: It is a name taken by an author instead of his real name. George Orwell is the pseudonym of Eric Blair: the author of Animal Farm.
36. COMIC RELIEF: It is a situation where a dramatist presents an incident or scene, which causes laughter from the audience or reader. The purpose of comic relief is to relieve tension.
37. COUP DE THEATRE: It is an unexpected development or event in a play that takes the reader or audience by surprise because they had not been expecting it.
38. GENRE: This is a literary term which simply means ‘type’ or ‘kind’

Example: “poetry, drama and prose are genres of literature”.

1. FORESHADOW: It is a sign or warning of something to come or happen
2. MIMICKRY: It is the act of imitating someone, especially in a play.
3. HOMONYMS; They are words which are identical in form, spelt the same but have different meanings. Example: bow [gesture]; bow [weapon]
4. APHORISM: Is a short, wise saying e.g.
5. The devil you know is better than the angle you don’t know.
6. The evil that men do lies after them.
7. PROVERB: A popular short saying with words of advice or warning e.g. Once bitten twice shy.
8. MAXIM: Is a widely accepted rule of conduct or general truth briefly expressed e.g. ‘waste not, want not’
9. CONNOTATION: The emotional association surrounding a word or phrase, as opposed to its strict literal meaning.
10. DENOTATION: The strict literal meaning  of a word

Final Thoughts

Congratulations on getting this far. Remember that the process of learning to understand literary devices and figures of speech demands effort and patience from every student. You cannot normally get it all in one go.

So be kind to yourself if you’re still struggling to grasp some of the concepts. Trust me. if you remain consistent with your studies, you will gain enough understanding to enable you to perform well in the next Literature or English test ahead of you.

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