Figurative language
Figurative language is a rhetorical tool that writers use to enhance their storytelling by allowing readers to visualize concepts and emotions beyond literal interpretations. It is particularly prevalent in creative works, such as poetry and fiction. This type of language employs inventive word choices and expressions to evoke imagery, stimulate the imagination, and elicit emotional responses. Common forms of figurative language include similes and metaphors, which draw comparisons between seemingly unrelated ideas, as well as hyperbole, which uses exaggeration for emphasis or humor.
Personification attributes human qualities to non-human entities, enriching descriptions and enhancing reader engagement. Additionally, idioms convey meanings that often diverge from their literal interpretations, demonstrating cultural nuances in language. Techniques like metonymy and irony further deepen the text’s meaning by associating concepts or creating contrasts between appearance and reality. Overall, figurative language serves to clarify ideas while making writing more memorable and impactful, inviting readers to explore deeper meanings and emotions within the text.
Figurative language
Figurative language is a rhetorical device that authors use to help readers imaginatively visualize what is happening in a piece of writing. Figurative language is especially useful in creative fiction like poetry. Figurative language uses words and phrases in inventive ways to create meanings that differ from the literal meanings of the words.
Overview
Figurative language uses words in unusual ways to create an image in the reader's mind, appeal to the imagination, and/or evoke a particular emotional reaction. Surprising and original uses of figurative language are both memorable and effective in clarifying ideas and retaining reader interest. Many types of figurative language are used in English writing, including similes, metaphors, idioms, hyperbole, personification, irony, and more.
Comparisons
A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike objects or ideas using the words like or as. For example, to say that a character moves “as slow as molasses” or that a person “cries like a baby” involves the use of similes. Truly imaginative writers use creative similes, such as these famous similes from Charles Dickens: “curled up like hot paper” and “eccentric as comets.”
Metaphors also compare unlike things, but they do not use the words like or as. A metaphor replaces one idea or object with another for the purpose of comparing the two, using sensory images to touch the reader's imagination. For instance, referring to a character in a family as “the black sheep” shows that the character is different from everyone else. A famous extended metaphor is Shakespeare's “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players . . .” This metaphor compares life to a play.
A concept related to similes and metaphors is the allegory, in which an entire narrative is written to represent a particular idea. In Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death,” for example, the protagonist's attempt to escape the plague is meant to represent the general terror of death that most people feel.
Hyperbole
Another type of figurative language is hyperbole. This is a deliberate exaggeration used to emphasize a point, often humorously. Mark Twain was famous for his use of hyperbole to create humor. For example, in one description of fear, Twain wrote, “I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.” When paired with an ordinary statement, hyperbole can also overstate a point to add contrast. For example, one character might say, “My entire world had crumbled to bits while John sat there eating his breakfast.” Hyperbole is so frequently used in informal speech that it may go unnoticed, as when a person claims to be “hungry enough to eat a horse” or that he is “working 24/7.” Such statements are hyperbole because they are not meant to be taken literally. They are essentially shortcuts to making a point.
Personification
Personification involves applying human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects for the purpose of creating an image. When writers tell of “plants dancing in the breeze” or “squirrels arguing outside the window,” they are using personification to give human qualities to these organisms. Both examples increase the reader's understanding of what the writer wants to convey. In the former, the reader can see the plants swaying wildly in the wind while in the latter, the reader can hear the squirrels chattering on a tree branch. Personification is also a way to concisely share information with the reader, as when Robert Frost's buzz saw "snarled and rattled," foretelling a later tragedy when it "leaped out at the boy's hand."
A related but unusual literary device is the apostrophe. This is not a punctuation mark but is instead a figure of speech in which an object or idea is addressed as though it were present and could hear. The term also applies when speaking to a person, living or dead, who is not present. John Donne's phrase “Oh, Death, be not proud,” and Lord Byron's famous line “Roll on thou dark and deep blue ocean,” are both examples of apostrophe. These words suggest that both death and the ocean have human attributes and can hear.
Other Figurative Language
The use of metonymy involves making a reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes. Metonymy helps to add mood and emotion to writing. For example, “the pen is mightier than the sword” is a famous phrase in which the pen is meant to represent the thoughts of the writer while the sword is meant to represent a physical action that can cause bodily harm. Metonymy is used to maintain an association between a word or phrase and the image it suggests. For example, a writer might substitute “the crown” for royalty or “sweat” to suggest hard labor. These words evoke images while maintaining a strong association with their meaning.
Idioms are an unusual use of figurative language in that, unlike other expressions, their meanings often have no relationship to the literal meaning of the words. Each culture has its own set of idioms, which must be learned in the same way words are learned—by remembering the phrase and its meaning. A straightforward example of an English idiom is “kicked the bucket.” This expression means that someone or something has died, but a person who is unfamiliar with English might assume it means to literally use a foot to knock over a pail. “My old printer kicked the bucket” makes no sense if read literally, and there are no context clues to inform the reader. Other common idioms include “a chip on your shoulder,” “taking her under your wing,” “getting into a pickle,” and “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Verbal irony is a literary technique in which words and their meaning conflict. Irony can be a particularly effective device in narratives and plays. An ironic statement's meaning may be the direct opposite of what is said, as when a character sarcastically praises another's clothes or dancing ability while meaning the exact opposite.
Dramatic irony is a device in which the audience knows something that the characters do not. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, the audience knows that Juliet has taken a sleeping potion and is sound asleep, but Romeo does not know about the sleeping potion and believes she is dead. This causes him to respond inappropriately, with a tragic ending.
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