Personification in literature

Personification is a literary device in which a writer gives a non-human subject human traits and characteristics. Personification is not meant to be interpreted literally. For example, a writer may use the sentence “The sun smiled down on us” to create an image of warmth or happiness, not to indicate that the sun actually smiled. Authors who often used personification in their work include William Shakespeare, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Ernest Hemingway. Writers use personification in their work for a variety of reasons, such as to enhance their descriptions and energize their writing. Personification can add depth and emotion to literature.

Personification differs from anthropomorphism, as the latter involves a non-human subject behaving like a human being. The famous character Mickey Mouse, who dresses like a person, walks upright, and speaks, is an example of anthropomorphism.

Background

Personification is figurative language that is often used in short stories, novels, and poems. Authors of literature have used personification for millennia. Personification is used in theEpic of Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving work of literature. The poem, which is from ancient Mesopotamia, describes Gilgamesh’s fight with Humbaba, a personification of an erupting volcano.

Writers use personification because they want their readers to better understand their message. Giving human traits to objects or ideas helps readers relate to them. Because of the personification, readers might view the object or idea in a new way.

Personification is most often used to personify inanimate objects by using verbs reflecting human actions. Writers may give feelings, thoughts, and motives to inanimate objects. They might say, “bolts of lightning danced across the dark sky,” or “the dilapidated house frowned at those who passed it by.” The famous poet William Wordsworth personifies daffodils in his poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807):

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Authors of literature may personify an abstract quality or idea, such as warmth or sadness. Consider this stanza from Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751) in which Gray personifies Fortune, Fame, Science, and Melancholy:

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth

A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.

Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth,

And Melancholy mark’d him for her own.

Authors of literature occasionally personify animals. When they do this, they give an animal human traits. This is not the same as anthropomorphism, a literary technique in which an author creates an animal that behaves like a human being. However, in some cases, it is difficult to distinguish between the two. This is an example of personification: “The little cat opened her eyes wide and grinned when she saw the mouse in the house.”

Overview

Many authors of literature use personification in their novels, short stories, and poems. However, personification, as well as other types of figurative language, is most often used in poetry. This is largely because using personification helps them better create an image or emotion in only a few lines of text. Personification in poems also helps readers understand the concept being conveyed.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson often used personification to craft her famous poems, including this excerpt from “Apparently with no surprise.” In this poem, Dickinson personifies a flower, frost, and the sun.

Apparently with no surprise

To any happy Flower

The Frost beheads it at it’s play –

In accidental power –

The blonde Assassin passes on –

The Sun proceeds unmoved

In this excerpt from her poem “I could not stop for death,” published in 1890, Dickinson personifies death and immortality:

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare uses personification throughout his play Romeo and Juliet (1597). In this excerpt, Friar Lawence personifies the morning:

FRIAR LAWRENCE: The grey-ey’d morn smiles on the frowning night

Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light.

Shakespeare personifies the moon in this except from this play A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1600):

Titania to Oberon (Act 11, scene ii)”

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes away all the air

Robert Frost

The poet Robert Frost is known for his imagery. In his poem “Mowing” (1915), the narrator uses a scythe to cut tall grass, which will be made into hay. He personifies the scythe in this excerpt from the poem:

There was never a sound beside the wood but one,

And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.

What was it it whispered? I know not well myself;

Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,

Something perhaps, about the lack of sound—

William Blake

In his poem “The Sick Rose” (1794), William Blake personifies a rose by giving it an illness, like a person. Blake speaks directly to the rose, rather than describing it. By doing this, he implies that the rose can comprehend language and think like a person.

O Rose thou art sick.

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night

In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby (1925) is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald featuring the character Jay Gatsby, who fell in love with Daisy Buchanan five years ago. Materialistic Daisy did not wait for Gatsby while he served in World War I and instead married a rich man named Tom Buchanan. However, Gatsby has also become wealthy and hopes to win back Daisy. The story is told from the point of view of Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s cousin. Fitzgerald uses many literary devices in the novel, including personification. He personifies the rooms in Gatsby’s house:

“At the gray tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor.”

Fitzgerald also personifies New York City, as Nick sees it:

“The practical thing was the find rooms in the city, but it was a warm season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees.”

Nick describes an advertisement for an eye doctor on a billboard that features two enormous eyes. The eyes are a symbol of an all-knowing figure looking over the valley. Fitzgerald personifies the eyes throughout the novel, as in these examples:

“His eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.”

“Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward.”

Bibliography

“How to Use Personification in Your Writing.” Relay Publishing,recruitment.relaypub.com/blog/personification-examples/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

Kramer, Lindsay. “A Guide to Personification with 33 Examples.”Grammarly,10 Apr. 2023, www.grammarly.com/blog/personification/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

Luke, Ali. “21 Personification Examples (+ Definition & Related Terms).” Smart Blogger, 6 Apr. 2023, smartblogger.com/personification-examples/ Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

Luu, Chi. “Personification Is Your Friend: The Language of Inanimate Objects.” JSTOR Daily, 23 Mar. 2016, daily.jstor.org/personification-is-your-friend-the-amazing-life-of-letters/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

Rankin, Alan. “What Is the Function of Personification in Literature?” Language.Humanities.org, 9 Oct. 2023, www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-the-function-of-personification-in-literature.htm. Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

“What Is Personification?”Woodland Publishing, www.woodheadpublishing.com/literary-devices/personification. Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.