Language and
Meaning Literature explores the rich, varied, and complicated world of human experience. Because powerful emotions often cannot be expressed definitively, they are usually expressed evocatively. Emotional overtones to words may come into play. Also, the context of a word can change or heighten its meaning.
The language of poetry involves a process of compression and expansion. Such language may become a puzzle. Understanding the specialized uses of language may help in unraveling this puzzle. The most common uses are imagery, figurative comparisons, symbol, allegory, and irony.
Imagery involves the use of words that are literal, concrete representations of sensory phenomena. Images may be used to set a scene and/or to give meaning to a work. When we read of a "ripe, juicy apple," a mental impression or image is created.
Figurative comparisons occur when an object is compared to something markedly different, except for one unsuspected or unusual similarity.
Simile: comparison explicitly stated, and generally uses the word like or as, or a comparative phrase such as bigger than or redder than.
Example:
My love is like a red, red rose.
Metaphor: comparison implicitly stated; often uses linking verbs ("is," "are," etc.) to say that two objects are alike.
Example:
My bother Jim is a pig.
Appositives
Example:
Jim, the pig, makes life miserable.
Either of the two topics may be omitted altogether and merely understood from the context.
Example:
That pig makes life miserable.
Personification: treats an animal, an inanimate object, or an idea as if it were a person capable of carrying out human behavior.
Example:
The table groaned under the weight.
The wind laughed through the trees.
Problems with figurative comparisons: You may overlook or misinterpret figurative comparisons that either provide important supplementary information about character, conflict, or setting, or relate significantly to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Metonymy: figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. For example, we commonly speak of the king as "the crown," an object closely associated with kingship thus being made to stand for "king." So, too, in the book of Genesis we read, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," where "sweat" represents that with which it is closely associated, "hard labor."
Synecdoche: mentioning a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part. To be clear, a good synecdoche must be based on an important part (e.g., motor or wheels for an automobile; foot for infantry; hands for laborers).
A symbol is an image which stands not only for its physical self, but also for an abstract concept—a meaning which is both larger and deeper than itself.
As one critic notes, "Part of the difficulty (and part of the fascination) of dealing with symbols is that usually no one translation can be regarded as final or absolute."
An allegory is found when people, places, and events in a narrative each represent a specific abstract concept and a symbolic equation can be made between them.
Irony depends on differences—a contrast between what is said and what is meant (verbal irony); between what seems to be and what is (situational irony); and between what characters believe and what is true (dramatic irony).
Tone is related to how a literary work makes the reader feel; the mood or atmosphere of a work.
© Scott Foll 2000. All rights reserved.