Knowledge Bank

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ALLEGORY

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

A character’s hamartia is their fatal flaw. It’s the part of their personality that means they are going to screw everything up. It’s normally the fatal flaw of someone already successful and powerful.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Macbeth’s hamartia is his over ambition. He has it good and is going to get more land and more titles for winning that battle for Duncan. But he wants more and has to go and kill Dunc so he can go and be king. What happens, his hamartia means that he ends up getting sliced up by Macduff.

BUT WHY USE IT?

The ancient Greeks came up with the idea of hamartia when they invented theatre. We love to see the rich and power get knocked down and no doubt they did too. It’s also a warning to us all, not to get too arrogant as it can all come crashing down.

ALLUSION

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

An allusion means a reference to another text or something else a reader would recognise such as a famous event. It is done subtly without making the reference too obvious.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Lady Macbeth's line “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't” is an allusion to the bible where the Devil sneaks into the Garden of Eden disguised as a snake to tempt Adam and Eve.

BUT WHY USE IT?

We all like to get an in joke don’t we or think we’re clever by spotting something like this. It also allows the morals and ideas of another story to represent something in the story you’re telling.

DRAMATIC IRONY

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Dramatic irony is where the audience is allowed to know something that one or all the characters don’t know.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Mr Birling says the Titanic is “unsinkable”. Birling didn't know that it was going to sink on its first voyage, but the audience does as it was written 30 years after it happened. Lady Macbeth faints with shock when Duncan’s body is discovered. We know she is faking it, but the other characters don’t

BUT WHY USE IT?

If you want to make a character look clever or, in Birling’s case an absolute clown, you can make them predict events in the future. An author can use dramatic irony to create tension as the audience waits to see if the other character’s find out the truth

FORESHADOWING

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Foreshadowing means giving clues to the audience about things that will happen later.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Sheila wonders why Gerald was so busy the previous summer, so much so that he couldn’t see her. This foreshadows us finding out about his relationship with Eva Smith that caused this.

BUT WHY USE IT?

As a reader we like to guess at what is to come and pick up on clues. Think watching those detective programmes where the whole family likes to give their opinion on who dunnit! Foreshadowing can also create tension especially if it gives us a clue something bad is going to happen.

HAMARTIA

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Macbeth’s hamartia is his over ambition. He has it good and is going to get more land and titles for winning that battle for Duncan. But he wants more and has to go and kill Duncan so he can go and be king. What happens, his hamartia means that he ends up getting sliced up by Macduff.

BUT WHY USE IT?

HUBRIS

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Hubris is often a character’s hamartia (their fatal flaw) which leads to their downfall. It is having excessive pride in yourself.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Macbeth shows hubris when he thinks he can kill the king and get away with it. Mrs Birling is hubristic when she starts thinking her family is far too superior to be responsible for the death of Eva Smith – the inspector should go find the father of the child she is pregnant with. Oops – spoiler alert – it’s her son.

BUT WHY USE IT?

We absolutely love to see arrogant people get what they deserve. Again, the ancient Greeks came up with this idea so they obviously loved to see it too. A character’s hubris resulting in their sticky end is also a warning to us all and maybe the message of the text.

JUXTAPOSITION

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

A juxtaposition is placing two opposites next to each other.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

The friendly and thoroughly all-round good geezer Fred is a juxtaposition of the miserable Scrooge. Macduff’s loyalty to Scotland is a juxtaposition to Macbeth who will murder little Scottish children to stay in power. The evil Scar makes Simba seem like even more of a legend in the Lion King.

BUT WHY USE IT?

By putting a really, really lovely character next to an terrible, terrible character makes the good one seem even better and the bad one even worse. Put a thick one next to a clever one and he’s even more dumb and the intelligent one even smarter. It exaggerates a character's personality

MOTIF

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

A motif is a repeated object, idea or phrase that has a bigger meaning in the story. It can be a physical object, a smell, a colour, or an animal. Whatever it is, it is repeated throughout the text.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Blood appears many, many times in Macbeth. Macbeth asks why Duncan had so much blood in him. Ducan's blood is described as "golden" Lady Macbeth cannot wash off the blood she imagines she has on her hands. Blood is a motif for guilt within the play.

BUT WHY USE IT?

A motif can tie together a big idea of the text all the way through. A great text should make us question things about ourselves and our society. A motif helps a writer link part of a text to pose that question.

PARADOX

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

An impossible statement. A phrase that simply cannot be true.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

The witches start Macbeth by saying “fair is foul and foul is fair”. This means that good is evil and evil is good. It doesn’t make sense and obviously can’t be true – they are two opposites. Another famous Shakespearean paradox is you need to be cruel to be kind! You what?

BUT WHY USE IT?

Paradoxes can be used to create strange mysterious atmosphere like the start of Macbeth. They can simply just mess with your mind. Often they reveal a deeper meaning that explains itself later.

PATHETIC FALLACY

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Pathetic fallacy is giving human emotions to the natural world. It isn't just using the weather to set a mood!

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Dickens gives human emotions to the weather in A Christmas Carol. The wind is shown as representing human bitterness as no wind was bitterer than he [Scrooge].

BUT WHY USE IT?

The weather and nature around us creates the atmosphere we live in. A writer can bring the natural world to life by giving it human emotions and often using it to represent the personalities or moods of characters.

PERSONIFICATION

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Personification means giving human characteristics to an inanimate object (something that isn’t living).

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

We use personification in computing all the time. The computer has a virus or the battery died. Dickens uses personification in A Christmas Carol. When Scrooge describes his childhood, the children were so happy even “the crisp air laughed to hear it!”. Air cannot laugh, human's do that.

BUT WHY USE IT?

Using personification makes the world around our characters seem alive. It might also be used to create a specific atmosphere. That clock could be watching the people making the atmosphere seem creepy or oppressive. The sun can be smiling making the atmosphere feel joyful.

SITUATIONAL IRONY

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Situational Irony is yet another form of irony. It’s simple though, it is when the opposite of what we expect to happen, happens.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

Lady Macbeth being the one that dies of her own guilt. She gives it the bigguns at the start of the play and we expect her to be the one that goes on the murderous rampage. Instead, she quietly dies offstage of her own guilt and her husband, goes the other way!

BUT WHY USE IT?

If we knew what was going to happen all the time, stories would be a bit dull. The difference between what we expect to happen and the reality of what happens can be the most memorable thing about a text.

SYMBOL

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

A symbol is something within a text that has a bigger meaning. It stands for something deeper. A symbol can be a motif if it is repeated.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

The raven in Macbeth that croaks is a symbol for death. It is black which often symbolises death and croaks as Duncan enters the castle before he is murdered. The Ghost Of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol is a symbol of the Christmas Spirit and Christian Spirit.

BUT WHY USE IT?

A symbol is a great way to get deeper more profound meanings into a text without a character having to give a long speech explaining it. They’re also great for us English teachers to bang on about in lessons – and see symbols where the author probably didn’t mean anything.

ZOOMORPHISM

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Zoomorphism is giving people or objects the characteristics of an animal.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

If we want to make a character seem fearsome, they might ‘growl’. The wind might ‘howl’ in a story to add a frightening atmosphere. It’s subtle, but Shakespeare uses it to make Lady Macbeth seem like a snake. “Hi thee hither” even makes her sound like a snake when she’s speaking.

BUT WHY USE IT?

Animals often have characteristics that we easily recognise as a reader – the author can then quickly give us an impression of a character using zoomorphism. Wild animals can also be powerful and unpredictable, this is often used to make a character seem dangerous.