Previous
Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Volume 1, Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Caleb and Emily:
Caleb and Emily are foils, each exemplifying the tragedy and abuse that can befall a young, under-resourced person under the authority of a tyrant. In Volume 1, Chapter 9, Godwin uses an allusion to lay the groundwork for a comparison between the two of them:
Mr Tyrrel proceeded through the means of [Emily's] jailor, (for the experience he had already had of personal discussion did not incline him to repeat his visits) to play upon the fears of his prisoner. This woman, sometimes under pretence of friendship, and sometimes with open malice, informed Emily from time to time of the preparations that were making for consummating her fate.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Sleep No More:
In Volume 2, Chapter 6, Caleb finally gets Falkland to privately confess that he murdered Tyrell and framed the Hawkinses. Afterwards, an allusion helps Caleb express his realization that he has turned himself into a metaphorical prisoner in Falkland's house:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The ease and light-heartedness of my youth were for ever gone. The voice of an irresistible necessity had commanded me to ‘sleep no more.’ I was tormented with a conscious secret of which I must never disburthen myself; and this consciousness was at my age a source of perpetual melancholy. I had made myself a prisoner, in the most intolerable sense of that term, for years, perhaps for the rest of my life.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Bastille:
In Volume 2, Chapter 11, Caleb describes some of the horrors he endures in prison. He uses an allusion to amplify his use of pathos:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Thank God, exclaims the Englishman, we have no Bastille! Thank God, with us no man can be punished without a crime! Unthinking wretch! Is that a country of liberty where thousands languish in dungeons and fetters? Go, go, ignorant fool! and visit the scenes of our prisons! witness their unwholesomeness, their filth, the tyranny of their governors, the misery of their inmates! After that show me the man shameless enough to triumph, and say, England has no Bastille!
Related Themes:
Volume 3, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Blackstone:
In Volume 3, Chapter 6, Caleb fails to convince a judge that he is not an Irish mail thief. Godwin uses an allusion to criticize the judge's abuse of power and highlight the situational irony of his disinterest in discerning innocent people from guilty:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was of more benefit to his majesty’s government to hang one such fellow as he suspected me to be, than out of misguided tenderness to concern oneself for the good of all the beggars in the nation.
Related Themes:
