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Literary Devices
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
Key Examples in Jude the Obscure
Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Babel Before the Flood:
When the young Jude Fawley runs into a group of rural workers in Part 1, Chapter 3, he asks them if they have come from Christminster. They scoff at him, telling him they have nothing to do with the place. In this interaction, Hardy makes an allusion to the doomed city of Babel in the Bible. He suggests that, through the eyes of the carter and his companions, Babel and Christminster might as well be the same thing:
‘O, they never look at anything that folks like we can understand, ’ the carter continued, by way of passing the time. ‘On’y foreign tongues used before the Flood when no two families spoke alike. They read that sort of thing as fast as a night-hawk will whir. ’Tis all learning there – nothing but learning, except religion.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Samson and Delilah:
Hardy foreshadows Jude's marital misery in a scene from Part 1, Chapter 7, in which Jude and Arabella eat at an inn. He does so by alluding to the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, making this allusion in relation to a painting of Samson and Delilah hanging above the table at the inn:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The maid-servant recognized Jude, and whispered her surprise to her mistress in the background, that he, the student, ‘who kept hisself up so particular, ’ should have suddenly descended so low as to keep company with Arabella. The latter guessed what was being said, and laughed as she met the serious and tender gaze of her lover – the low and triumphant laugh of a careless woman who sees she is winning her game.
They sat and looked round the room, and at the picture of Samson and Delilah which hung on the wall.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Samson and Delilah:
Hardy foreshadows Jude's marital misery in a scene from Part 1, Chapter 7, in which Jude and Arabella eat at an inn. He does so by alluding to the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, making this allusion in relation to a painting of Samson and Delilah hanging above the table at the inn:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The maid-servant recognized Jude, and whispered her surprise to her mistress in the background, that he, the student, ‘who kept hisself up so particular, ’ should have suddenly descended so low as to keep company with Arabella. The latter guessed what was being said, and laughed as she met the serious and tender gaze of her lover – the low and triumphant laugh of a careless woman who sees she is winning her game.
They sat and looked round the room, and at the picture of Samson and Delilah which hung on the wall.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Hymn to Proserpine:
In the third chapter of Part 2, Hardy alludes to a poem by a Victorian contemporary of his, foreshadowing Sue Bridehead’s later encounters with death and the extreme highs and lows of her life. When Sue can't sleep after an awkward interaction with Jude, she turns to a book of poetry by the Victorian writer Algernon Swinburne. It falls open to these lines from "The Hymn to Proserpine":
Unlock with LitCharts A+– ‘Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean
The world has grown grey from thy breath!’
Related Themes:
