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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
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Sack of Rome:
As The Good Soldier opens, Ford uses an allusion and a metaphor to outline the seriousness of the small, internal events of marriages and relationships for the reader:
Someone has said that the death of a mouse from cancer is the whole sack of Rome by the Goths, and I swear to you that the breaking up of our little four-square coterie was such another unthinkable event.
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Explanation and Analysis—From Charles I:
As the narrator, John Dowell, sets the stage for the events of The Good Soldier, Ford employs allusions to establish the backgrounds and social statuses of the main characters John and Florence Dowell, and Leonora and Edward Ashburnham:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They were descended, as you will probably expect, from the Ashburnham who accompanied Charles I to the scaffold, and, as you must also expect with this class of English people, you would never have noticed it. Mrs Ashburnham was a Powys; Florence was a Hurlbird of Stamford, Connecticut, where, as you know, they are more old-fashioned than even the inhabitants of Cranford, England, could have been. I myself am a Dowell of Philadelphia, Pa., where, it is historically true, there are more old English families than you would find in any six English counties taken together
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Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Wedgwood Vase:
In this early passage, the narrator utilizes both visual imagery and allusion to describe his discomfort at seeing Leonora in her more formal evening attire:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I never thought that Leonora looked her best in evening dress. She seemed to get it too clearly cut, there was no ruffling. She always affected black and her shoulders were too classical. She seemed to stand out of her corsage as a white marble bust might out of a black Wedgwood vase. I don’t know.
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Part 3, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Hatred of the Adder:
As John describes his time spent caring for Florence’s “weak heart,” Ford uses an idiom to convey John’s complex feelings toward Florence after her affair and his long stint as her nurse:
Unlock with LitCharts A+You cannot, you see, have acted as nurse to a person for twelve years without wishing to go on nursing them, even though you hate them with the hatred of the adder [...]
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Part 4, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Catching Salmon:
Although Nancy’s involved in an affair, she doesn’t really understand the implications of it. The narrator uses a simile and an allusion to depict Nancy's naivety and limited understanding of adultery:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She knew that one was commanded not to commit adultery—but why, she thought, should one? It was probably something like catching salmon out of season—a thing one did not do. She gathered it had something to do with kissing, or holding someone in your arms ….
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Part 4, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Take their Ease:
Ford uses allusion and hyperbole to express John Dowell's despair after all the emotional upheaval of the novel has passed, and his final questioning of the possibility of true happiness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Is there any terrestrial paradise where, amidst the whispering of the olive-leaves, people can be with whom they like and have what they like and take their ease in shadows and in coolness? Or are all men’s lives like the lives of us good people—like the lives of the Ashburnhams, of the Dowells, of the Ruffords—broken, tumultuous, agonized, and unromantic lives, periods punctuated by screams, by imbecilities, by deaths, by agonies? Who the devil knows?
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Part 4, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—O Pale Galilean:
As Leonora passes Edward and John in the hallway of her English home, Ford uses an allusion to point to the discomfort Edward feels at the new state of affairs—and the new status of her knowledge of his “affairs”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Once, in the hall, when Leonora was going out, Edward said, beneath his breath—but I just caught the words:
Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean.
It was like his sentimentality to quote Swinburne.
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