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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
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Young Isabel’s Influences:
When the narrator introduces readers to Isabel, they list some of her favorite musicians and writers, making allusions to actual people:
She had had everything a girl could have: kindness, admiration, bonbons, bouquets, the sense of exclusion from none of the privileges of the world she lived in, abundant opportunity for dancing, plenty of new dresses, the London Spectator, the latest publications, the music of Gounod, the poetry of Browning, the prose of George Eliot.
Related Themes:
Chapter 29
Explanation and Analysis—Oscar Wilde:
When Osmond first meets Isabel, he is genuinely taken by her—not merely interested in her for her money, as he expected—and finds himself making romantic gestures like writing poetry for her. One of the poems he writes her is titled “Rome Revisited”—an allusion to Oscar Wilde’s poem “Rome Unvisited”—as described in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Old impressions, old enjoyments, renewed themselves; one evening, going home to his room at the inn, he wrote down a little sonnet to which he prefixed the title of “Rome Revisited.” A day or two later he showed this piece of correct and ingenious verse to Isabel, explaining to her that it was an Italian fashion to commemorate the occasions of life by a tribute to the muse.
Related Themes:
