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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
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Life Like Smooth Stream:
Walter's months in Cumberland with Laura and Marian go by cheerfully and quickly. He uses a simile to compare this period of time to a smooth stream, but he also indicates that danger looms ahead:
The days passed, the weeks passed; it was approaching the third month of my stay in Cumberland. The delicious monotony of life in our calm seclusion, flowed on with me like a smooth stream with a swimmer who glides down the current. All memory of the past, all thought of the future, all sense of the falseness and hopelessness of my own position, lay hushed within me into deceitful rest. Lulled by the Syren-song that my own heart sung to me, with eyes shut to all sight, and ears closed to all sound of danger, I drifted nearer and nearer to the fatal rocks.
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Schoolboy as Crusoe:
When Marian and Walter go into the village near Limmeridge to inquire about the identity of the person who sent the anonymous letter to Laura, they end up at the local school. Seeking the schoolmaster, they walk in on one of the boys being punished, and Walter uses a metaphor to describe him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The schoolmaster was sitting at his high desk, with his back to me, apparently haranguing the pupils, who were all gathered together in front of him, with one exception. The one exception was a sturdy white-headed boy, standing apart from all the rest on a stool in a corner—a forlorn little Crusoe, isolated in his own desert island of solitary penal disgrace.
The Third Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Solomon in All His Glory:
Walter returns to the scene of the fire the second day after Sir Percival's death. In his description of the sight that meets him and his lament over what happened, he cites the Gospel:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There is nothing serious in mortality! Solomon in all his glory, was Solomon with the elements of the contemptible lurking in every fold of his robes and in every corner of his palace.
The Third Epoch: Part 4, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Veni, Vidi, Vici:
In his narrative portion, Count Fosco briefly touches on his visit to Mr. Fairlie. Instead of going into detail about their conversation, he alludes to Julius Caesar and the famous declaration he made on his defeat of Pharnaces:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When I have mentioned that this gentleman was equally feeble in mind and body, and that I let loose the whole force of my character on him, I have said enough. I came, saw, and conquered Fairlie.
Explanation and Analysis—Fosco's Great Men:
During Count Fosco's narrative, he explains that he is a skilled chemist. In order to convince his reader of his knowledge of chemistry, he combines ethos with allusion. Invoking a series of great historical figures, Count Fosco claims that he could easily have changed the course of cultural, intellectual, or political history by traveling back in time and exercising his chemistry on them.
The first figure that Count Fosco alludes to is William Shakespeare:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Give me—Fosco—chemistry; and when Shakespeare has conceived Hamlet, and sits down to execute the conception— with a few grains of powder dropped into his daily food, I will reduce his mind, by the action of his body, till his pen pours out the most abject drivel that has ever degraded paper.
