1.4
Interpret Figurative Language and Analyze its Role and Meaning
July 22, 2025
Shivohm Karogal
2
Min Read
AI Summary
These revision notes explain how to identify and analyze literary devices in literature, focusing on their impact on the reader. Key devices such as alliteration, metaphor, and personification are defined, and a step-by-step method is provided to guide effective literary analysis.
Principle
In literature, authors often use literary devices such as personification and alliteration to portray something or someone in a certain way.
Steps
Firstly, identify the literary device you are analyzing. If you are unsure, there is a table of literary devices below this.
Next, explore the impact of the device on the reader.
For example, the use of alliteration (consecutive words that start with the same sound) stresses the …(explain the impact).
Finally, repeat this until you have completed analyzing your quote.
Literary Devices
Device | Meaning |
Alliteration | The consecutive use of words with the same sound at the start. E.g. "slithering snakes" |
Metaphor | Stating that something is something else entirely to emphasize an idea. E.g. "a waterfall of tears" |
Simile | Stating that something is like something else. E.g. "teeth like knives" |
Polysyndeton | Repetition of conjunctions. E.g. "The teeth and the hair and the devilish eyes..." |
Asyndeton | No conjunctions between phrases. E.g. "the sorrow, guilt, anger, dismay" |
Personification | Giving inanimate objects human traits. E.g. "the wind whistled" |
Zoomorphism | Giving humans animalistic traits. E.g. "the man barked" |
Pathetic Fallacy | Weather or setting mirrors character feelings. |
Foreshadowing | Giving clues to what’s to come next. |
Oxymoron | Contradictory terms together. E.g. "Civil war" |