Study Guide: Schemes and Tropes

1. Parallelism- The use of corresponding grammatical or syntactical forms.

Example- "I could be well content that my labors, and my sorrows, and my sins, and my pains,
should shortly end with me, and what is earthly of them be buried in my grave, and the spiritual
go with me to my eternal state, rather than that you should put your skill to the proof in my
behalf. (The Scarlet Letter, pg. 107, paragraph 3)
2. Isocolon- Isocolon is a rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases
and clauses of grammatically equal length. (http://literarydevices.net/isocolon/)
Example- (Tricolon) "The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the
brave." (Patrick Henrys Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech, paragraph 4)
3. Antithesis- A statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced.
Example- Give me liberty or give me death (Patrick Henrys Give Me Liberty or Give Me
Death speech, paragraph 5)
4. Anastrophe: A form of literary device where in the order of the noun and the adjective in
the sentence is exchanged.
Example: Danforth: These will be sufficient. Sit you down, children. (The Crucible Act3)
5. Parenthesis: A qualifying or explanatory sentence, clause, or word that writers insert into
a paragraph or passage that without it doesnt affect the text
Example: After some deliberation had amongst themselves and with the master of the ship, they
tacked about and resolved to stand for the southward (the wind and weather being fair) to find
some place about Hudsons River for their habitation. (of Plymouth Plantation)
6. Apposition: When a noun or word is followed by another noun or phrase that renames or
identifies it
Example: Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest (Upon the Burning of Our House line25)
7. Ellipses: used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or event, which gives the
reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out. It is usually written between
the sentences.
Example: All right, I agreed, Ill be glad to.
. . . I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear,
with a great portfolio in his hands.\
Beauty and the BeastLonelinessOld Grocery HouseBrookn Bridge. (The Great
Gatsby)

8. Asyndeton: stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate

conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical
accuracy.
Example: If a slave was convicted of any high misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or evinced
a determination to run away, he was brought immediately here, severely whipped, put on board
the sloop, carried to Baltimore, and sold to Austin Woolfolk, or some other slave-trader, as a
warning to the slaves remaining. (Fredrick Douglas)
9. Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or
closely connected words.
Example: "She saw the children of the settlement, on the grassy margin of the street, or at the
domestic thresholds, disporting themselves in such grim fashion as the Puritanic nurture would
permit." (The Scarlet Letter)
10. Assonance: in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming
stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible (e.g., penitence,
reticence ).
Example: "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery
and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter "A". (The Scarlett Letter)
11. Anadiplosis: Refers to the repetition of a word or words in successive clauses in such a
way that the second clause starts with the same word which marks the end of the previous
clause.
Example: or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart. The
heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, much perforce hold them
(The Scarlet letter, page 105, line 3)
12. Anaphora: the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an
artistic effect
Example: with the hot, midday sun burning down upon her with the scarlet token of infamy
forthwith the sin-born infantwith a whole people
13. Antimetabole: It is a literary term or device that involves repeating a phrase in reverse
order.
Example: He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for such a man.
(The narrative life of Frederick Douglass, Chapter 5)
14. Chiasmus: rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other
by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect.
Example: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a
man" (The narrative life of Frederick Douglass, Chapter 10)

15. Climax: Is that particular point in a narrative at which the conflict or tension hits the
highest point
Example: "He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest,
the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity; and that the only wonder
was, that they did not see his wretched body shriveled up before their eyes, by the burning wrath
of the Almighty!" (Scarlet Letter)
16. Epistrophe: Indicates the same word returns at the end of each sentence
Example: "They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, springtime, or fall-time." (Fredrick Douglass)
17. Epanalepsis: A reptition of a word or phrase with intervening words setting off the
repetition
Example:"Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may
hear: believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe." (Julius
Caesar)
18. Polyptoton: Is a rhetorical repetition of the same root word, however, each time the word
is repeated in a different way
Example :"We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. (Fredrick
Douglass)
19. Polysndeton: Several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve
an artist effect
Example: "It threw a gleam of recognition on here a post, and there a garden-fence, and here a
latticed window-pane, and there a pump, with its full trough of water, and here, again, an arched
door of oak, with an iron knocker, and a rough log for the door-step." (Scarlet Letter)
20. Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action
to which it is not literally applicable.
Example: "... was admirably adapted to Pearl's beauty, and made her the very brightest little jet
of flame that ever danced upon the earth."
(The Scarlet Letter, Ch. 7, page 83)
21. Simile : figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a
different kind
Example Pearl looked as beautiful as the day, but was in one of those moods of perverse
merriment which, whenever they occurred, seemed to remove her entirely out of the sphere of
sympathy or human contact.
(The Scarlet Letter, Ch. 10, page 106)

22. Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice
versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs
Example: The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight
of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentered at her bosom. It was
almost intolerable to be borne.
(The Scarlet Letter, Ch. 2, page 48)
23. Metonymy: the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing
meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.
Example: I think to need no more of your drugs, my kind physician, good though they be, and
administered by a friendly hand.
(The Scarlet Letter, Ch. 20, page 175)
24. Puns: a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that
suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different
meanings.
Example: "They must be heavy; they are weighted with authority." (The Scarlet Letter)
25. Zeugma: a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to
more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas.
Example: The women, who were now standing about the prison door, stood within less than
half a century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth had been the not altogether unsuitable
representative of the sex.
26. Apostrophe: a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation O. A writer or a
speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an
imaginary character in his speech.
Example: "'Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you!'"
27. Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Example: Ill love you, dear, Ill love you, Till China and Africa meet, and the river jumps over
the mountain, and the salmon sing in the street ,Ill love you till the ocean is folded and hung up
to dry.
28. Rhetorical Question: is asked just for effect or to lay emphasis on some point discussed
when no real answer is expected.
Example: Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm,
nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man.
29. Irony: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the
opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Example: Go ask his name: if he be married.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
30. Onomatopoeia: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.
Example: Im getting married in the morning!
Ding dong! The bells are gonna chime.